Japanese-language website SportsNavi has reported that 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Satoshi Ishii will fight Ikuhisa Minowa at Dream 16. The card will take place this Saturday, Sept. 15, at Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya, Japan.
Earlier this week, multiple media sources reported that Minowa would face super heavyweight James Thompson on the card. However, now those reports appear to have been false.
After winning his Judo gold medal in 2008, Ishii made his MMA debut against fellow gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida at last year’s Dynamite!! show. The older Yoshida got the better of the striking exchanges and took the decision.
Following the loss, Ishii continued his training world tour. He has trained with Matt Hume, Lyoto Machida and Randy Couture. He has won a pair of amateur fights and one professional fight against kickboxer Tafa Misipati at X-plosion: New Zealand vs. Japan.
Ishii also recently announced that he will pursue U.S. citizenship, so he can compete for the country in Judo at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Minowa has positioned himself as a throw back to the open-weight days of the sport’s past. At Dream 8, he dropped a decision to Katsuyori Shibata. However, since then he has won five-straight fights and all the fights were at heavyweight. In his last fight, he defeated former professional boxer Imani Lee with a rear-naked choke submission.
Headlining Dream 16 is a middleweight contest featuring Pride FC legend Kazushi Sakuraba taking on the always colorful Jason “Mayhem” Miller. Also on the card, Dream lightweight champion Shinya Aoki will return against Marcus Aurelio.
Thanks to FightOpinion.com for catching the article and being the first to translate.