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After all these years, Tim Sylvia will finally fight where the fans might actually appreciate him — Japan.

That’s right, according to Fanhouse, Sylvia will travel to the Land of the Rising Sun on NYE to compete on the FieLDS Dynamite!! 2009 card. His opponent is still up in the air, but according to his manager, Monte Cox, Alistair Overeem and Hong Man Choi are the two names on the table. But if Cox has his way, Sylvia will be the one looking up at his opponent for a change.

While Cox said Sylvia has been proposed fights against Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem and Hong Man Choi, he thinks it would make more sense to have “The Maine-iac” fight the Korean giant.

“We’re still trying to make a comeback, so I think he and Choi be the best match-up,” Cox said.

“Wow, two monsters. That would be fun.”

We can probably all agree that Sylvia-Overeem would be the better fight from a competitive standpoint, but for some strange reason, I’m actually somewhat intrigued by Sylvia taking on Choi. It would probably be a terrible fight — two slow, lumbering, awkward giants exchanging strikes — but the visual alone is enough to convince me to watch it, well, at least enough to coax me into clicking play on the internet video the next morning.

The DREAM.11 fight videos are in the playlist above. Results and recap after the jump.

Isn’t it about time Hong Man Choi (7′2″, 320lbs) takes on someone his own size? NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal (7′1″, 325lbs) thinks so. Back in June, he challenged HMC to a fight after he retires from basketball. Today, Choi confirmed to Ariel Helwani that he would indeed fight Shaq if the opportunity presented itself. Shaq loves MMA, has been training for a long time and has joked with Dana White in the past about signing him to a UFC contract, so I tend to think Shaq wasn’t kidding.

The only missing piece is DREAM. Do we even have to ask if they’d be willing to book it? No, I don’t think we do.

So at least two of the remaining competitors in DREAM’s Super Hulk Tournament are training for it. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to me, but in an weird way it kinda does. I guess I could just never picture it in my head without seeing it for my own eyes first.

Anyways, CagePotato found this video of Bob Sapp training for his fight against Sokoudjou next week. He actually does look like a beast when he’s throwing leg kicks against a stationary target, well at least through about 10 of them at which point he looks like he’s going to collapse from exhaustion.

My favorite of the two is Minowaman’s though. There’s something not right when you have to hit the pads at a 75° angle above your head. The best part comes at the end when Minowaman poses for media pictures with a life-size cardboard cutout of his opponent, Hong Man Choi. Only in Japan.

DREAM has found their replacement for Gegard Mousasi. It’s Bob Sapp who lost to Minowaman in the first round of the Super Hulk tournament. Hong Man Choi and Minowaman will still square off in the semi-finals at DREAM.11, so Sapp will face Sokoudjou.

“Sokoudjou’s a great fighter. Without question, he’s ready to go. He’s kind of on his winning (ways), while I’m on the opposite end, on a losing streak. So I definitely would like to push forward and rebound back.”

If victorious, Sapp will face the winner of Minowa vs. Choi at Dynamite! on New Year’s Eve. If not, he hints at another option.

“If Sokoudjou wins… I’ll probably be fighting a celebrity (at Dynamite),” he said.

Well, Sokoudjou is going to win, let’s be serious here, but with Mousasi out of the tournament, Minowaman has a decent chance to take the whole damn thing. Go figure.

Image via Sherdog

Fights and results after the jump.

Props to Fight Hymn and MMAShare for the videos.

More DREAM.9 fight videos coming shortly.

The DREAM.9 weigh-ins took place earlier today in Japan.

All fighters made weight. Minowaman and Sokoudjou are both giving up 100+lbs against their opponents. Canseco’s giving up about 80lbs, and Mousasi’s giving up almost 70lbs to Hunt.

And by the way, Canseco says he’s scared.

“I’m not gonna lie to you; I’m scared,” Canseco said. “This guy is huge. I’m a 44-year-old rookie and have had a lot of challenges in my baseball career. Hopefully, I can do well.”

The weigh-in results (via Nightmare Of Battle):

• Ronaldo Jacare (184.5lbs/83.7kg) vs. Jason “Mayhem” Miller (185.2lbs/84kg)
• Norifumi “KID” Yamamoto (137.1lbs/62.2kg) vs. Joe Warren (138lbs/62.6kg)
• Masakazu Imanari (138.9lbs/63kg) vs. Bibiano Fernandes (138.5lbs/62.8kg)
• Yoshiro Maeda (138.5lbs/62.8kg) vs. Hiroyuki Takaya (138.9lbs/63kg)
• Abel Cullum (138.2lbs/62.7kg) vs. Hideo Tokoro (138.2lbs/62.7kg)
• Tatsuya Kawajiri (154.3lbs/70kg) vs. J.Z. Cavalcante (154.3lbs/70kg)
• Gegard Mousasi (218.3lbs/99kg) vs. Mark Hunt (286.6lbs/130kg)
• Jan Nortje (352.7lbs/160kg) vs. Rameau Sokoudjou (224.9lbs/102kg)
• Hong Man Choi (330.7lbs/150kg) vs. Jose Canseco (253.5lbs/115kg)
• Ikuhisa “Minowaman” Minowa (196.1lbs/89kg) vs. Bob Sapp (319.7lbs/145kg)

DREAM.9 will take place tomorrow, May 26, at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan and will air live on HDNet at 5AM ET.

More images at DREAMOfficial.com.

Jonathan Burke, Shaq’s trainer, teases there might be a fight coming up between Shaq and Chuck Liddell, presumably some kind of sparring match. Screw that, how about Shaq vs. Hong Man Choi? I’m sure DREAM would make a spot in their Super Hulk Tournament for him.