Gian Villante To Face Ben Rothwell In Heavyweight Bout on UFC 249 Card

Fighting at the 265 pound weight class for the first time since 2011, Gian Villante will face Ben Rothwell at UFC 249, on April 18th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, USA.

Broken by Mark La Monica of Newsday, it was revealed on Monday night that the matchup would be added to the undercard of the pay-per-view event.

Villante’s sole fight last year was a first-round loss to Michael Oleksiejczuk. The UFC veteran has a 7-8 record in the promotion, with his longest winning streak being two-fights long.

Rothwell recently got out of his three-fight losing streak, prevailing over Stefan Struve in December with a second-round finish.

Currently set to main event the card is Khabib Nurmagomedov defending his UFC Lightweight Championship against Tony Ferguson, a fight which has been sought after for years.

Here’s the full card for UFC 249 so far:

Bout 1: Khabib Nurmagomedov (28-0) vs. Tony Ferguson (25-3) (UFC Lightweight Championship)

Bout 2: Jacare Souza (26-8) vs. Uriah Hall (15-9) (Middleweight)

Bout 3: Jessica Andrade (20-7) vs. Rose Namajunas (8-4) (Strawweight)

Bout 4: Ben Rothwell (37-12) vs. Gian Villante (17-11) (Heavyweight)

Demetrious Johnson To Battle Adriano Moraes For ONE Flyweight Championship In April

ONE Championship announced on Monday that Demetrious Johnson would return to face the promotion’s Flyweight Champion, Adriano Moraes on their April 11th card in China.

Johnson has been on a 3-0 run since entering ONE Championship. Most recently he went to a decision victory over Danny Kingad, winning a 135 pound tournament.

Moraes is a two-time ONE Championship Flyweight Champion. He won the interim belt in 2017, prevailing over Kairat Akhmetov. He went on to stop Danny Kingad within a round to make his first defence.

Moraes dropped the belt in a split decision fight to Deje Eustaquio in 2018, although avenged his loss in early 2019, getting back his belt.

Despite being held at what is traditionally known as bantamweight (135 pounds), the belt is known as the Flyweight Championship.

The championship fight is the sole bout announced so far for ONE Championship: Reign of Dynasties.

Makhmud Muradov vs. Antonio Carlos Junior Off UFC on ESPN+ 28 Card

Main card fight between Antonio Carlos Junior and Makhmud Muradov is off of the UFC on ESPN+ 28 card which is set for March 14th.

Announced on Muradov’s Instagram and reported by Mike Bohn of MMAJunkie, it was found out on Monday that the fight would not happen.

The fight was scrapped after Carlos Junior had to pull out with an injury.

Carlos Junior was attempting to snap his two-fight losing streak, which started in 2019. He was originally meant to fight Brad Tavares on this card, but that fight also went out of the picture once Tavares faced injury.

Muradov is 2-0 in his short UFC run thus far, defeating Alessio Di Chirico and Trevor Smith in 2019. Those wins combined with previous ones makes his current winning streak 13 fights.

While the card currently does not have a main event announced for it, there is many fights booked already. Here’s the card so far, which will take place at the Nilson Nelson Gymnasium in Brasilia, Brazil:

Bout 1: Paige VanZant (8-4) vs. Amanda Ribas (8-1) (Strawweight)

Bout 2: Johnny Walker (17-4) vs. Nikita Krylov (26-7) (Light Heavyweight)

Bout 3: Elizeu Zaleski (21-6) vs. Alexey Kunchenko (20-1) (Welterweight)

Bout 4: Jussier Formiga (23-6) vs. Brandon Moreno (16-5-1) (Flyweight)

Bout 5: Demian Maia (28-9) vs. Gilbert Burns (17-3) (Welterweight)

Bout 6: Francisco Trinaldo (24-7) vs. John Makdessi (17-6) (Lightweight)

Bout 7: Mayra Bueno Silva (6-0) vs. Maryna Moroz (9-3) (Flyweight)

Bout 8: Veronica Macedo (6-3-1) vs. Bea Malecki (1-0) (Bantamweight)

Bout 9: Rani Yahya (26-10) vs. Enrique Barzola (16-5-1) (Bantamweight)

Laying Down Leather #8: ONE, New Year Dash, and More!

