"During the final phase of training, I lifted my training partner for a take-down, and he tried to defend tenaciously. After staggering on my feet, we both fell head first on to the floor and I hit my head pretty hard. Even though I retained consciousness, I did not feel well, as I suffered from dizziness and headache. So I decided to halt the training and go to my room to rest. After a while, when I felt sufficiently recovered, I tried to get up from bed. At that moment, I experienced severe vertigo and I ended up blacking out. When I regained consciousness, I was lying on the floor and my teammates were asking me I were all right. As soon as my manager saw me, he told me that we should go to a hospital, and the DREAM staff immediately took me to a nearby hospital. At the hospital, I had my head examined with X-ray and CT Scan but no evidence of fracture on the skull or hemorrhaging was found. The doctor explained to me that, while no anomaly was found on the images from the X-ray and CT Scan, I had exhibited symptoms of concussion. I told him that I absolutely wanted to proceed with my fight; however, he said that, as a doctor, he would never clear me to fight under the circumstance, so I had to accept his verdict. I was extremely crestfallen when I thought about my fans, Cavalcante, and promoters. DREAM was kind enough to make my health a top priority, and allowed me to recuperate for about six months."

DREAM 2008 lightweight grand prix winner Joachim Hansen finally breaks his silence to DreamOfficial.com about the head injury that had him on the sidelines since July 2008. He was slated to take on Gesias "JZ" Calvancante at "FieLDS Dynamite!! 2008" on New Year's Eve, but failed the pre-fight medicals and was forced out of the event with last minute medical issues, which we now know was due to a head injury acquired in training.

Hansen was also expected to defend his belt at July's DREAM 10 against Shinya Aoki, but was pulled from the event. Hansen will be facing Aoki for the third time at DREAM 11 on October 6 for the promotion's lightweight title.

Hansen is 4-1 in his last five bouts, and he hasn't fought since defeating Aoki at last July's DREAM 5 in their second meeting. His only loss during that stretch came against Eddie Alvarez at DREAM 3. The 10-year veteran of the sport has fought the majority of his career in Japan for promotions such as Shooto and PRIDE. He holds notable wins over such fighters as Luiz Azeredo, Yves Edwards, Caol Uno, Gesias Cavalcante, Rumina Sato and Takanori Gomi.