Dec 12, 2011 - New Year's Eve may have a familiar feel for longtime fight fans.

Former Pride star Fedor Emelianenko is slated to fight Satoshi Ishii on DREAM's year-end card "DREAM: New Year! 2011", according to reports from Sherdog. The bout will mark "The Last Emperor's" return to Japan for the first time since 2007.

Emelianenko (32-4, 1 NC), long considered the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world, recently snapped a three-fight slump by defeating former UFC contender Jeff Monson via unanimous decision at M-1 Global: Emelianenko vs. Monson. Previously the 35-year-old suffered defeat at the hands of Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Silva, and Dan Henderson.

An Olympic gold medalist judoka, Ishii (4-1-1) has competed sporadically in MMA with a majority of his fights taking place in Japan. The 24-year-old last fought to a draw against former WEC champion Paulo Filho in September.

"DREAM: Fight for Japan. How are you! New Year! 2011" takes place on December 31st at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The card will air on HDNet.

"DREAM: Fight for Japan. How are you! New Year! 2011" fight card:

Bantamweight Grand Prix:

Bantamweight Semifinal: Masakazu Imanari vs. Antonio Banuelos

Bantamweight Semifinal: Bibiano Fernandes vs. Rodolfo Marques

Bantamweight Final: Winner of Imanari/Banuelos vs. Winner of Fernandes/Marques

Bantamweight Tourney-Reserve: Hideo Tokoro vs. Yusup Saadulaev

Main card:

Featherweight Championship: Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Takeshi Inoue

Lightweight Championship: Shinya Aoki vs. Satoru Kitaoka

Heavyweight: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii

Heavyweight: Tim Sylvia vs. Brett Rogers

Featherweight: Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazuyuki Miyata

Welterweight: Hayato Sakurai vs. Ryo Chonan

Women's Flyweight: Karla Benitez vs. Megumi Fujii