Tag: Damien Brown

RIZIN 19 Live Coverage

RIZIN will make their debut in Osaka, Japan on tonight with “RIZIN 19.” The stacked show includes the first round fights from the first round of the Lightweight Grand Prix, among other big matchups. Amid a typhoon in Japan which has made the whole country re-schedule and cancel events, RIZIN 19 went on. Live coverage of the event can be seen here as the night progresses.

Bout 1: Taisei Umei (7-6) vs. Seiki Ueyama (22-11) (123 lbs) (Kickboxing Rules)

The evening started with a kickboxing bout between Taisei Umei and Seiki Ueyama. Both fighters were fighting in their hometown. Ueyama had interesting pants, with one leg ending at the ankle and the other at the knee. In the first round both fighters were landing lots of low leg kicks. Umei had the better punches in the first three minutes.

In the second round the damage from leg kicks on Umei’s legs started to show. The tempo between the fighters stayed fast in the second round.

The third round was even better than the one before, with both fighters throwing everything at each other. Ueyama was really picking Umei apart as the fight was closing out. In the final seconds of the round, Umei was knocked down but endured. He had a bloody nose as the fight concluded. As expected after his performance, Seiki Ueyama got the unanimous decision victory.

Bout 2: Chang Hee Kim (1-4 1 NC) vs. Shoma Shibisai (4-2 1 NC) (Openweight Bout) (MMA Rules)

The next fight was an interesting one as it was a rare openweight bout. The much larger Chang Hee Kim faced Shoma Shibisai, who was smaller but came into the fight with a better record. Both fighters were given flowers before their fight. Early on, Kim went into a standing clinch with Shibisai. Shibisai got good knees in before getting put against the ropes. Shibisai tried for a kimura, taking Kim to the ground. He tapped out only seconds later. Getting a quick kimura victory, Shoma Shibisai bettered the much larger Chang Hee Kim.

Bout 3: Takuma Konishi (22-6-1) vs. HIROYA (38-17) (170 lbs) (Kickboxing Rules)

Switching back to kickboxing again, the next fight was between Takuma Konishi and HIROYA. Konishi’s originally opponent Shintaro Matsukara pulled out earlier this week, with HIROYA being announced as the replacement fight. HIROYA was targeting leg kicks early on. Konishi landed a counter-punch which dropped HIROYA only a minute into the round. He got back up and started to trade punches with Konishi. A knee was landed by Konishi which dropped HIROYA again and called an end to the bout.

Bout 4: Taiga (20-9-1) vs. Taiju Shiratori (17-5-1) (137 lbs) (Kickboxing Rules)

The final kickboxing figbt of the evening saw Taiga face TEAM TEPPEN’s Taiju Shiratori. Tenshin Nasukawa was in attendance to support Shiratori. The height and reach advantage was more than clear. After a minute of fighting, Shiratori landed a punch combination which dropped Taiga. It quickly became target practice for Shiratori.

Early in the first round Taiga took a tumble after getting hit with a hook. It was ruled as a knockdown. After Shiratori continued to land strikes, Taiga went down again making it the third knockdown of the fight.

The third round opened with a shocking overhand knockdown from Taiga. The crowd woke up because of this. Both fighters were connecting with wild punches. The final round was chaotic as both of them were scrambling to do damage. When consulting the scorecards, all three judges gave the fight to Taiju Shiratori. After the fight he asked to be on the New Year’s Eve show.

Bout 5: Marcos Yoshio Souza (8-1 1 NC) vs. K-Taro Nakamura (34-10-2 1 NC) (170 lbs) (MMA Rules)

Before the next fight, Tenshin Nasukawa came into the ring to say that he will fight on New Year’s Eve after healing a hand injury. The next fight saw brother of Roberto Satoshi Souza, Marcos Yoshio Souza face K-Taro Nakamura. This was the RIZIN debut for both fighters. Nakamura finished up his UFC run in his previous fight. Shizuka Sugiyama was shown at ringside supporting Nakamura. Early on, Souza slipped from a spinning back kick and found himself in bottom position on the ground. They got up shortly after with Nakamura landing a strike. Souza was dropped by a punch, with Nakamura doing ground and pound. Nakamura kept hitting Souza until his corner called the end to it. It was clear that K-Taro Nakamura was levels ahead of his opponent in his RIZIN debut. After the fight he had his wife and his kid in the ring with him. He said he wanted to be part of the collaborative card with Bellator on January 29th.

