· Featured Fights: Alvarez Rematches Aoki; A Look at Their First Match

After losing his longstanding place as the king of the Bellator lightweight division this past November in an all-out war with Michael Chandler, former champion Eddie Alvarez now looks to get revenge on another man who holds a win against him in Dream’s Lightweight Champion Shinnya Aoki. The two top lightweights will meet for the second time on April 21, with Alvarez enjoying home court advantage in the Bellator cage.

While Alvarez is coming off a loss to Chandler at Bellator 58, he certainly reinforced the idea that he is an elite level fighter after coming back from adversity in round one, to take rounds two and three convincingly, before faltering in the fourth. Alvarez was previously on a seven-fight winning streak that included the likes of Pat Curran, Josh Neer, Roger Huerta, Katsunori Kikuno, and Toby Imada.

Aoki, coming off a decision victory against Satoru Kitaoka at Dream’s New Year’s Eve event, is currently riding a seven-fight win streak of his own which includes the likes of Rob McCullough, Rich Clementi, Lyle Beerbohm, and Tatsuya Kawajiri.

While Alvarez and Aoki met once before, this is actually the third incarnation of this bout. The two were slated to meet in the finals of Dream’s inaugural lightweight grand prix in 2008. A cut to Alvarez , suffered at the hands of Tatsuya Kawajiri in a victorious performance for the American earlier in the night, kept him out of the finals.

The two would finally meet "K-1: Power of Courage" on New Year’s Eve 2008. While the Philadelphia native held a clear striking, wrestling, and power advantage over his Japanese adversary, “Tobikan Judan” proved once again that elite level grappling should never be discounted in a fight. While Alvarez looked to stand, Aoki looked to pull guard, although it proved to be elusive. The Japanese fighter never gave up, butt scooting toward the heavy-handed Alvarez. In the end, Aoki was able to grab hold of Alvarez. The wrestler threw him to the ground with a hiptoss and moved to full mount, but found himself in a heel hook after a scramble. The American was forced to tap in just 92 seconds.

Alvarez will now look to erase the loss from his record and rebound from his first loss in three years, this time under the unified rules of MMA.