[K-1 / MMA]: Jerome Le Banner in Training; Still Wants Fight with Tim Sylvia

Jerome Le Banner's camp has been somewhat busy as of late with various news of the fighter's scheduled and desired fights for 2010, and some of it is pretty weird.

First up, what is confirmed: we already know Le Banner will fight Ruslan Karaev in Yokohama in April. To prepare, JLB just finished training with Georges St. Pierre and Denis Kang in Montreal (fans may remember them training together late last year) and is now working with Thom Harinck in Amsterdam. This is good news, as Le Banner was supposed to train with Harinck before last year's GP, but it fell through and the end result was a poor performance. Hopefully a tough, seasoned trainer like Harinck will help push Le Banner here. After that, Le Banner will face his sometimes training partner Brice Guidon in France on June 5.

Now, here's where things get a bit more strange...

Apparently, Le Banner has been clamoring to get a 2-fight contract with UFC. His hope was to come in for 2 fights only, then return to K-1. For understandable reasons, neither the UFC nor FEG were much interested in this, so it fizzled out. But that doesn't push his MMA hopes aside. In his goals for 2010, Le Banner has stated that he wants to face both Alistair Overeem and Tim Sylvia in MMA fights. Overeem should come as no surprise due to the MMA v. K-1 angle he pushed last year, while the Sylvia fight is a rehash from a few years ago. During Sylvia's UFC HW title reign, some heated words were exchanged over the internet between Sylvia and Le Banner, including Le Banner stating "I will fix his chicken legs with some good low kicks" and insulting Sylvia's boring style. Affliction reportedly considered the fight at one point, though in the end nothing ever came of it. Well, apparently Le Banner remembered and is ready for the fight now. And to be honest, now's not a bad time for it. Given each man's fading star, a clash in Dream is not as bizarre an idea today as it was in 2006.

Beyond this, Le Banner wants kickboxing fights with Schilt, Hari, and Overeem in 2010. Finally, he wants to face boxer Jean-Marc Mormeck in a boxing match, however it appears Mormeck has turned down the fight.

A lot of this is pretty delusional, but you have to give Le Banner this - with his time at the top rapidly drawing to a close, he's definitely trying to scratch out every last big fight he can.