Good morning and welcome to another edition of Laying Down Leather, the casual blog post discussing my thoughts on events throughout the past week.

MMA

The sole MMA event I watched this weekend was ONE Championship. It was a fast and fun little card. I wasn’t a fan of how the first two fights weren’t available to watch in Canada (and the USA I think?), but oh well. I’m very happy that I get to watch on Youtube for free.

Here’s my three stars:

Rodtang Jitmuangnon

Obviously, it’s worth giving credit to Rodtang’s performance in the main event over Jonathan Haggerty. Rodtang was able to put away to his rematched foe in three rounds, not needing scorecards like their fight before. Body shots galore!

2. Stamp Fairtex

Stamp Fairtex wasn’t given the hardest opponent possible, but she did put on a phenomenal performance in the co-main slot. She continued to be a dominant and very entertaining fighter, dancing on the way to the ring. Like seriously, the dancing she did would gas some people out before the fight.

3. Raimond Magomedaliev

Getting his first win in ONE finally, Raimond Magomedaliev put on a very good performance over Joey Pierotti. Doing lots of damage in the clinch, he put an end to the fight after putting Pierotti in a guillotine choke. It was a performance that showed he deserves to be in ONE.

Fight of the Night: Adam Noi vs. Victor Pinto (Kickboxing)

The fight of the night has to go to Adam Noi and Victor Pinto. The fast-paced three-round fight seemingly never slowed down. It was a close one to score, as both fighters were having their moments. I highly recommend people find this fight and watch it.

Read the live coverage of ONE Championship: A New Tomorrow here.

Wrestling

I watched NJPW’s New Year Dash earlier this week.

Jushin “Thunder” Liger’s retirement ceremony was happy and sad. Sad because of course he’s leaving, but happy because it was a very positive moment. And honestly, this was the best way to retire. He didn’t need to retire (to our knowledge), but he chose to under his own terms. Nothing is more sad than someone being forced to retire, but we didn’t have to see that. Enjoy retirement, Liger.

I’m very invested in this KENTA versus Tetsuya Naito rivalry. Looks very exciting.

I think I’ll skip out on watching the Fantastica Mania tour sadly. I’ve been too busy with work and school, and honestly, it started without me noticing. Oh well!

Upcoming Work

Sad news, but I will not be covering UFC 246 live. However, I’ll have some content being put out leading up to the fight night. And, I’ll have a report out the next day of the whole card.

I have some fun little projects I’m working on right now that should see their debut on this site later this year. I’ll talk about it more in coming weeks.

As usual, more stuff will be put on lwos.life as well too. The lwos.life K-pop Awards are still being worked on.

Eric Spicely To Return Against Punahele Soriano on UFC on ESPN 8 Card

Punahele Soriano’s (7-0) second UFC fight will happen in March, against Eric Spicely (12-5) on the UFC on ESPN 8 card.

First reported by Farah Hannoun of MMAJunkie, it was reported on Sunday morning that the matchup was made.

Soriano made an explosive debut in the UFC at UFC 245 in December, stopping Oskar Piechota within a round. The fight extended his professional MMA record to an undefeated 7-0.

The Hawaiian fighter earned his UFC contract via TV series Dana White’s Contender Series, winning on the first episode of the third season.

Yorgan de Casto, who won on the same Dana White’s Contender Series episode of Soriano is fighting on the card as well, facing Greg Hardy.

Spicely’s last fight was a loss to Deron Winn via decision in June. The fight was his return fight to the UFC, having a two-fight stint in CES during 2019. Previously, Spicely had a 2-4 record in the UFC.

UFC on ESPN 8 is set to take place at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, USA, on March 28th, with Francis Ngannou and Jairzinho Rozenstruick headlining the card.

