Tim Sylvia will be a guest at DREAM's year-end DREAM: New Year! 2011 mega-card after all, though it won't be in a capacity anyone expected.
According to promotion officials, the former UFC heavyweight champion has agreed to face K-1 legend Jerome Le Banner in a pro wrestling bout at the New Year's Eve event.
The "Maine-iac" was originally slated to meet former Strikeforce contender Brett Rogers in an mixed martial arts match, however the contest was eventually scratched due to Rogers' lingering visa issues. Sylvia was then briefly linked to a rematch with Fedor Emelianenko but the bout never came to fruition.
Both Sylvia and Banner have prior experience competing in professional wrestling.
"DREAM: Fight for Japan. How are you! New Year! 2011" takes place on December 31st at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The card will air on HDNet. The complete fight card for DREAM: Fight for Japan. How are you! New Year! 2011 can be read in full below.
Main Card:
Heavyweight: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii
Lightweight Championship: Shinya Aoki vs. Satoru Kitaoka
Featherweight Championship: Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Takeshi Inoue
Dream World Bantamweight Grand Prix:
Tourney Reserve: Hideo Tokoro vs. Yusup Saadulaev
Semifinals: Masakazu Imanari vs. Antonio Banuelos
Semifinals: Bibiano Fernandes vs. Rodolfo Marques Diniz
Finals: Imanari/Banuelos winner vs. Fernandes/Diniz winner
MMA Rules:
Featherweight: Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazuyuki Miyata
Welterweight: Hayato Sakurai vs. Ryo Chonan
Women's Flyweight: Megumi Fujii vs. Karla Benitez
Mixed Rules:
Yuichiro Nagashima vs. Katsunori Kikuno
Kickboxing:
Yuta Kubo vs. Nils Widlund
Masaaki Noiri vs. Kengo Sonoda
IGF Rules (Pro Wrestling):
Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Peter Aerts
Kazushi Sakuraba/Katsuyori Shibata vs. Shinichi Suzukawa/Atsushi Sawada
Josh Barnett vs. Hideki Suzuki
Tim Sylvia vs. Jerome Le Banner