AikaImmortal

-from sherdog.com-Fight Entertainment Group has gotten its New Year’s Eve Dynamite!! card started with a bang. K-1 and HERO\'S backer FEG held a press conference Monday in Osaka, the host city of K-1 PREMIUM Dynamite!! for the third year in a row, where the first official bout was revealed for the New Year\'s Eve extravaganza. In a satisfying but not necessarily surprising announcement, FEG president Sadaharu Tanigawa told the media that HERO\'S 187-pound Grand Prix champion Yoshihiro Akiyama would meet Kazushi Sakuraba on December 31 at the Kyocera Osaka Dome. There was undoubtedly some feeling of déjà vu; it was less than two months ago when a bout between Akiyama and Sakuraba was initially announced for the HERO\'S Grand Prix finale at the Yokohama Arena. However, when October 9 rolled around, it was Lithuania\'s Kestutis Smirnovas across the ring from Akiyama after Sakuraba was sidelined following a highly publicized injury affair. On September 26 the longtime superstar Sakuraba began his first hard sparring in his preparation for the bout with Akiyama when he suddenly began suffering dizzy spells and feeling ill. Sakuraba was then taken from the gym to the hospital by friend, training partner and PRIDE referee Minoru Toyonaga. It was but a few hours after that that stories of Sakuraba being rushed to the hospital grabbed not only MMA headlines but national headlines in Japan as well. The following day, FEG held a press conference in Tokyo, where Sadaharu Tanigawa and Sakuraba himself addressed the media in regard to Sakuraba\'s medical condition. It was revealed that Sakuraba had sustained damage to his vertebrobasilar system, responsible for blood flow to the posterior of the brain. The vertebrobasilar damage stopped blood from reaching the base of Sakuraba’s brain, thus preventing proper blood circulation in Sakuraba\'s head and neck. The injury, deemed a result of repeated blows to the head and neck dating as far back as Sakuraba’s collegiate wrestling career, sidelined the former PRIDE star from the HERO\'S 187-pound tournament semifinals. But he remained optimistic at the press conference in September, stating that he wanted to take a few weeks for recovery before beginning light training, and that he hoped to face Akiyama on New Year\'s Eve, a sentiment shared by FEG boss Tanigawa. Monday in Osaka, Sakuraba revealed to the media that he returned to training last week. \"The Gracie Hunter\" said that doctors cleared him to compete, although he was still somewhat worried about taking damage to the head. The 37-year-old also said with confidence that while his stamina was not yet at 100 percent, he felt that he would be able to get back into top form as he continued to train. Akiyama, who has announced he will open a gym of his own in Osaka next spring, reiterated what he said in September: he looked up to Sakuraba and was honored to fight him. Akiyama also stated that while he respected Sakuraba immensely, he wanted to put on an entertaining fight, and wanted to end it with a knockout. Tanigawa also revealed to the media that the 2006 edition of Dynamite!! would feature Genki Sudo, Chad \"Akebono\" Rowan, Akio \"Musashi\" Mori, Caol Uno, Hideo Tokoro, Katsuhiko Nagata, Ken Kaneko, and perhaps most intriguingly of all, \"KID\" Norifumi Yamamoto. Yamamoto, who announced earlier this year that he was taking a hiatus from mixed martial arts competition to chase an Olympic wrestling bid for the 2008 Beijing Games, stated in July that he was considering competing on December 31 at Dynamite!!, joking that he may do a wrestling exhibition with his sister Seiko Yamamoto. While Yamamoto\'s plans for New Year\'s Eve are unclear, it appears that fans will get to see the KILLER BEE bad boy in action in some form or another before they ring in 2007.

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