Bout 6: Damien Brown (19-12) vs. Tofiq Musayev (15-3) (RIZIN Lightweight Grand Prix First Round) (MMA Rules)

The next four fights on the card were in the first round of the RIZIN Lightweight Grand Prix. The first fight was between Damien Brown and Tofiq Musayev. Both of them have won twice in RIZIN before. Brown was hit with a low blow kick in the first minute causing a pause in the fight. They resumed quite quickly. Musayev was landing hard shots in the first round. With a minute left in the round, Brown got smothered with punches in the corner, eventually getting hit enough that the referee stepped in. Moving on to the second round of the Lightweight GP, Tofiq Musayev proved himself again as a dangerous fighter.

Bout 7: Hiroto Uesako (18-7) vs. Luiz Gustavo (9-1) (RIZIN Lightweight Grand Prix First Round) (MMA Rules)

The second of four first round fights was Hiroto Uesako facing “The Killer” Luiz Gustavo. Right off the bat, Uesako charged at Gustavo and put the pressure on him. Uesako was dropped by punches with two minutes left in the first round. They got up into a standing clinch in the corner, with Uesako cut open quite badly on the face. The referee called a pause to the fight with Uesako being checked by a doctor. Shortly after, the fight was called off, giving Luiz Gustavo the victory, moving on to the second round. As expected, Uesako was very upset about this.

Bout 8: Tatsuya Kawajiri (37-13-2) vs. Patricky Pitbull (21-8) (RIZIN Lightweight Grand Prix First Round) (MMA Rules)

After the first intermission of the night, the Lightweight Grand Prix continued. The next first round fight was between Bellator’s Patricky Pitbull and JMMA veteran Tatsuya Kawajiri. Pitbull stopped takedown attempts early on. Kawajiri ate a hard uppercut while trying for a takedown. Kawajiri caught a jumping knee but was hit with punches on the ground while holding the leg. The referee stepped in, giving Pitbull the win. Completely stunning the Osaka crowd, Patricky Pitbull brought Bellator to the second round of the Lightweight Grand Prix.

Bout 9: Roberto Satoshi Souza (9-0) vs. Johnny Case (26-6-1) (RIZIN Lightweight Grand Prix First Round) (MMA Rules)

The final of four Lightweight Grand Prix fights was between Johnny Case and Roberto Satoshi Souza. Early on, Case stuffed a takedown attempt. They went back to stand-up after Case avoided an omoplata. While Souza went down for a takedown he was hit with a punch which dropped him and made him tap out on the ground. It looked like the punch might have went in his eye. Johnny Case became the final fighter to move on to the semi-finals in an anti-climactic finish.

RIZIN Lightweight Grand Prix Semi-Finals Draw

Before the second intermission of the evening, all four Lightweight Grand Prix winners came out to draw the next round of matchups. There were four translators in the ring (one for Tofiq Musayev, one for Luiz Gustavo and Patricky Pitbull, and one for Johnny Case) since no Japanese fighter moved on to the semi-finals. Here were the second round picks:

  1. Johnny Case vs. Tofiq Musayev
  2. Luiz Gustavo vs. Patricky Pitbull

We were told later in the broadcast that the semi-finals and the finals of the tournament will take place on the New Year’s Eve card.

Bout 10: Alexandra Alvare (0-2) vs. RENA (8-3) (112 lbs) (MMA Rules)

After a lengthy second intermission, the next fight was RENA versus Alexandra Alvare. The fight was RENA’s return after losing to Lindsey VanZandt at Bellator 222. Alvare was a short notice replacement for RENA after Shawna Ram pulled out due to a concussion. RIZIN Super Atomweight Champion Ayaka Hamasaki was in the corner of RENA. RENA dropped and hurt Alvare within seconds, getting an easy victory. While against an extremely easy opponent, RENA had a return to form after a loss in the summer.

Bout 11: Miyuu Yamamoto (5-3) vs. Seo Hee Ham (21-8) (108 lbs) (MMA Rules)

After her RIZIN debut in the summer, Seo Hee Ham returned to face Miyuu Yamamoto. The fight was presumably a #1 contenders matchup for to decide the next opponent for Ayaka Hamasaki. Miyuu walked out to a mashup of songs including KID Yamamoto’s walkout theme. Her son Erson Yamamoto was cornering her for this fight. Yamamoto got a single leg takedown in the second minute of the fight. Ham got up quickly but was pushed back down. They stood back up into a clinch and then returned to stand-up. Ham stopped the next takedown attempt. Yamamoto got another takedown with two minutes left in the round. The referee stood them up due to inactivity with a minute left in the round. The round ended in stand-up.

