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Another pair of DREAM vs. SRC bouts were announced for FieLDS Dynamite!! 2009 at a press conference earlier this evening in Japan. Shinya Aoki and Tatsuya Kawajiri were expected to meet on the card, however they will take on Sengoku lightweights Mizuto Hirota & Kazunori Yokota instead.

Although not officially announced, Five Oz. is reporting that Melvin Manhoef will take on Kazuo Misaki in another DREAM vs. SRC bout.

The latest FieLDS Dynamite!! 2009 fight card and event info can be found in our fight cards section.

At yesterday’s DREAM.11 post-fight press conference, Dream producer Keiichi Sasahara, announced that Shinya Aoki would defend his shiny new DREAM lightweight belt against Tatsuya Kawajiri on FEG’s NYE Dynamite card. Sasahara must have forgot to ask Aoki if he was cool with that first though, because Aoki didn’t sound too keen on fighting Kawajiri in his post-fight comments. Instead, he said he wants to fight BJ Penn.

“I don’t even want to say anything about (New Year’s Eve). I’ve been fighting one bout after another, so I’m exhausted. I was thinking this was my last fight. I just want to rest. After that, then maybe I can decide on something. I’d like to fight B.J. Penn.”

“I want to fight the best in the world, like B.J. Penn and Kenny Florian — strong guys like that,” he said. “I want to take them out and prove that Japanese are truly strong. I was told by someone that ‘you got the belt, now you’re number one in the world,’ but I don’t think so. Being top of the world isn’t something so trivial. If I could become like B.J. Penn, I could die (happy).”

This isn’t the first time Aoki has made such statements. It sounds great in theory, but unless Aoki is willing to completely sever his ties with DREAM for a year or so, which he hasn’t given any indication of doing, it’s never going to happen, so why do you keep bringing it up, Aoki? No one likes the guy who isn’t willing to put his money where his mouth is.

DREAM has really stepped it up with their YouTube channel lately posting pre-fight interviews, promos, video of the weigh-ins, etc. All the post-fight interviews for DREAM.11 are now posted as well. I’ve included all the ones with English speaking participants here, but YouTube also has a really cool subtitle feature you can use for the Japanese interviews.

MDS has a detailed recap of presser over at Fanhouse. Here’s the short version.

• Bibiano Fernandes’ first featherweight title defense will come against Hiroyuki Takaya, the fighter he narrowly beat at DREAM.11 to win it.
• Shinya Aoki will defend his lightweight title against Tatsuya Kawajiri at Dynamite on NYE.
• DREAM wants Sakuraba to fight at DREAM.12. Can’t he just go out with a win?
• Boxer Ruben Williams had no idea getting kicked in the leg would actually hurt.
• DREAM expects good ratings thanks to the Super Hulk Tournament. Minowaman’s win over HMC got the biggest reaction from the live audience that I heard, though I had to watch it in pieces on the internet.
• Joe Warren is upset the ref stopped his fight because he didn’t tap out. He has a case.
• Bob Sapp is upset the ref stopped his fight while he was being pelted in the face and did nothing but cover up. He doesn’t have a case.

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

MMA in Japan may not be what it used to be, but man, they sure still know how to produce kickass posters. We usually find out something new about the event from them as well. Case in point, Tatsuya Kawajiri and Kid Yamamoto have not been announced for DREAM.11, yet there they are at the bottom. Does that mean they’ll fighting on October 6? Maybe, but you never know if new names you see on the posters are actual signed participants or merely part of the organization’s wish list for the card. In this case, hopefully the former.

You can check out the latest DREAM 11 fight card and event info in our fight cards section.

Fights and results after the jump.

Props to Fight Hymn and MMAShare for the videos.

DREAM has officially mapped out this year’s plans for the their lightweight title.

While we all patiently wait until August to watch Kenny Florian take on BJ Penn for the UFC Lightweight Championship, there’s another solid lightweight fight scheduled to take place in Japan in May to help tide us over.

Fields Dynamite!! 2008 took place earlier today at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

Japanese MMA legends Kazushi Sakuraba and Kiyoshi Tamura finally squared off in the night’s main event.

In what should have the been the DREAM LW GP Final match-up, Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki met for the WAMMA Lightweight Championship.

Melvin Manhoef stepped in on a day’s notice for Jerome LeBanner to fight the much bigger K-1 vet Mark Hunt in a DREAM rules match.

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, in the night’s David and Goliath bout, fought the Korean giant, Hong Man Choi.

Alistair Overeem took a tough fight under K-1 rules against K-1 Heavyweight king and resident bad boy Badr Hari.

Japanese freak show staple Bob Sapp participated in the mother of all freak shows when he fought an amateur wrestling champion dressed up as a Japanese anime character.

Gegard Mousasi, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Hayato “Mach” Sakurai, Semmy Schilt, Mighty Mo and Minnowaman were also in action.

The fight between Joachim Hansen and JZ Calvacante was canceled due an apparent head injury to Hansen. MMA Weekly has a report.

Results and thoughts after the jump.