An interesting fight is in the works for UFC Rio, the Ultimate Fighting Championship event taking place in Brazil this August.

On Twitter, Shinichi Saitou - editor of Japanese martial arts Kamipro - wrote that Edson Barboza Jr may be the opponent of Takanori Gomi in the “wonderful city”.

Saitou hinted that UFC matchmaker Joe Silva intends to match "The Fireball Kid" versus a local fighter and Barboza has been the name most remarked on ‘backstage’ to take on the challenge.

“He's undefeated and very explosive standing, besides not having fought a opponent of Gomi's caliber yet,” the Japanese writer stated.

Barboza has ignited fan interest with his two UFC fights thus far. He has brought a flavour of K-1 to the octagon with his fierce technical striking. Thus far he is 2-0 in the UFC.

Former Pride champion Gomi has had a less exalted run in the UFC, going 1-2 with losses to Kenny Florian and Clay Guida by decision sandwiching a stunning knockout of Tyson Griffin.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Dream co-producer Real Entertainment plans on forging ahead in the turbulent Japanese mixed martial arts promotion business with an eight-fighter lightweight tournament starting in May, sources tell ESPN.com.

HDNet confirmed to ESPN.com that they would broadcast the tournament stateside.

The field would consist of Strikeforce and Real Entertainment fighters, possibly but not necessarily under the Dream banner, and likely without FEG, which has been its promotional partner since Pride Fighting Championships was purchased by Zuffa in 2007.

"We're committed to keeping our fighters active, but if we can help Dream and have our fighters go over there and participate in their tournament, why not?" said Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker, who confirmed ongoing discussions between his promotion and Real Entertainment for the May event. "If things go the way they should, I feel confident we'll send a bunch of guys over."

Strikeforce could provide up to five fighters. Japan's Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri and Katsunori Kikuno are also expected to participate.

After months of speculation and more than a dozen rumored names, UFC president Dana White today announced heavyweight contenders Brock Lesnar and Junior Dos Santos will be coaches on the upcoming 13th season of "The Ultimate Fighter."

"The Ultimate Fighter 13" debuts March 30 on Spike TV, and a live finale is slated for June 4. The coaches meet in a season-ending fight in June, possibly at UFC 131 in Toronto.

No interim title will be on the line when the coaches fight, though the winner gets an immediate title shot with Velasquez.

UFC middleweight Chael Sonnen has pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of money laundering stemming from his work as a real estate agent in 2006.

Sonnen, 33, entered the plea Monday before the U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. His sentencing is scheduled for March 28 at 11:30 a.m, just days following an MMA Junkie-reported bout against Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 128. The government will recommend that Sonnen be sentenced to two years of probation, according to The Oregonian. The maximum sentence for money laundering is 20 years in prison and a fine of $500,000.

According to the release, Sonnen “admitted that a financial transaction he conducted was designed to conceal or disguise the ownership and control of the proceeds of wire fraud.”

Specifically, Sonnen allegedly arranged for a title company to pay $69,000 to a plumbing company for repairs to a Portland home that Sonnen was involved in the sale of. The release states that Sonnen knew that no repairs would be made to the home. Once the loan was funded, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, the plumbing company was directed by Sonnen to pay $65,000 to the homebuyer as a cash incentive for purchasing the home.

In 2010, Sonnen ran for a seat in the Oregon House of Representatives, winning the Republican primary in the state’s 37th District. However, Sonnen withdrew from the race in June, citing “a 2006 legal issue... that needs my immediate attention.”

Sonnen is currently serving a suspension handed down by the California State Athletic Commission after testing positive for abnormally high levels of testosterone prior to his UFC 117 loss to Anderson Silva. In early December, Sonnen went before the CSAC and had his suspension reduced to six months and a $2,500 fine. That suspension is set to end on March 2.

Japanese featherweight star Michihiro Omigawa has re-signed with the UFC and will debut against Chad Mendes in either February or March, Versus.com has learned from sources.

Omigawa, 12-8-1, has won his last five fights in a row and is 8-2-1 since dropping down to featherweight.

The 34-year-old Japanese fighter is universally considered one of the 10 best featherweights in the world. He has defeated the likes of Hatsu Hioki, Cole Escovedo, Marlon Sandro and Nam Phan.

Omigawa has actually fought in the UFC before. He's 0-2 with losses to Matt Wiman and Thiago Tavares. Those fights were contested at 155.

