With Strikeforce’s Heavyweight Grand Prix shelved until March 2012, Josh Barnett (Pictured) has agreed upon a professional wrestling match with Suzuki Hideki at “Dream: Fight for Japan. How Are You! New Year! 2011.”
Barnett is expected to resume is MMA career when he meets Daniel Cormier in the finals of Strikeforce’s HWGP. The controversial 265-pounder easily submitted Sergei Kharitonov this past September to advance to the tournament’s championship round.
For those of you wondering why Barnett is allowed to be a pro wrestler and Brock Lensar isn’t, it is believed Barnett is still working off his original Strikeforce contract which allows him to dabble in fake fighting. Or, his feud with UFC president Dana White is as strong as ever and White couldn’t care less about what Barnett does because he won’t be transitioning to the UFC anyways.
HDNet will broadcast Dream’s event live in North America beginning at 1AM ET/10PM PT.
Here is the card’s current roster:
Kickboxing:
Noiri Masaaki vs. Sonoda Kengo
Kubo Yuta vs. Nils Widlund
Professional Wrestling:
Josh Barnett vs. Suzuki Hideki
Sawada Atsushi & Susukawa Shinitchi vs. Sakuraba Kasushi & Shiabata Katsuyori
Fujita Kazuyuki vs. Peter Aerts
Dream Bantamweight Tournament:
Hideo Tokoro vs. Yusup Saadulaev (Reserve Bout)
Antonio Banuelos vs. Masakazu Imanari
Bibiano Fernades vs. Rodolfo Marquez Diniz
Individual MMA Bouts:
Megumi Fujii vs. Karla Benitez
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazuyuki Miyata
Takeshi Inoue vs. Hiroyuki Takaya (Dream Featherweight Champion)
Kikuno Katsunori vs. Nagashima Jienotsu Yuichiro
Satoru Kitaoka vs. Shinya Aoki (Dream Lightweight Champion)
Hayato Sakurai vs. Ryo Chonan
Satoshi Ishii vs. Fedor Emelianenko