MMAConvert.com

Inside MMA airs on HDNet every Friday night at 9PM ET.

Inside MMA Archive

More segments after the jump.

Inside MMA airs tonight on HDNet at 9PM ET.

Bellator has steadily been announcing season two’s tournament participants over the last few months. Their featherweight, lightweight, welterweight and middleweight tournaments are chock full of some of the sport’s top prospects but questions still remain about who their champions will fight in the meantime.

Well, it looks like we finally have one of those answers. Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez will take on Josh Neer in May in what Bellator calls a non-title “Super Fight.”

Bellator Fighting Championships announced today that its reigning lightweight champion, Eddie Alvarez, the No. 2-ranked lightweight in the world, will square off in a non-title “Super Fight” with UFC veteran Josh “The Dentist” Neer under the Bellator banner this May.

The fight is the first Super Fight matchup to be announced by Bellator, which is now gearing up for its much-anticipated nationally-televised second season. These non-tournament, non-title catch-weight fights will pit Bellator’s Season 1 Champions — Alvarez, Joe Soto, Lyman Good and Hector Lombard — against top competition as they prepare to defend their titles from Bellator’s Season 2 tournament winners this fall.

I don’t know about the “Super Fight” label, but it is great to see their champs getting fights while they wait for the tournaments to play out.

For one reason or another Bellator’s middleweight champ, Hector Lombard, has always flown under the radar, but if he has his way, that won’t be the case for long. He wants a fight with Dan Henderson in Strikeforce and he isn’t shy in letting the world know about it.

“I would sign that contract today. Dan Henderson is a great fighter and a legend in the sport, but I know I have the skills to beat him…U.S. fans have only seen a little of my abilities. Fighting and beating Dan Henderson would let me show the world what I’m capable of…I look forward to hearing something from Strikeforce. I know they want to put on a great show on such a big stage, and I promise I can give that to them…I want Dan Henderson – period.”

The good news for Lombard is Bellator has given their blessing to pursue the fight while he awaits his first title defense. The bad news is Dan Henderson already has fights with Jake Shields, Gegard Mousasi and possibly even Fedor Emelianenko on the horizon. Even if those fell through, there’s plenty of other match-ups in Strikeforce for Hendo. At the moment, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where Strikeforce is willing to give a relatively unknown fighter a shot at one of their marquee fighters without the ability to promote him before or after the bout.

Having said that and no offense to Bellator, but Lombard along with Eddie Alvarez really should be in the UFC or Strikeforce. They’re both explosive, a threat to anyone they face and deserve to fight on a much bigger stage in the US than they have in the past. At this point of their careers, they should be fighting the top fighters in their respective weight divisions, and thus far Bellator hasn’t proved they can provide them with that level of competition.

“I want all of you to write this down. I want to fight Fedor. Alistair Overeem wants to fight Fedor in April 2010, write that down. I don’t care [where]. Maybe in DREAM, maybe in Strikeforce, I don’t care. I’d rather in DREAM, but Strikeforce is also okay.”

—Alistair Overeem declaring to the Japanese press that he wants to fight Fedor in April 2010. Alistair wants to take a vacation after he wraps up his K-1 and DREAM fights in December. Says April is the first possible date.

DREAM.12 post-fight interviews with Eddie Alvarez, James Thompson, Marius Zaromskis and Zelg Galesic after the jump. The rest can be seen on DREAM’s YouTube channel.

DREAM.12 fight videos are in the playlist above. Recap and results after jump, so if you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read any further.

DREAM.12, featuring the debut of the “White Cage”, takes place early tomorrow morning at the Osaka Castle Hall in Osaka, Japan.

All fighters made weight, though it took Won Sik Park an extra hour to hit his mark. Weigh-in results below via Sherdog.

• Alistair Overeem (253 lbs) vs. James Thompson (275)
• Eddie Alvarez (153.6) vs. Katsunori Kikuno (154)
• Dong Sik Yoon (184.8) vs. Tarec Saffiedine (182.6)
• Kazushi Sakuraba (184.8) vs. Zelg Galesic (187)
• Katsuyori Shibata (183.3) vs. Tokimitsu Ishizawa (184.8)
• Marius Zaromskis (167.2) vs. Myeon Ho Bae (166.8)
• Yoshiro Maeda (138.2) vs. Chase Beebe (138.6)
• Kuniyoshi Hironaka (154) vs. Won Sik Park (154)
• Keisuke Fujiwara (138.2) vs. Tomoya Miyashita (138.6)

The event will air in the US on HDNet at 2AM ET.

More Images at DREAM Official

Video of the weigh-ins after the jump.

DREAM.12 featuring the debut of the “White Cage” kicks off an hour after UFC 104 ends late tomorrow night at 2AM ET on HDNet. A short promo for the event is posted above along with a handful of pre-fight interviews below (the rest can be seen on DREAM’s YouTube channel). A couple final news items:

• Paulo Filho has withdrawn from the event due to visa issues. Filho’s scheduled opponent, Dong Sik Yoon, will reportedly take on Tarec Saffiedine instead.
• officially announced for the card.

The official DREAM.12 fight card can be found in our fight cards section.

Here it is: DREAM’s white cage which will serve as the fighting surface at DREAM.12 on October 25. They’ll also be doing three five-minute rounds instead on one ten-minute round followed by a five-minute round.

It’s not permanent though. According to Nightmare of Battle, DREAM will only hold one special cage event a year which makes me think this is more of a one night ratings gimmick — much like the Super Hulk Tournament with Jose Canseco was — than anything else. However, Strikeforce was apparently influential in the decision to try the cage, so perhaps it has something do with their “alliance.” I don’t know, but moving to a new fighting surface has never been a good sign in the past. We’ll see what happens here.

In other DREAM.12 news, Bellator Lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez vs. DEEP Lightweight champion Katsunori Kikuno and Won Sik Park vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka are now official for the card.

Remember when DREAM hinted they would be using a cage at DREAM.12 instead of a ring? Well, today they confirmed it with the release of this promo video for the Oct. 25 event in Osaka, Japan. I’m not sure I like this…at all.