Here’s how the full card looks so far:

Bout 1: Francis Ngannou (14-3) vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruick (10-0) (Heavyweight)

Bout 2: Raphael Assuncao (27-7) vs. Cody Garbrandt (11-3) (Bantamweight)

Bout 3: Greg Hardy (5-2) vs. Yorgan De Castro (6-0) (Heavyweight)

Bout 4: Khalil Rountree (8-4) vs. Sam Alvey (33-13) (Light Heavyweight)

Bout 5: Tecia Torres (10-5) vs. Mizuki (14-5) (Strawweight)

Bout 6: Aspen Ladd (9-1) vs. Julianna Pena (9-3) (Bantamweight)

Bout 7: Carlos Felipe (8-0) vs. Jeff Hughes (10-3) (Heavyweight)

Bout 8: Davey Grant (9-4) vs. Louis Smolka (16-6) (Bantamweight)

Bout 9: Randy Costa (5-1) vs. Martin Day (9-3) (Bantamweight)

Bout 10: Punahele Soriano (7-0) vs. Eric Spicely (12-5) (Middleweight)

Mark Madsen To Face Austin Hubbard At UFC 248

News broke Saturday that undefeated fighter Mark Madsen (9-0) will return to the UFC in March, facing Austin Hubbard (11-3) on the UFC 248 card.

First reported by Farah Hannoun of MMAJunkie, the bout is scheduled to be on the preliminary portion of the card and set at lightweight.

Madsen made his UFC debut in September, stopping Danilo Belluardo in just over a minute with strikes, co-main eventing the card.

Hubbard has a 1-1 record in the UFC, recently getting his first promotional win over Kyle Prepolec via unanimous decision.

Both fighters have competed in regional promotion LFA before, never losing under that banner.

From Denmark, Madsen has fought for recognized promotion Cage Warriors when they have toured to the country. He went 3-0 in 2019.

Schedule to headline UFC 248 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA is Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Zhang will be putting her UFC Strawweight Championship on the line, which was earned in August with a TKO victory over Jessica Andrade.

Here’s the full card for UFC 248 so far:

Bout 1: Weili Zhang (20-1) vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk (16-3) (UFC Strawweight Championship)

Bout 2: Robert Whittaker (20-5) vs. Jared Cannonier (13-4) (Middleweight)

Bout 3: Jeremy Stephens (28-17) vs. Calvin Kattar (20-4) (Featherweight)

Bout 4: Beneil Dariush (17-4-1) vs. Drakkar Klose (11-1-1) (Lightweight)

Bout 5: Neil Magny (21-7) vs. Jingliang Li (17-5) (Welterweight)

Bout 6: Emily Whitmire (4-3) vs. Polyana Viana (10-4) (Strawweight)

Bout 7: Guido Cannetti (8-4) vs. Danaa Batgerel (6-2) (Bantamweight)

Bout 8: Jose Alberto Quinones (8-3) vs. Sean O’Malley (10-0) (Bantamweight)

Bout 9: Alex Oliveira (20-8-1) vs. Max Griffin (15-7) (Welterweight)

Bout 10: Rodolfo Vieira (6-0) vs. Saparbeg Safarov (9-2) (Middleweight)

Bout 11: Mark Madsen (9-0) vs. Austin Hubbard (11-3) (Lightweight)

Rodtang Jitmuangnon Retains Belt, Stopping Jonathan Haggerty In The Third Round

Rodtang Jitmuangnon retained his ONE Flyweight Muay Thai Championship in a rematch against Jonathan Haggerty on Friday, stopping him within three rounds at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand.

Jitmuangnon finished the fight after scoring three knockdowns in the third round. He scored four knockdowns in total, with his first one coming in the first round. Most damage was done with body punches.

The fight main evented ONE Championship’s first card of 2020: “ONE Championship: A New Tomorrow.”

The fight was a rematch from August, where Jitmuangnon and Haggerty fought for five rounds, with Haggerty dropping his belt to Jitmuangnon via decision.

