- Middleweight contender Demian Maia, who was recently tapped to replace an injured Vitor Belfort and fight champion Anderson Silva at UFC 112 in April, has been cleared for the fight after initially being medically suspended until August due to a cut suffered in his victory at UFC 109 earlier this month.

- A matchup between Yoshihiro Akiyama and the winner of this weekend’s UFC 110 fight between Wanderlei Silva and Michael Bisping is likely to take place at UFC 115 on June 12 in Vancouver.

Hidehiko Yoshida ruined the anticipated debut of fellow Olympic Judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii, topping the MMA newcomer by unanimous decision in MMA main event of Thursday’s 18-bout “Dynamite!! 2009″ event at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

In other notable MMA action, Shinya Aoki broke Mizuto Hirota’s arm for an opening-round submission win, Ikuhisa Minowa upset Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou with a third-round TKO to win DREAM’s “Super Hulk” tourney and Gegard Mousasi and Alistair Overeem each earned first-round knockouts.

The lineup for tomorrow’s “Dynamite!! 2009″ event, which takes place at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, is now official and features 18 MMA and K-1 bouts, including DREAM vs. Sengoku matchups.

The card, which will be televised live on HDNet beginning at 3am ET, is headlined by a K-1 rematch between Masato and Andy Souwer and also includes Gary Goodridge vs. Gegard Mousasi, Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou in DREAM’s “Super Hulk” tournament finale, and Satoshi Ishii vs. Hidehiko Yoshida.

At a press conference Tuesday in Japan, Fighting Entertainment Group, the organizers behind the “Dynamite!! 2009″ New Years Eve hybrid K-1 and MMA card announced several new fights for the event. Among the newly announced fights were several “Dream vs. SRC” bouts, which include several well known fighters, including Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, Hayato “Mach” Sakurai, and Alistair Overeem.

World Victory Road’s Sengoku Raiden Championships has dropped plans to hold a competing New Year’s Eve event in Japan and will instead partner with Fighting and Entertainment Group’s DREAM for Dynamite!! 2009, the promotions announced on Wednesday.

World Victory Road, the promotion behind the “Sengoku” titled fight events has reportedly canceled it’s scheduled New Years Event. The event would have featured the replacement of the name “Sengoku” with “Sengoku Raiden Championships” for the MMA events, and gone head to head with FEG’s “Dynamite!!2009″ New Years Eve event. Instead it appears that WVR will be teaming up with FEG to promote Dynamite!!2009,

DREAM recently announced additions and changes to the fight card its October 25 DREAM 12 event, including Kazushi Sakuraba replacing Melvin Manhoef against Zelg Galesic and welterweight champ Marius Zaromskis’ return to action in a non-title bout against Myeon Ho Bae.

Read about the latest Japan fight bookings and news in MMAFrenzy.com’s Rising Sun Roundup…

UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva will undergo elbow surgery after all to remove bone spurs and will be sidelined briefly, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic is not retiring following his latest loss and intends to fight at least once more, at a November 7 Strikforce event headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers will take place at the Sears Centre near Chicago.

Read about the latest MMA news in MMAFrenzy.com’s Quick Hits…

All six fighters that were drug tested for UFC 102 tested clean, Urijah Faber’s hand has been cleared to hit the punching bag, and Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante has pulled out of his Dream 11 bout due to injury.

Read about the latest MMA news in MMAFrenzy.com’s Quick Hits…

Hidehiko Yoshida def. Maurice Smith via submission – Round 1, 2:23
Travis Wiuff def. Kazuyuki Fujita via KO – Round 1, 1:24
Kazuo Misaki def. Logan Clark via unanimous decision
Nick Thompson def. Michael Costa via submission – Round 2, 4:13
Sanae Kikuta def. Chris Rice via submission – Round 2, 3:54
Marcio Cruz def. Mu Bae Choi via submission [...]