Ham was able to stop a takedown early in the second round. Her striking was significantly better this round. Yamamoto was taken down and was hit with strikes from bottom position. The fight was paused as Ham went out of the right. Yamamoto got a cut around her ear that was checked out, although they were able to resume. When they resumed, Yamamoto went into a clinch and landed knees. Ham landed a few punches and then stuffed a takedown. With Yamamoto holding her leg, Ham let off some hammerfist punches to the head. They got back to a standing clinch where Yamamoto was thrown down and hit with two soccer kicks to the head. Yamamoto got back up but was shoved down again. Ham was on Yamamoto’s back, throwing hammerfist strikes. The strikes continued unanswered until the referee stepped in and ended it. Ham seemed sad after the stoppage, immediately hugging and bowing to Yamamoto while tearing up. Both of them were very emotional. After the fight, RIZIN Super Atomweight Champion Ayaka Hamasaki came out and accepted a challenge from Ham. They did a face-off photo as well.

Bellator Japan and RIZIN 20 Announcement

Before the next fight, it was announced that Bellator MMA will do a show on December 29th, and RIZIN 20 will take place on New Year’s Eve. Headlining Bellator Japan will be Rampage Jackson and Fedor Emelianenko. Names shown in the video package were Kyoji Horiguchi, Ayaka Hamasaki and Mikuru Asakura.

Bout 12: Kai Asakura (13-1) vs. Ulka Sasaki (22-7-2) (134 lbs) (MMA Rules)

After the third and final intermission of the evening, the show had it’s co-main event. It was 7 AM EST by the time this fight had come. The co-main event was Kai Asakura versus Ulka Sasaki. Asakura was hot off his huge upset win over Kyoji Horiguchi. Sasaki was coming back after his loss against Shintaro Ishiwatari. His edge over Asakura was really just experience. Kyoji Horiguchi was celebrating his birthday, watching the fight at ringside. As expected, Mikuru Asakura was in the corner of his brother Kai. The fight was chaotic from the start, with Sasaki being dropped in the first 20 seconds. Asakura started to land knees and kicks to a grounded Sasaki. The referee paused the fight to check out Sasaki, who had a broken jaw. Obviously due to the injury the fight was stopped. In under a minute, Kai Asakura added another W to his record, priming himself for a title fight with Horiguchi. After the fight, Horiguchi came into the ring and accepted a fight against Asakura.

Bout 13: Fabio Maldonado (25-13) vs. Jiri Prochazka (24-3-1) (220 lbs) (MMA Rules)

The main event of the evening was Fabio Maldonado facing RIZIN Light Heavyweight Champion Jiri Prochazka in a non-championship bout. Prochazka started to clip Maldonado in the second mi nute of the fight. Cornered, Maldonado was completely covering up and letting Prochazka swing away. Shortly after being dropped by punches, the referee came in and ended it, giving Prochazka the win. In a completely one-sided bout, Jiri Prochazka gave himself his second win of the year.

RIZIN’s next event will be on December 29th, collaborating with Bellator for the promotion’s first show in Japan. After that, RIZIN will hold the traditional New Year’s Eve show. More updates will come in the next couple of months for the matchups on those shows.

RIZIN 14 Preview

With their traditional New Year’s Eve event this year, RIZIN is putting a focus on the North American market. There are three main ways that they are doing this: by having lots of recent UFC fighters in action, by having a collaboration fight with Bellator Champion Darrion Caldwell, and by giving young kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa fight in an exhibition boxing match against Floyd Mayweather. The initial promotion of this event had a bump in the road, as after an initial press conference, Mayweather took to Instagram to say that he was mislead and that he has backed out of the bout. Since then things have seemingly been worked out between the boxer and the promoter Nobuyuki Sakakibara, since the fight is back on.

The official ruleset will be pure boxing, with no scorecards after the scheduled three rounds. The fight will also not affect anyone’s professional records. Nasukawa, the undefeated kickboxer, showed up in Nevada for on open workout at Mayweather’s gym earlier this month. This will be the second fight in a row for Tenshin where he is fighting a crossover bout. In September he battle RIZIN’s MMA star Kyoji Horiguchi in a kickboxing match. Nasukawa trained in Nevada leading up to this fight with boxer Jorge Linares.

There are two championship bouts on this card, with the biggest one being between Darrion Caldwell and Kyoji Horiguchi. Caldwell is a champion in Bellator, but won’t be defending his belt. Instead, he will face Horiguchi for the inaugural RIZIN Bantamweight Championship. The fight is expected to be only the start of a collaboration between the two promotions. Horiguchi has been undefeated in MMA since joining RIZIN. Putting that together with his final UFC fights, he is currently on a 10 fight win streak.

The biggest women’s fight on the card is Kanna Asakura defending her RIZIN Atomweight Championship against Ayaka Hamasaki. Hamasaki is 2-0 after making the move from Invicta to RIZIN. Asakura’s first title fight was against RENA, who she also defeated once before. Hamasaki’s last win was against Mina Kurobe, who was at the time the DEEP Jewels Atomweight Champion. The story going into that RIZIN 13 fight was it was two champions (Kurobe had her DEEP JEWELS belt and Hamasaki was a former Invicta champion) fighting, with the winner challenging Asakura.

