Kid Yamamoto To Compete At DREAM 5

Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto will return to the ring in July at DREAM 5. This will be his first fight in seven month.

Yamamoto is expected to take on Joe Benavides, who has had just one professional fight in his MMA career. Very little is known about Benavides, apart from the fact he is a very strong jiu-jitsu fighter.

The main event on this card is expected to feature Mirko Cro Cop against Jerome Le Banner. The event takes place on July 21st. We will prost further details of this card as we learn them.

Nick Diaz Looks To DREAM 5

Nick Diaz is a very happy man coming off his tournament win at DREAM 3, over former King Of Pancrase, Katusya Inoue.

The road to DREAM has been a difficult one for Diaz, who was scheduled to fight on their first card, but the bout was pulled after his opponent Marcello Garcia declined the fight. Then his recent fight was proposed for DREAM 3, but was then axed due to the time between DREAM 3 and Elite XC's Hawaii event, on which Diaz is also scheduled to fight. Due to Diaz's Elite XC contract, he is unable to fight within 45 days of an Elite XC fight.

After much negotiation with Elite XC, Diaz was finally allowed to fight for DREAM, so he rapidly cut weight and flew to Japan, where he scored a victory over Inoue.

He is said elated at the fact he is fighting in the second leg of the tournament. His opponent will be former UFC and Pride fighter Hayato "Mach" Sakurai, a very tough opponent. Diaz has said in interviews that he would love to fight Aoki, but this is not to be. This match up could happen, however, if both Diaz and Aoki get past their next opponents. Diaz will fight Sakurai at DREAM 5 on July 21st.

UPDATE: Cro Cop versus LeBanner Set For July

We originally reported that Mirko Cro Cop was signing to fight Jerome LeBanner at DREAM 4 in June.

This is now not the case, as LeBanner is due to fight Semmy Schilt on June 29th at K-1, so a fight one week earlier would not be a good move for him. The bout is now expected to take place on July 20th, at DREAM 5.

In related news, Mirko Cro Cop reportedly suffered a knee injury in training last week, but we can confirm that no damage was done and he is continuing to train, with the use of a support bandage to stop the condition from worsening. Thanks to http://www.nokaut.com/ for this update.