MMAjunkie.com has learned from sources close to the event that MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba (26-14-1 MMA, 3-3 DREAM) has been granted a title shot against DREAM welterweight champ Marius Zaromskis (13-5 MMA, 3-0 DREAM) at the year-end "DREAM!! 2010" event.

“If Joe Rogan wants to get on the air and call people names, that’s his business. I’m not going waste my time responding to that.” says Keith Kizer, head of the NSAC.

“They always say that ‘the UFC has nothing to do with judging.’ Well guess what, they’ve got a big fight coming up in Canada called Koscheck vs. Georges St. Pierre - the UFC and Marc Ratner are flying Tony Weeks up there as a judge. C’mon, Joe. How about some honesty? They’ve taken 90% of our officials with them overseas, as they should. That’s not a knock on Dana and Marc; they know what they’re doing.”

“Yeah, I have a problem with how they scored the third round. Definitely. I mean, they’re both very good judges which makes it all the more surprising.”

“There have been judges that we’ve had here who we’ve sent packing. It didn’t work out. Every judge needs to stay sharp, but everyone makes mistakes.”

“You hear so many people cry ‘robbery’ about this and that. I get emails about it all of the time. I go back and watch the fight, and you say to yourself, ‘What? That wasn’t a robbery. The judges got it right!’”

“A lot of people were saying that about the Rampage vs. Machida fight. Even Dana White said that. You get people who love to overreact. Obviously there are people who want to feel superior than others, trash others. Maybe they are full of some self-hate, some self-pity… maybe that’s Rogan’s piece as well."

“There are ways to criticize professionally, ethically, effectively and legitimately. But then there are ways where you are just trying to make yourself look better.”

Kizer revealed that he approaches evaluating his judges on overall performance. He feels strongly that judges Weeks and Byrd have performed well overall.

“You treat it like a batting average. Say that you score the first 11 rounds of a boxing match right and you get the last round wrong. Sure, you should have gotten it 100% right, but you’ve got a 94% batting average and that’s not bad. But more often than not, when people complain about the judges, they’re just wrong. They are either wrong in the sense that the judges did in fact get it right, or they are wrong in the sense that it wasn’t a robbery and it could have gone either way.”

Although Kizer himself scored all rounds for Nam Phan and finds the criticism difficult to defend this time, he sees an argument that could be put forth for a Garcia victory:

“I’ve been getting all of these e-mails saying ‘What’s wrong with you? Phan dominated every round!’ and they’re wrong. You can’t give Phan that round but you can’t say he dominated. I think MMAWeekly scored that round to Garcia. I think MMAJunkie scored the third round for Garcia. You can’t tell me he ‘dominated’ those rounds.”

“It’s like that one umpire who ruined that perfect game in baseball. You can’t be more wrong than that. But you ask the players and they think that, other than that, he’s one of the best umpires in the sport. He’s a top-5 umpire. You can’t screw up much worse than that, but you don’t get rid of him either.”

We all know that there's a big problem with judging in MMA, and we all know that Kizer is pretending that there's nothing wrong with having a bunch of people with no martial arts training and no understanding of the sport judging it on a professional level.
There's only one way for me to bring the maximum attention to this issue; and that's to voice my opinion on air during a live Television show where I know that millions of people are going to listen to it.

I understand that this upset him, but he's had plenty of time to correct all of these judging issues, and yet he denies there's a real problem and continues to employ people to judge important fights that are ignorant of many of the details of Mixed Martial Arts.

I also found it quite hilarious that he denies that the NSAC is 100% to blame for this judging situation and even brought up that we're taking NSAC appointed judges to Canada.
The NSAC for all it's flaws is the most important ruling body in combat sports. To bring judges that aren't appointed and approved by the NSAC would open up a whole new can of worms. The question would also come up as to who appoints those other judges?
What is the UFC's relationship with them?

Kizer is a politician, and one of the biggest issues with him is that he's not willing to admit that he's not done the best job possible with the best intentions of the sport and it's participants in mind. This calculated denial of a problem is the reason why these same judges are turning in bad decisions over and over again. In order for him to correct the problem he's going to have to admit that he's been wrong in employing these people, and he's not willing to do that.

