Ricardo Arona finally appears set to embark on his comeback as it has recently been announced that he will be facing off with Marvin “The Beastman” Eastman in September.

The two are set to clash at Bitetti Combat in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on September 12 according to a recent report by the Brazilian website Portal Das Lutas.

Arona was at one time widely regarded to be among the cream of the crop in MMA’s 205 pound division before a shocking knockout loss to Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou and more than a year layoff pushed him far out of the limelight.

A few impressive wins over decent opposition could easily push Arona back towards the top of the rankings in a hurry as the Brazilian grappling champion already holds victories over the likes of Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva, Alistair Overeem and Dean Lister to name just a few.

Eastman will be looking to get a winning streak going as he recently notched a TKO victory over Aaron Lofton at MFC 21 following back to back defeats against the likes of Denis Kang and Drew Mcfederies.

Both fighters spent the first twenty seconds of the bout feeling each other out with jabs before Kang moved in and landed a looping overhand right that put Eastman on the canvas. The victory is Kang’s second straight since he dropped consecutive bouts to Yoshihiro Akiyama and Gegard Mousasi. Kang currently has one bout remaining on his existing K-1 contract.

Also on Saturday’s card was a rematch between KOTC Canada heavyweight champion Tim Hague and Miodrag Petkovic. Hague gained his redemption as he earned a unanimous decision after three hard fought rounds.

Raw Combat: Redemption Results

Denis Kang def. Marvin Eastman – KO 1 0:46
Bibiano Fernandes def. Len Tam – Submission (Triangle Choke) 1 0:58
Trevor Stewardson def. Brendan Seguin – TKO 3 2:03
Tim Hague def. Miodrag Petkovic – Unanimous Decision
Ryan Ford def. Nabil Khatib – Unanimous Decision
Andrew Buckland def. Garett Davis – KO 1 1:43
Brad Cardinal def. Myles Merola – Submission (Triangle Choke) 1 4:15
Hardeep Singh def. Bernie Antle – TKO 1 2:29
Nathan Gunn def. Jaret Evans – Unanimous Decision
Matt Bagshaw def. Wes Jaya – Submission (Keylock) 1 4:13
Keto Allen def. Mike Rowbotham – Submission 2 1:40

Kang, a native of Vancouver, British Columbia, possesses a mixed martial arts record of 30-10-1. Kang holds victories over Akihiro Gono, Amar Suloev, Murilo Rua, and Mark Weir. Kang was last in action at Spirit MC 18: The Champion where he successfully defended his middleweight title against Jae Young Kim.

“We’re two athletic guys who like to get out there and swing. It’s going to be a very heated fight,” Kang explained in a press release. “There’s going to be a lot of desire by the both of us to win. I’m coming off a couple of losses and he is as well so we’re both going to be really hungry. Neither of us are going to take this fight lightly or take any shortcuts in training. That’s for sure.”

Eastman, a native of Las Vegas, Nevada, possesses a mixed martial arts record of 15-8-1. Eastman holds victories over Terry Martin, Rob Kimmons, Alan Belcher and Travis Wiuff. He last fought at The Ultimate Fighter 8 Finale losing to heavy handed Drew McFedries.

In the Raw Combat: Redemtion press release, Eastman said, “It’s been a long time since I’ve been up there. It will bring back memories. The people there were great to me. My objective is to finish the fight as fast as possible so it doesn’t go to the judges. He’s a popular guy, a top-5 middleweight and a great opponent but the bottom line is when we get in that cage, I don’t respect anybody.”

Also on the card will be King of the Cage Canada heavyweight champion Tim Hague who’ll be battling Miodrag Petkovic in a rematch of their Feb. 1st affair.

Raw Combat was formed earlier this year after Dave Houshiar left the now defunct Hardcore Championship Fighting. Their first event featured UFC veteran David Loiseau, Travis Galbraith, Bibiano Fernandes, and Carlo Prater.

Not only will you get to see some of the best heavyweights in the world on the same card during Affliction: Banned along with the UFC light heavyweight debut of Anderson Silva during UFC Fight Night 14, but the finals of DREAM’s lightweight Grand Prix will be televised early Monday morning when HDNet brings us DREAM.5.

DREAM.5 will be airing LIVE on HDNet at 2 a.m. ET on Monday morning. For those unable to watch live that are also without a DVR/TiVo, you can check out the replay this Monday at 10 p.m. ET.

Courtesy of HDNet, you can watch their preview of DREAM.5 right here on 5 Oz. of Pain.

HDNet Fights’ “Fight of the Week” appears here on 5 Oz. of Pain with expressed, written permission from HDNet Fights. For more “Fight of the Week” videos from HDNet Fights, just click here.

The deal, which could come into effect as soon as next week, will be for six Dream events with their first event, which took place earlier today, being shown on a delayed broadcast.

Sherdog was informed of the pending deal by FEGUSA director, Mike Kogan who stated that future broadcasts, beginning with the April 29th card will be broadcast “near live”. Kogan had the following to say about the impending deal:

“FEG has been working with HDNet in bringing the Dream 2008 Light and Middleweight GP events to North America,” Kogan told Sherdog.com. “And while the deal is not officially signed yet, it is very close to being finalized with most of the important elements already agreed upon.”

Read more Dream content on FiveOuncesOfPain.com

I taped the show earlier this week in Los Angeles and I had a blast doing it. The crew at Inside MMA were super nice and they made the whole experience a very pleasant one. I just wanted to thank them publicly.

Joining me on the panel is Amir Perets, who has a background as a member of the Israeli special forces and now does anti-terrorism training, and Karo Parisyan.

If you’re a Karo fan, then you will enjoy the show. He was extremely outspoken and had us laughing quite a few times during the taping. He was very outspoken in his thoughts about how Randy Couture would do in a fight vs. Fedor Emelianenko, his thoughts on women’s MMA, and whether he turned down a chance to fight Jon Fitch.