In his blog Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic announced Yoshihiro Nakao as his opponent in his first fight within DREAM, but things have taken a sudden twist. This newly founded organisation has confirmed several new fights, but not the one between Mirko and Nakao, Profightstore.com reports.

Nakao’s coach Takuma Yano wrote in his blog that the reason the fight was not confirmed is that the Yakuza are threatening his fighter.

Yano writes that his fighter was told he would be ‘sleeping with the fishes’ if he entered the ring with Mirko Filipovic. The Yakuza are powerful enough to have directly influenced the downfall of PRIDE, so this comes to no surprise to the Japanese public.

Dutch manager Ban Boon added fuel to the flames by saying that Cro Cop had refused to take on Alistair Overeem and Gohkan Saki in the first tournament.