Mixed Martial Arts is a far more complicated sport than boxing, and in order for someone to be educated in the subtle details that are playing out in a fight they have to have some martial arts experience themselves. There are PLENTY of fans out there that would do a far better job than these people that he's got working for him that have been grandfathered in from the boxing community. To judge MMA on the highest level is a huge honor and responsibility, and should be bestowed upon people that appreciate that honor and appreciate and understand every single aspect of the sport. Anything less than that is an insult to these great athletes that are dedicating their lives to compete in the toughest sport in the world, and an insult to the fans that have to be disappointed with one terrible decision after the next.

Thankfully we live in a time where the fans have an option to get their opinions out there.
I've seen all the positive support online, and I urge you guys to keep it up. Please keep up the emails, and keep up the blog posts. The only way this thing is going to change is if the people in charge feel like they have to do something about it to keep their jobs intact.

It’s basically MMA rules between MMA fighters from different styles.

It seems that you get 1 point for a submission (when you have one locked in, “catch” like Shooto used to have), 2 points for a knockdown, and 2 points for throws/takedowns.

The fighters will wear the clothes from their respective martial art.

Yamada will wear Pankration clothes, Kim will wear Taekwondo clothes, Shimizu will wear Sambo clothes, and Sugita will wear Karate clothes.

The rules will be explained in more detail at the next press conference.

A few months ago we tried to come up with a list of the top ten meta-physical and temporal anomalies of MMA. The title is admittedly ridiculous and it yielded only a handful of vague stories told by people that were most likely under the influence of a number of illegal drugs. However, the one story that seemed to be more legit than most was the accusation that Rickson Gracie had a visible aura around him and some fighters actually turned down opportunities to fight Rickson because of it. A few fighters claimed that Rickson's aura gave him an unfair advantage and thus enabled him to amass an omnipotent record of 400-0.

Helio Gracie publicly disputed Rickson's 400-0 record claiming most of Rickson's wins were obtained in practice bouts and that if he tabulated his wins like Rickson did, he would have over a thousand.

Rickson left the MMA world in 2000 after snatching an 'official' record of 11-0. After his retirement, he stated that he would not come back to MMA, despite having a seven-figure payday thrown in his face.

In an interview with Gracie Magazine, Rickson Gracie claimed that a promotion (most likely Pride FC) offered him five million dollars to fight Sakuraba, an offer that he turned down.

"That fight would have been the biggest payout of all times. They offered me five million dollars, it would have put me on easy street. He beat a number of Gracies, and it would have been a good fight for me, perhaps the best fight. He really was a thorn in the side of all the Gracies."

A DREAM Featherweight title fight between champion Bibiano Fernandes and Hiroyuki Takaya has been announced for Dynamite!! on NYE.

This will also be the last event with DREAM’s old 63kg Featherweight class. From 2011 and onward it will be Featherweight (65kg) and Bantamweight (60 or 61kg) and DREAM EP Sasahara wants to hold a GP in whichever of the two weight classes the champion (Bibiano or Takaya) does not decide to fight in.

In science's constant pursuit of finding a force to halt the seemingly unstoppable object known as Roy Nelson's belly, Roy Jones Jr. may have made a significant scientific breakthrough, and now he's seeking monetary compensation for it.

Roy Jones Jr. and his sports management company, Square Ring, Inc, claims that Roy Nelson and ZUFFA breached a contract established in March of 2009. Square Ring alleges that Roy Nelson granted the company exclusive rights to match any offer Roy Nelson received to fight in the future. According to Robert Joyner, UFC Vice President Marc Ratner met with the Square Ring's CEO who informed Ratner that Roy Nelson was under contract with the organization as a Square Ring, Inc. fighter. Marc Ratner later met independently with Roy Nelson to negotiate a promotional contract with ZUFFA without letting Square Ring, Inc have 'first dibs' as my drunken college roommate would say after he would 'randomly' find my six-pack in the refrigerator on a Saturday night.

Square Ring, Inc claims that all bouts that occurred in The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 breached his contract and are seeking over $10,000 in punitive damages. After UFC 122, Dana White chimed in on Roy Nelson's contractual issues the only way Dana can, with a few expletives sprinkled in for good measure.

"These guys go out and sign with these rinky-dink little promotion companies and sign these bad contracts, and let's just say Roy Nelson is involved in a bad contract right now that he had before. There's a couple of different organizations out there that do it."

"There's organizations that are locking these guys up to the old-school boxing contracts. The contracts that King and those guys were doing back in the 60s, 70s and 80s where they have options on top of their options – so your contract never ends with these guys.