The win was the second defence of the Flyweight Muay Thai belt for Jitmuangnon. His first defence came in October, getting a split decision victory over Walter Goncalves.

In the co-main event of the evening, Thailand’s Stamp Fairtex defeated Puja Tomar in a mixed-martial-arts bout, stopping her with grounded strikes in just under one round.

ONE’s next event will be on Friday, January 31st, returning to the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines. Headlining the card will be Joshua Pacio defending his 125-pound belt against Alex Silva.

A full report of ONE Championship: A New Tomorrow can be seen here.

ONE Championship: A New Tomorrow Live Coverage

Kicking off the 2020 schedule for major MMA events, ONE Championship presents “A New Tomorrow” on Friday, live from the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand. Main eventing the card is ONE Muay Thai Flyweight Champion Rodtang Jitmuangnon attempting to defend his belt against Jonathan Haggerty in a rematch.

In their first Rodtang prevailed via unanimous decision after five rounds of battle. Turning the page to the new year, Haggerty will attempt to start a new chapter of his career, avenging his sole loss within ONE Championship.

In the co-main event slot of the show, Stamp Fairtex returns to face Puja Tomar. In total, the card consists of 12 fights, including MMA, kickboxing and Muay Thai. Follow along with the blog throughout the evening of competition.

Live coverage begins at 5:30AM EST with the seven-fight undercard.

Quick Results:

Bout 1: Roel Rosuaro def. Yohan Mulia Legowo via Unanimous Decision

Bout 2: Ayaka Miura def. Maira Mazar via Submission, Americana (RD 2, 3:01)

Bout 3: Mehdi Zatout def. Han Zi Hao via Criteria Split Decision (Muay Thai Rules)

Bout 4: Shinechagtga Zoltsetseg def. Ma Jia Wen via KO (RD 1, 0:55)

Bout 5: Adam Noi def. Victor Pino via Unanimous Decision (Kickboxing Rules)

Bout 6: Raimond Magomedaliev def. Joey Pierotti via Submission, Guillotine (RD 1, 3:50)

Bout 7: Muangthai PK.Saenchaimuaythaigym def. Brice Delval via Split Decision (Muay Thai Rules)

Bout 8: Liam Harrison def. Mohammed Bin Mahmoud via KO, Punches (RD 1, 2:03) (Muay Thai Rules)

Bout 9: Thanh Le def. Ryogo Takahashi via TKO, Punches (RD 1, 2:51)

Bout 10: Sangmanee Sathian Muaythai def. Kenta Yamada via Unanimous Decision (Muay Thai Rules)

Bout 11: Stamp Fairtex def. Puja Tomar via TKO, Elbows (RD 1, 4:27)

Bout 12: Rodtang Jitmuangnon def. Jonathan Haggerty via TKO, Three Knockdown Rule (RD 3, 2:39) (ONE Flyweight Muay Thai Championship)

Live Coverage

Lead Card

The show started with two shows not shown on the feed. It saw Roel Rosuaro defeat Yoha Mulia Legowo, and Ayaka Miura stopped Maira Mazar in the second round. This was the first card that ONE tested out that split the show into three parts. It started with the lead card, then went on to the prime card, then finished with the main card. The goal of the separation is to make the show more action-packed.

Bout 3: Han Zi Hao vs. Mehdi Zatout (Muay Thai Rules) (145 lbs)

The English broadcast kicked off with a Muay Thai fight between Han Zi Hao and Mehdi Zatout. Like many Muay Thai fights in ONE, this was done with MMA gloves. This show was held in a ring with five ropes. Hao was the more active fighter early in the first round. They both landed good punches in the final minute of the round. Hao got in another solid two-punch combo as the round ended.

Zatout caught a kick early in the second round, dumping Hao to the ground. Hao caught a kick moments later, but couldn’t do anything with the position. Hao continued to be pushing forward more than his opponent. Zatout seemed to get annoyed with his nose in this round. Hao was kicked in the groin in the final minute of the round, causing a short break. Zatout landed a combination of strikes while holding Zao’s leg in the final minute. In a clinch, Zatout swept Hao. He got dumped again before the round ended.

