Following a week of questions and speculation, World Victory Road (WVR) and Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG) officially announced today that their Sengoku and DREAM divisions, respectively, would join forces at the 19-fight, FEG-promoted K-1 “Dynamite!! 2009” card on New Year’s Eve.

The landmark agreement comes on the heels of financial troubles in Sengoku and will pave the way for quite possibly the single best mixed martial arts card in history. World Victory Road still plans to hold its own “Sengoku Raiden Championships” events in 2010.

It was announced on November 13th that World Victory Road’s primary sponsor, Japanese retail giant Don Quijote, had withdrawn its support and would be working with DREAM instead. This prompted speculation that WVR would be closing its doors.

At the press conference earlier today, however, WVR representatives maintained that they were still working with Don Quijote and intended to run events in 2010. In the meantime, they will lend fighters to the “Dynamite!!” card on New Year’s Eve to showcase the top talent from both brands.

The traditionally massive card, this year featuring 19 fights total, will incorporate both K-1 kickboxing bouts and mixed martial arts contests, with between five and seven “DREAM vs Sengoku” MMA bouts rumoured to be on the card.

The blockbuster fight between Judo gold medallists Satoshi Ishii and Hidehiko Yoshida, originally set to be a part of the now-cancelled Sengoku New Year’s Eve event, is expected to be on the “Dynamite!!” card, though Yoshida was cryptic in his responses when asked about it.

Assured to garner considerable interest from the viewing public, the clash of Judo aces will mark Ishii’s MMA debut, while Yoshida, a mainstay in Pride Fighting Championships for years, sports a mixed martial arts record of 8-7-1 against almost exclusively elite-level competition.

This agreement marks the first time – outside of a joint effort at the co-promoted “Yarennoka!” event on New Year’s Eve 2007 – in many years that Japanese MMA will feature just a single event to celebrate the new year, as K-1 and PRIDE went head-to-head for years until PRIDE’s demise in early 2007.

While most of the card is still to be determined, “Dynamite!! 2009” has the potential to be the single biggest and best event that has ever taken place in mixed martial arts and may help to bring MMA back to the mainstream forefront in Japan; a position that it has not been in since the end of 2006.

At the press conference, DREAM contender Hideo Tokoro stated his intentions to challenge Japanese megastar Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, while Sengoku Lightweight Champion Mizuto Hirota expressed a desire to face and “knock out” Eddie Alvarez, the current Bellator Fighting Championships Lightweight Champion.

When asked for his opinion on a champion vs champion bout against Hirota, DREAM Lightweight Champion Shinya Aoki stated that he had no idea who Hirota was. Hirota was less than amused.

Japanese legends Hayato “Mach” Sakurai and “The Japanese Sensation” Akihiro Gono also expressed interest in facing each other in welterweight action.

The K-1 portion of the card will be headlined by the final K-1 bout of the revered Masato, as he squares off against Andy Souwer for the third time. Masato, who most recently destroyed DREAM ace Tatsuya “Crusher” Kawajiri in K-1 action, has announced plans to retire after the fight.

Many other fights are already rumoured and the remainder of the gigantic card will be announced over the course of the next few weeks.

The co-promotion between the two companies means only good things for MMA fans, who will be treated to a grand spectacle as they celebrate the bringing of the new year.