"These are the kinds of contracts that some of these guys are signing in these other organizations out there that some of these MMA websites go, 'Oh, stick up for these guys, they're the small guys.' The small guys are the guys that are really [expletive] the fighters."

Until Roy Nelson irons out whatever legal problems he (and ZUFFA) have with Roy Jones Jr. and Square Ring, Inc, he's essentially prohibited from competing in the UFC.

Undoubtedly, one of the legends of Pride and MMA in general, devastating ukrainian striker Igor Vovchanchyn retired from sport in 2005 after having amassed incredible professional record of 47 wins to 9 losses. In this exsclusive interview to contributing editor of www.m-1global.com Michael Mazur Igor answered multiple questions from his fans from the mixedmartialarts.com forum.

Michael Mazur: What is the story of you coming to Pride?
Igor Vovchanchyn: Nothing special. After I had won the “Diamond night” in Kiev, Ukraine I got the invitation.

Michael Mazur: What is the most essential martial art in MMA, according to you?
Igor Vovchanchyn: It’s got to be boxing, although wrestling plays significant role, too. You’ve got to be as well-rounded as possible. Whatever you are able to do, be it side-jumping, you’ve got to be able to apply it successfully.

Michael Mazur: What was your favorite fight in Pride, if any?
Igor Vovchanchyn: I don’t like the fights where I came, saw and conquered my opponent by knockout leaving him no chances. Actually the fights I like more are those where my adversary fights back. I like to rumble, to feel my opponent, just like that old dog figt.

Michael Mazur: Would Kazushi Sakuraba be victorious against you back in 2000, had he not not been exhausted after that 1,5 Igor Vovchanchyn: hour battle with Royce Gracie?
I don’t think so. He had no chances, no.

Michael Mazur: Is that true that the inhabitants of the village you had lived in, used to clang a bell once Igor got angry.
Igor Vovchanchyn: (Laughs) No, this is just a joke. There was a bell though.

Michael Mazur: How does your breakfast look like?
Igor Vovchanchyn: Well, it may consist of cottage cheese with honey, pancakes, sandwiches.

Michael Mazur: What advice would you give to an up-and-coming athlete? How does you training regimen look like as of now?
Igor Vovchanchyn: The main thing is to stick to healthy way of living. As for me, it’s almost safe to say there is no constant regimen. Of course, I always do morning excersices.

Michael Mazur: Do you follow today’s MMA or other sports?
Igor Vovchanchyn: Yeah, I watch boxing especially lightweights.

Michael Mazur: Rumor says you retired because of multiple injuries. Could you elaborate on that please?
Igor Vovchanchyn: My right hand is injured and this injury is pretty bad. I need to undergo an operation since I can’t bend it normally.

Michael Mazur: Lots of fans ask themselves whether the Pride 34 poster depicting you against Wanderlei Silva was true?
Igor Vovchanchyn: No, I’ve never heard of the possibility of us fighting each other.

Michael Mazur: What victory was the most valueable for you personally?
Igor Vovchanchyn: I guess it was my first Kiev tournament “Diamond night” I mentioned previously. To tell you the truth even I was pretty shocked by that event. Further on, both fights against Mark Kerr who was an animal and in his prime back then – these were some of the more memorable wars for me.

Michael Mazur: Do you plan to come to the USA to meet your fans over there?
Igor Vovchanchyn: Well, If I were invited I’d definitely like to come.

Michael Mazur: Is it possible to purchase a poster with your autograph on it anywhere?
Igor Vovchanchyn: We don’t distribute posters or cards anymore, we used to…

Michael Mazur: Did you fight bare-knuckle or with gloves on under Unified Rueles? Is there any chance of you coming back to the ring or are the injuries so severe?
Igor Vovchanchyn: Undoubtedly it’s better to operate bare-knuckle as it lets you achieve the desirable result much faster. The injury is too serious. I don’t think I’ll return to active fighting again. The most important after the operation will be rehabbing period but I’ll keep training myself and my students, that’s for sure.

Michael Mazur: How is your restaurant business doing? Any intentions to expand? Do you still bake those cookies?
Igor Vovchanchyn: Of course i do. Catering is very profitable and always in demand.

Michael Mazur: Imagine you are about to fight Fedor. How would that process go?
Igor Vovchanchyn: It’s hard to say…you always have to be prepared. It all depends on who was better prepared and to what degree. Your moral abilities play a significant role as well.

