Dynamite!! 2009 Rumor Mill; Dynamite!! Possibly Without K-1 Heavyweight Fights

With all of the excitement over the co-promotional event on New Year's Eve and questions on the future of Sengoku Raiden Championships, part of the Dynamite!! tradition might be left in the dust. There are rumors abound right now that while K-1 Dynamite!! will feature 19 or so fights, most of them will be MMA bouts between DREAM fighters and Sengoku fighters, not kickboxing fights between K-1 heavyweights.

What we know for sure is that Masato vs. Andy Souwer will be the main event on the card, with most of the speculation behind that going on last due to the retirement ceremony for Masato. Satoshi Ishii vs. Hidehiko Yoshida will be the co-main event of the event and heavily hyped as a very important fight between two Japanese Olympic heroes. The rest of the card, while not finalized, could possibly just be MMA bouts, with the rules being tailored to each bout. What that means is Sengoku and DREAM both utilize different rulesets for MMA, and depending on who is fighting, the rules might be adjusted. So if a Sengoku champion were to fight a DREAM fighter, the rules would most likely be Sengoku rules and vice versa.

One thing that is not clear is if the (admittedly terrible) KOSHIEN youth fights will be considered a part of the 19 fights, or simply seen as the pre-show attraction. It is, in my estimation, a safe bet that the KOSHIEN fights will count as a part of the 19, which means four KOSHIEN fights, the Masato retirement bout and the Judoka face off, added with the Super Hulk finals give us a total of seven fights, leaving somewhere in the realm of 10 - 13 (depending on how many they choose to book) fights. Kawajiri vs. Aoki is heavily rumored as well.

Tanigawa has gone on record saying he'd like to see between seven and nine DREAM vs. Sengoku fights, which is not leaving a lot of give for possible K-1 bouts. At the press conference today all that came from Tanigawa was that there "might" be K-1 fights, depending on what happens at the K-1 World Grand Prix on December 5th. 

I for one would really dislike a Dynamite!! show without a few K-1 attractions. It should also be noted that Tanigawa called Dynamite!! "TBS's show" as opposed to FEG's, implying the networks control over booking decisions might change the shape of the card, regardless of what they want.