DREAM lightweight champion Shinya Aoki is now targeted to face former WEC champ Jamie Varner at DREAM: Fight for Japan after visa issues forced one-time UFC fighter Willamy Freire to withdraw from the May 29 event in Saitama, Japan, according to Sherdog.
UFC vet Antonio McKee was also recently rumored for the matchup.
Aoki (27-5) submitted Lyle Beerbohm last month in Strikeforce for his fourth-straight win since falling to Strikeforce champ Gilbert Melendez last April, while Varner (16-5-1) fell to 0-3-1 in his last four with a December loss to Shane Roller.
Varner is first scheduled to fight Tyler Combs (14-5) next Saturday at XFO 39 near Chicago.
DREAM: Fight for Japan also includes a bantamweight grand prix, as well as Joachim Hansen vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida and Caol Uno vs. Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura.
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Cant wait to see this card ….. I have missed my late night fights . I’d like to see Aoki vs Thomson next or a fight with Santos at welterweight .
Am I reading that correctly? It says Varner is fighting next Saturday, and then he’s scheduled to fight Aoki 2 weeks later. Is it really smart to sign a guy on to fight Aoki 2 weeks after he’s scheduled to fight elsewhere? What if he’s injured? Now with only 2 weeks left you gotta find another opponent. Then again, this is Dream we are talking about. H3ll, they still have guys fight 2 times on the same night, 2 weeks is like a vacation between fights.
Seems crazy or is his camp looking past Combs? This what it seems to me.
Fight…fight better opponent 2 weeks later…thats life in the small show for you…
;-)