Michael Mazur: Who’s the most exciting fighter to watch?
Igor Vovchanchyn: I always admired Sakuraba, he was unique.

Michael Mazur: Who was your most difficult opponent?
Igor Vovchanchyn: Regarding the bouts I won – the hardest one was, no, were both fights against Mark Kerr. Concering the bouts I lost – it’s got to be Mark Coleman. I believe lack of preparation played its role. Watching the tape afterwrds, you know, I spot lots of my own mistakes. Preparing for the upcoming fight and implementing all the things you had up your sleeve doesn’t work as planned. Also the Heath Herring fight – it was pretty close.

Michael Mazur: Do you agree with the statement that Fedor copied your style of punching? What potential fights have never taken place and why?
Igor Vovchanchyn: That’s true but only to some extent. More people were trying to imitate it, including japanese. They called it “Igor Vovchanchyn” punching. I can remember myself entering a gym there and seeing everyone practicing my style of punching. As for past potential fights – every single potential fight did take place.

Michael Mazur: Do you still ride a motorcycle?
Igor Vovchanchyn: Not, not anymore.

Michael Mazur: Do people recognize you in your homecountry?
Igor Vovchanchyn: Well, I hope they do.

Michael Mazur: Do you realize how many fans worldwide you have?
Igor Vovchanchyn: I guess there are quite some of them.

Michael Mazur: Did Pride treat you well like paying enough, accomodation and stuff?
Igor Vovchanchyn: I have no complaints, it was great. I don’t think there ever will be another organization like that.

Michael Mazur: Could you compete against the world’s elite heavyweights today, assuming you are 100% injury-free?
Igor Vovchanchyn: I think I could. No injuries and decent shape…why not.

Michael Mazur: We have never seen you spar with other top fighters back in the days? Why is that?
Igor Vovchanchyn: Why would I like to copy their stile? I think one has to play hiw own game if you know what I mean.

MMA legend Igor Vovchanchyn answers the fans’ questions. The first part of the interview can be found here. Part II of Vovchanchyn’s exclusive conversation with M-1 is now available below.

M-1Global.com: Is it true that your manager put you in way too many fights, much more than you wanted to participate in?

Igor Vovchanchyn: Yeah, I think so. I got really tired at times. All my losses bak then were the signals to take a rest.

M-1Global.com: Are you disappointed you didn’t get an opportunity to revenge your loss to Mark Coleman?

Igor Vovchanchyn: Not really. There is a time for everything, I guess.

M-1Global.com: The blond-haired woman that followed you at PRIDE, who was she? A wife or a manager?

Igor Vovchanchyn: It was Eugenia Borschevskaya, the Federation secretary, an interpreter who knows 9 languages.

M-1Global.com: Were you paid to lose in PRIDE?

Igor Vovchanchyn: Of course, but not in the way you assume. Every fighter got paid, the winner got more, the loser – less. Just like in any organization.

M-1Global.com: How did you develop your knockout power?

Igor Vovchanchyn: I started with boxing, track and field. Later on I transferred to kickboxing. I was lucky with my trainenrs.

M-1Global.com: Quinton Jackson gave you a note before the fight (Pride 22). What was written there?

Igor Vovchanchyn: He asked me not to beat him hard. It’s just a psychological hook – to frustrate your opponent no matter how. And it played out more or less well. I was thinking about what was written there because nobody would translate it to me prior to the fight.

M-1Global.com: Was it difficult for you to make 93 kg with your height about 175 cm? How did you keep your speed and stamina? What’s your natural weight?

Igor Vovchanchyn: It’s all about training. I was 93 kg only for the last two years in PRIDE when they introduced weight divisions. But actually my natural weight is around 103-104 kg. Losing weight I did’t feel myself as strong as before. But 104 kg is the best weight for me and I am really comfortable about it. I felt strong, powerful, full of energy. Due to losing weight I felt lack of self-confidence. By the way the same goes for Fedor (Emelianenko), when he lost the weight, he felt out of his comfort zone. It’s not about the shape and visual muscular performance but it was not his style.

M-1Global.com: Would you like to work as a commentator at the M-1 Selection events?

Igor Vovchanchyn: I would like to if invited.

M-1Global.com: Would you still become a fighter now looking back in the past?

Igor Vovchanchyn: Yes, I would become a fighter anyway. I would only change some details though.

