Full and complete card for Dynamite!! 2008!

The full and complete card has been revealed and finalized about a few days ago! In total, 17 matches (the largest card ever for an MMA event, including K-1 fights, that I can recall) will take place on New Year's Eve when Dynamite!! 2008 emanates from the Saitama Super Arena! Here's a look at the complete lineup for this event.

The first fight will see PRIDE veteran and current DREAM mainstay Ikuhisa Minowa (known as Minowaman in Japan) take on the 2008 K-1 WORLD GP IN AMSTERDAM Winner Errol Zimmerman in a match that truly favors Minowaman, DREAM Rules. This will mark Zimmerman's first foray into MMA and will be a tough test for the Suriname native. This will be followed by two K-1 KOSHIEN fights as Ryuya Kusakabe battles Koya Urabe and HIROYA takes on Shota Shimada. The winners of both fights will compete in the seventh match where one of these young boys will become the first-ever K-1 KOSHIEN Champion!

K-1 WORLD MAX will be showcased at this event and for the first time ever, the two-time K-1 WORLD MAX Champion Masato will not be able to showcase the power of the dynamic and exciting K-1 WORLD MAX brand as he has had throughout the last four years at Dynamite!!. Instead, it will be two-time K-1 WORLD MAX Japan Tournament Champion Yoshihiro Sato going head to head against the 2008 K-1 WORLD MAX Finalist Artur Kyshenko! Both men fought Masato and lost to the Silver Wolf en route to Masato capturing his second K-1 WORLD MAX Title. Now is the time to redeem themselves and this fight between these two young and hungry fighters will guarantee to be explosive and intense. After this battle will be a showcase of two of DREAM's best featherweights as ZST and HERO'S veteran Hideo Tokoro takes on U-FILE wrestler Daisuke Nakamura in what should be a great match!

Another DREAM Rules match will follow as Yukio Sakaguchi of Pancrase, the son of New Japan Pro-Wrestling legend Seiji Sakaguchi and brother of popular actor Kenji Sakaguchi, will face Nigerian model turned K-1 and MMA fighter Andy Ologun, the younger brother of comedian Bobby Ologun! This will be Andy Ologun's second appearance at Dynamite!! since 2006 when he defeated popular actor Ken Kaneko in the opening bout of K-1 Premium 2006 Dynamite!!. After the finals of the K-1 KOSHIEN Tournament, the next fight will be one filled with bizarreness like never before. Produced by popular, yet controversial and recently retired j-pop artiste DJ OZMA and famous mangaka duo Yudetamago and to be held under DREAM Rules, the controversial Bob Sapp will make his return to the FEG ring exactly one year since his devastating win over Bobby Ologun at K-1 Premium 2007 Dynamite!! by taking on the 59th Prince of Planet Muscle, Kid Muscle (Kinniku Mantaro), the main protagonist of the popular manga and anime, Ultimate M.U.S.C.L.E (Kinnikuman Nisei in Japan)! Underneath the mask is a prolific amateur wrestler in Akihito Tanaka, who at one point came in eleventh place in a World Cup amateur wrestling tournament! Some may say that with Yoshihiro Akiyama gone from DREAM and Satoshi Ishii looking to sign with the UFC, Tanaka could be the Japanese savior that fans could look up to as the new national MMA hero.

Another battle between two tough heavyweights will take place after this match as three-time K-1 WORLD GP Champion Semmy Schilt returns to MMA when he takes on the hard-hitting Mighty Mo! The last time both men fought was in 2007 under K-1 Rules when Schilt, in his hometown of Amsterdam, Holland, was able to defeat the tough Samoan after three rounds and at the same time, successfully retain his K-1 WORLD GP Super Heavyweight Title. Now both men will meet in a rematch, only this time, it will be held under DREAM Rules. In a match scheduled for 80kg fighters, it will be welterweight star Hayato "Mach" Sakurai taking on heavily struggling former pro-wrestler Katsuyori Shibata. Shibata has the added weight advantage over Sakurai, but will he be able to beat Sakurai, who has been in pretty good form as of late, despite the added weight advantage?

Yet another historic making moment, there will not just be one, but TWO K-1 WORLD MAX fights that will take place at this event! We already know that Yoshihiro Sato will face Artur Kyshenko in the first fight. Now, in another K-1 WORLD MAX contest, it will be grizzled veteran and former Muay Thai Champion, Kozo Takeda, taking on one of the top lightweight MMA fighters today, Tatsuya Kawajiri! Kawajiri displayed amazing stand-up skills in his thrilling fight against Eddie Alvarez during the DREAM Lightweight GP Tournament and impressed officials to be warranted a match under K-1 Rules. Takeda has not competed in the K-1 WORLD MAX in a very long time and is looking to making a huge comeback on the biggest night in Japanese MMA. Despite being fined, embarrassing the company and being stripped of his K-1 WORLD GP Heavyweight Title and title of 2008 K-1 WORLD GP Finalist, Badr Hari was controversially given another chance and thus will compete at Dynamite!! as he had announced back at DREAM.6. He also got his wish of challenging a DREAM fighter to step into his territory in this K-1 Rules match, but could be getting more than he could bargain for when he takes on the tough and hard-hitting Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem!

