He’s back! Joachim Hansen will finally defend his DREAm lightweight championship against Shinya Aoki at DREAM 11. Hansen suffered an injury before his fight on New Years Eve last year, and this will be his first fight in over a year. Another rumour for DREAM 11 is the featured matchup between Paolo Filho and Jason “Mayhem” Miller.This fight is presumably a result of the signing of Jacare by STRIKEFORCE that may have caused DREAM to replace Jacare with Filho.

This is the announced card for DREAM 11 so far:

Lightweight Title Fight:
Joachim Hansen (champion) vs.  Shinya Aoki (challenger)

DREAM Featherweight GP Semi-Finals:
Hideo Tokoro vs.  Hiroyuki Takaya
Joe Warren  vs.  Bibiano Fernandes

Reserve: Kazuyuki Miyata  vs.  Daiki “DJ Taiki” Hata

SuperHulk Semi-Finalists:
Ikuhisa Minowa
Hong Choi Man
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
Gegard Mousasi

On September 23rd, Mirko “Crocop” Filipovic will finally step into the ring again after months of rehabilitation and rumours of his retirement. Crocop, in an interview with a major newspaper commented that he was finally 100% again and is ready and eager to fight on 23rd September. Crocop, who currently fights for the DREAM promotion in Japan will most probably fight against Alistair “Demolition Man” Overeem – who has been calling him out for almost two months now and has gone so far as to questio Crocop’s heart and his will to compete in MMA.

Crocop also says that his knee is 100% now and that he has bene going to Amsterdam to train with some top K-1 level fighters in Holland. After a mini camp in his native Zagreb, Croatia, Crocop says that he went to Holland specifically to get some standup training by sparring and training with the likes of Remy Bonjasky and John Hyppolitom.

Mirko also mentions in his usual way that there was no question of ducking any fight or fighter at any time. “Talking is his game not mine. I would like to do my talking in the ring. I really want this fight” says Mirko.