M-1Global.com: What is the reason behind lack of Russians on the international MMA scene?

Igor Vovchanchyn: It’s all about infrastructure shortage. With good trainers and developed infrastucture there will be great fresh Russian blood influx.

M-1Global.com: What character should a real fighter posess?

Igor Vovchanchyn: One should be able to think strategically and logically, possess firmness, be cold-blooded and patient.

M-1Global.com: How does it feel to carry the Ukrainian flag in front of 70 000 people?

Igor Vovchanchyn: It’s a strong feeling. Like as if you are a hero.

M-1Global.com: Your punching power is amazing. Do you have a special training system for it or is it a natural gift?

Igor Vovchanchyn: Basically, it was given to me by nature nut of course hard training helped improve my power a lot.

M-1Global.com: Do you share your experience with the youngsters?

Igor Vovchanchyn: I train youg athletes at the gym, help them and transfer my experience and knwoledge.

M-1Global.com: Is it true that after your victory over Francisco Bueno one of the K-1 bosses gave you a $1000 and made you proposition to fight with Ernesto Hoost?

Igor Vovchanchyn: Yes, and actually that fight took place later on.

M-1Global.com: Who do you consider yourself to be – a Russian or a Ukrainian?

Igor Vovchanchyn: I am a Slav.

M-1Global.com: How often do you train now? Do you have children?

Igor Vovchanchyn: Yes, I still train 2-3 times a week. I enjoy living a healthy lifestyle and I have a daughter named Zlata, she’s 5 and a half years old.

M-1Global.com: What can you say about Fedor Emelianenko? Does he have the chances to become UFC champ?

Igor Vovchanchyn: He definetly has the chances, he is very gifted.

M-1Global.com: Did you get an offer from the UFC?

Igor Vovchanchyn: Yes, once. But their terms didn’t satisfy me at all so I declined.

M-1Global.com: Why did you let Crocop kick you? Was it your own mistake or was he too fast that you couldn’t prevent it?

Igor Vovchanchyn: I made the mistake and I was really tired of training back then. I had too busy schedule, I used to fight every two months. But only the one who doesn’t fight doesn’t lose.

M-1Global.com: You are a friend of a Russian heavyweight prospect Alexey Oleinik (25-5). What do you think about him as a fighter? How do you assess his chances to break through?

Igor Vovchanchyn: The fact that he hasn’t tasted a defeat in combat sambo, jiu-jitsu and MMA for the last five years means a lot!
I think he has all the chances. All he needs isan opportunity to showcase his skills in a major organization.

Chuck’s too busy being a superstar right now. He’s getting into acting right now and he’s traveling. He’s just being a superstar. Maybe he wants to fight again some day. I don’t know if he will, but as for right now, I don’t even think he’s thinking about fighting. He’s happy that his protégé Court did well. He was right there with him. He couldn’t be there physically, but he called right after Court’s fight to congratulate him. Chuck just loves being a mentor and a superstar. He’s not even thinking about fighting. He’s already fucking knocked out Tito twice, so why should he give a shit about him? It’s like when you fuck some ugly chic a few times, and then when you see her again, do you want to fuck her? No! Why would he want to knock him out a third time? He’s not even thinking about that. He’s too busy being a star and enjoying his life.

DREAM's year-end "Dynamite!! 2010" appears to have its first competitor.

The Dutch promotion It's Showtime has announced fighter Strikeforce/DREAM fighter and K-1 kickboxing veteran Melvin Manhoef (24-8-1 MMA, 4-3 DREAM) will compete at the Dec. 31 event.

An opponent has not been named.

Although officials have confirmed the "Dynamite!! 2010" event, few details are known, including a venue and host city. However, the show is expected to air live in North America on HDNet from somewhere in Japan.

Manhoef, a veteran middleweight fighter, looks to rebound from back-to-back MMA losses and an overall 2-4 skid. He's also lost his past two kickboxing matches, the most recent of which came under the It's Showtime banner.

The crowd-pleasing striker will appear in his fifth consecutive "Dynamite!!" show. The events traditionally are some of the biggest of the year in Japan, and many fighters openly campaign for spots on the cards. Manhoef, in fact, has won his past three New Year's Eve fights with TKO wins over Yosuke Nishijima (2007), Mark Hunt (2008) and Kazuo Misaki (2009). The Misaki win in his most recent one in any MMA fights.