Bob Sapp fought a comedian at last year's Dynamite!! New Year's Eve event, and he will return this year with an even more unlikey opponent, which is a cartoon character.

FEG, the parent company of K-1 and DREAM, announced today that Sapp will take on a fighter under DREAM rules by the name of Kinniku Mantaro, a character out of the manga and anime series "Ultimate Muscle".

The fighter portraying Mantaro is a heavyweight that has been training at Kazushi Sakuraba's gym.

Only two days after Satoshi Ishii made it clear his interest in fighting for the UFC, UFC President Dana White has extended his hand to the 2008 Olympic judo gold medalist.

According to a report on Nikkan Sports, White released a statement two days ago through WOWOW, which televises UFC events in Japan, saying that Ishii has the potential to become a great mixed martial arts fighter. White applauded Ishii's decision to fight in the UFC and invited the judoka to Las Vegas to watch UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008 on December 27, to which Ishii has accepted.

Ishii said on Wednesday that he wants to fight for the UFC instead of DREAM and plans to go in March to train with the American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida for his mixed martial arts debut sometime late 2009.

After a year of impressive wins including reclaiming the UFC Welterweight Champion, Georges "Rush" St. Pierre has been nominated for Canadian Athlete of the Year by Sportsnet.ca, one of Canada's leading sports websites.

Sportsnet's other nominees are Calgary Flames' captain Jarome Iginla, Minnesota Twins' All-Star Justin Morneau, tennis player Daniel Nestor and Paralympic wheelchair racer Chantal Petitclerc.

St. Pierre's year was highlighted by his second round TKO victory over Matt Serra in Montreal in April and a unanimous decision win over Jon Fitch in August.

Former UFC, IFL and WEC middleweight fighter Justin Levens and his wife were found dead on Wednesday afternoon. The bodies of Levens and Sarah McLean-Levens were found in their condominium in Laguna Niguel, California by the woman's mother, who then called authorities, according to Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Authorities said the bodies were found in a bedroom and a gun was also found at the scene.

Amormino said homicide investigators are looking into the case as a possible murder and suicide. There were no signs of a struggle, he said.

Levens fought in several different MMA promotions over the past few years including UFC, IFL and WEC. The former Marco Ruas' Vale Tudo student was scheduled to compete at Affliction: Banned in July of this year, but due to delays at the event, the fight was scrapped at the last minute. He later returned positive results for the painkiller Oxymorphone as part of his pre-fight drug testing. He was fined $1,000 and suspended until January 15, 2009.

Levens (9-8) had a promising career early on, winning his first seven fights and landing himself in the UFC, but he was never able to string together more than two wins from that point on. Levens's career ends on a five-fight losing streak and eight losses out of his last ten fights.

Coincidentally enough, Levens had actually once fought the late Evan Tanner at UFC 59. Tanner also found dead earlier this year due to dehydration in a California desert.

Levens, born in Philadelphia on April 18, 1980, was 28 at the time of his death. His wife, Sarah, was 25.

We also want to send out our sincere apologies to the Levens' family, friends and relatives.

TOKYO (AFP) — Japan's Olympic judo heavyweight champion Satoshi Ishii plans to join the US-based Ultimate Fighting Championship next year, bypassing domestic competitions.

The 21-year-old university student disappointed Japan's judo circles last month when he announced a switch to the cash-laden world of mixed martial arts three months after his gold-medal feat in his Olympic debut in Beijing.

"I have had UFC on my mind as my ultimate goal," Ishii was quoted as saying by the Nikkan Sports daily Wednesday.

"I had thought about fighting a few matches in Japan at first. But if this were train travel, my credentials would be an express ticket. I wonder why I should bother to go by a slow train," he said.

Ishii said UFC was "what (US) Major Leagues are to baseball."

"There are many strong fighters in the heavyweight rank. I think it's the real thing."

But Ishii, due to graduate from Tokyo's Kokushikan University in March, said he had not yet started talks with UFC.

UFC, packaged as a no-holds-barred sport with matches fought in a octagonal caged ring, is considered the largest mixed martial arts promotion in the world with growing popularity worldwide via television.

"I want to go to the United States around next March and make sure I can get used to the environment and go on without accumulating stress," he told the daily. "I'll make my debut next summer or autumn at the earliest."

Ishii, relatively small for a judo heavyweight at 181 centimetres (six feet) and 110 kilograms (240 pounds), has long expressed his wish to compete in mixed martial arts, which combines techniques from judo, karate, kick-boxing and wrestling.

He had been reportedly lured by DREAM and other Japanese mixed martial arts organisations.

Ishii was one of the only two Japanese who made the podium in men's judo as Japan registered a record-low Olympic medal haul in the sport at the Beijing Games.

Japan's judo establishment fears that Ishii, who has irritated judo purists with his no-holds-barred style, could inspire others to follow him into a sport full of colourful figures, in which his earnings could easily top 100 million yen (one million dollars) per match. (AFP)