Speaking of Overeem, the man he wished to challenge, Mirko Filipovic, is in a match of his own. Returning to the ring since a brutal groin injury suffered at the hands of Overeem back at DREAM.6, Cro Cop will be taking on the 7'2" tall Hong Man Choi under DREAM Rules! Last year at Yarennoka!, Choi took a loss to the powerful and dominating Fedor Emelianenko. This year has not been a great year for Choi either with two losses in two fights, including a crushing loss to Badr Hari in his home country of Korea and a disappointing performance which led to his loss against Ray Sefo earlier this month. Will Choi be able to defeat Filipovic and gain momentum going into 2009 or will Cro Cop stop the Techno Goliath in his tracks? This will be followed by a K-1 Rules match between the two-time K-1 WORLD GP Finalist Musashi going up against the 2008 DREAM Middleweight GP Tournament Champion and current DREAM Middleweight Champion Gegard Mousasi! While the match seemed to play off the similar pronunciation of both fighters' names, it will give Musashi yet another chance to redeem himself and put himself back in the hunt to becoming the K-1 WORLD GP Champion next year and will be the fight to showcase what Mousasi can do in a K-1 match. The next fight between Jerome LeBanner and Mark Hunt, to be held under DREAM Rules, was unfortunately canceled due to undisclosed reasons.

EDIT: It's been announced that Jerome LeBanner was forced to pull out of the event due to suffering from influenza and a fever. Therefore, Mark Hunt will be competing against Melvin Manhoef instead under DREAM Rules.

Three huge fights will close out what would be a historic event. In a match that was supposed to be the fight to determine the first-ever DREAM Lightweight Champion, the 2008 DREAM Lightweight GP Finalist Shinya Aoki will go one on one with one of the hottest young stars in MMA today, Eddie Alvarez, with one of these men hoping to get a crack at the DREAM Lightweight Title in the near future! As if the stakes could not have gotten any higher, it was recently announced that the fight between Aoki and Alvarez will take place to determine the first-ever WAMMA Lightweight Champion! Up next is a huge fight between the 2008 DREAM Lightweight GP Tournament Champion and first-ever DREAM Lightweight Champion Joachim Hansen and two-time HERO'S Middleweight Champion Gesias Calvancante! Both men have fought each other several years ago back in Shooto with Hansen picking up the win and now, Calvancante is looking for revenge. Will he succeed and go one step closer to a future title shot against Hansen or will Hansen be able to show the world why he is one of the top lightweights in the world today?

EDIT: Unfortunately, the Joachim Hansen vs. Gesias Calvancante fight has been canceled at the last minute due to Hansen not being able to pass pre-fight medicals. As there isn't a replacement in time for the fight, Calvancante will be forced off the card.

The main event will be a huge showdown four years in the making. After constant bickering and debates over who is truly the best, Japanese MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba will finally go one on one against another Japanese MMA legend in Kiyoshi Tamura! Both men were former wrestlers under the UWF-I promotion during the mid-90s and from what was heavily rumored, Tamura had repeatedly avoided facing Sakuraba, including not facing him during the DREAM Middleweight GP Tournament this year out of respect for Sakuraba, who is his senior, much to Sakuraba's dismay. Now the time for talk is over and one of these two men will look to prove to one another who really is one of the greatest MMA legends in Japan.

DREAM Rules Matches
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kiyoshi Tamura
WAMMA Lightweight Title: Shinya Aoki vs. Eddie Alvarez
Melvin Manhoef vs. Mark Hunt
Mirko Filipovic vs. Hong Man Choi
Semmy Schilt vs. Mighty Mo
Hayato "Mach" Sakurai vs. Katsuyori Shibata
DJ OZMA Produced Fight featuring Yudetamago: Bob Sapp vs. Kid Muscle
Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Andy Ologun
Hideo Tokoro vs. Daisuke Nakamura
Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Errol Zimmerman

K-1 Rules Matches
Musashi vs. Gegard Mousasi
Badr Hari vs. Alistair Overeem
Kozo Takeda vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri
K-1 KOSHIEN Tournament Final: Winner of HIROYA/Shota Shimada vs. Winner of Ryuya Kusakabe/Koya Urabe
Yoshihiro Sato vs. Artur Kyshenko
K-1 KOSHIEN Tournament Semi-Final: HIROYA vs. Shota Shimada
K-1 KOSHIEN Tournament Semi-Final: Ryuya Kusakabe vs. Koya Urabe

Source: K-1 Official Website