After Norifumi “KID” Yamamoto unfortunately passed away in September, three Krazy Bee fighters were booked on this show. One of the fighters was Yusuke Yachi, who was highlighted on RIZIN’s web-docuseries “RIZIN Confessions.” On the show it was shown that Yachi is on a road to redemption. Before fighting in RIZIN he spent time in Shooto and Pancrase. From 2016 to 2018 Yachi was on a tear, getting five wins with three of them being first round stoppages. His momentum was halted at RIZIN 12 when he lost to Luis Gustavo. Part of his loss came because of his long hair getting in his eyes during the fight. On the web series he teased that he might go bald for NYE. He is set to face Johnny Case, who had a short stint in PFL after being released from the UFC.

Norifumi’s sister, Miyuu Yamamoto is also in action. The wrestler only delved into MMA in 2016, currently holding an even record of 3-3. She is set to face Mika Nagano, who is a veteran of the DEEP JEWELS promotion, making her RIZIN debut. Her son, Erson Yamamoto is scheduled to make his return to MMA after a round one loss to Manel Kape back in 2017. He looks to break even with his pro MMA record when he challenges Kazuyuki Miyata. Miyata is also coming off a long layoff, with his last fight being in 2016, defeating Andy Souwer in the first round of a Bushido Rules fight.

On the card there are three fights where RIZIN is feeding fighters to the promotions talent. These three bouts are an attempt to put RENA, Gabi Garcia and Shinju Nozawa-Auclair into the spotlight. In RENA’s case, her fight is a way to bounce back from the two losses she received from Kanna Asakura in her last two RIZIN fights. She is matched up against Samantha Jean-Francois, who has a professional record of 3-5-0. Nozawa-Auclair is clearly being built up as a star in the promotion since her mother, Naoko Nozawa is a well known Japanese comedian. In her first two RIZIN bouts she got first round Armbar victories, with one of the wins avenging her only amateur MMA loss. She fights Justyna Zofia Haba. Haba hasn’t had a professional MMA fight, and had her one amateur win back in 2014. Now longtime RIZIN fighter Gabi Garcia returns after a Road FC win back in the Spring. She fights Barbara Nepomuceno, a kickboxer making her MMA debut.

Former UFC fighter Damien Brown will be welcomed into the promotion by Daron Cruickshank. Also a former UFC competitor, Cruickshank has made himself known in RIZIN as a fighter who doesn’t rely on scorecards to win the bout. Currently on a four fight winning streak, Cruickshank has a 6-2 record in the promotion, all via stoppage. Brown’s run in UFC ended after he lost three fights in a row, exiting the promotion with a 2-4 record.

In a similar situation, former UFC Flyweight Ulka Sasaki will make his RIZIN debut against young fighter Manel Kape. Kape is currently bouncing back from two losses in a row, as he put on a dominant performance against Yusaku Nakamura at RIZIN 13. At age 25 he seems like a young prospect for the promotion. Sasaki had a 50/50 sort of run in the UFC, with his last fight being just last month against Alexandre Pantoja at Fight Night 140.

The fight between Nobumitsu Osawa and Tofik Masaev will be a battle of the newcomers. Osawa has been a fighter for the Shooto promotion for all of his career, and comes into RIZIN on a three fight win streak. Masaev is a fighter with an impressive 13-3 record, which has been collected from fights in China, Turkey and Azerbaijan, among other places.

For a couple of years now, Yuki Motoya has went back and forth between RIZIN and his main promotion DEEP. Currently on a four fight win streak, including one of them being at RIZIN 12, he will face Justin Scoggins. Scoggins is, like many people on this card, a former UFC fighter coming into the promotion. He had a three fight losing streak in the UFC, with one of those losses coming from the previously mentioned Ulka Sasaki.

Back in 2015 Jiri Prochazka joined RIZIN. Since then he has been a regular for the promotion, only losing one of his nine fights. He is currently on a six fight winning streak and is set to battle Brandon Halsey, who competed in PFL Season 1.

The prequel to the evening’s events, “RIZIN Heisei’s Last Yarennoka!,” kicks off in the late evening on the west. The headliner for that show is veteran fighters Tatsuya Kawajiri and Satoru Kitaoka. In Japan the show will be televised on Fuji TV, and in the rest of the world it can be seen via purchase on FITE TV. The 14 fight show is one that will be the main focus of the MMA world before we all say goodbye to 2018, and welcome the new year.