Zatout started the final round with another clinch, getting split by the referee. A cut opened under Zatout’s left eye during this round. Hao landed some punches while Zatout had a hold of his right leg. While Hao was mostly coming in and not facing consequences, Zatout countered with an explosive right in the final minute of the fight. Zatout threw Hao to the ground again, encouraging the crowd while his opponent stood up. The fight went the distance, with Mehdi Zatout getting the criteria split decision victory.

Bout 4: Ma Jia Wen (6-2) vs. Shinechagtga Zoltsetseg (5-2) (155 lbs)

The next fight was an MMA bout between Ma Jia Wen and Shinechagtga Zoltsetseg. This was finally Zoltsetseg’s ONE Championship debut after fighting five times in the promotion’s “Warrior Series.” Heading into this fight, Wen was on a four-fight winning streak. Zoltsetseg was coming forward with strikes early on. He landed a right hook in under a minute which dropped Wen and ended the fight. Coming back into consciousness, Wen tried to put referee Olivier Coste in a heel hook, which took others to separate. Ending a long winning streak, Shinechagtga Zoltsetseg finally had his dominant debut in ONE.

Bout 5: Victor Pinto vs. Adam Noi (Kickboxing Rules) (145 lbs)

The sole kickboxing fight of the evening was next, with Victor Pinto facing Adam Noi. Unlike the Muay Thai fights, the kickboxing fight was done with usual boxing gloves. Pinto was advancing throughout the round. Pinto had Noi against the ropes landing punches, but was hit with a head kick which dropped him. It was scored as a knockdown, with Noi suddenly becoming the fighter who pushed the pace of the fight. He landed many leg kicks.

They picked up right where they left off when the second round started, with the fighters taking turns throwing combinations. The pace was like double the speed of the round before. It felt like every time Pinto put Noi against the ropes he would end up being the one getting hit. As the pace slowed down in the round, Pinto was the one scoring with punches.

Just like the rounds before, they battled up against the ropes more. Most of the time, Noi was the one up against the ropes. Noi was stringing together punches throughout this round. After working an unbelievable pace for nine minutes, the fight went to the judges. With a unanimous decision victory, Adam Noi walked away with the victory.

Bout 6: Raimond Magomedaliev (5-1) vs. Joey Pierotti (12-1) (185 lbs)

Switching back to MMA, Raimond Madomedaliev attempted to bounce back from his ONE Championship loss, facing Joey Pierotti. The fight was the debut in the promotion for Pierotti. Pierotti caught a leg kick right off the bat and went into a standing clinch. Magomedaliev landed elbows in the clinch. They split up, although Pierotti came back in for another clinch. Magomedaliev was hurting Pierotti with elbows, dropping him at one point. Pierotti was cut open, causing the referee to pause the fight to get him checked by a doctor. They resumed after a minute or so of a pause. Magomedaliev landed a clean head kick to resume action., Pierotti went into another clinch where Magomedaliev was able to go back to work with strikes. He landed some knees to the head. Another pause came as Pierotti was bleeding quite a bit. They resumed yet again. Pierotti shot for a takedown, where Magomedaliev put in a standing guillotine. Pierotti tapped out to the guillotine in quick time. Getting his first win in ONE Championship, Raimond Magomedaliev put on nothing short of a dominant performance over Joey Pierotti.

Bout 7: Brice Delval vs. Muangthai PK.Saenchaimuaythaigym (Muay Thai Rules) (145 lbs)

Finishing off the preliminary card was Brice Delval and Muangthai PK.Saenchaimuaythaigym facing off in a Muay Thai contest. Delval dropped Muangthai with a right straight in the first few seconds of the fight. It was not ruled a knockdown. Delval was the much more active fighter at the start. Muangthai heated up a little at the end, throwing more. Muangthai threw a punch or two after the bell, which Delval wasn’t fond of.

Delval scored a front kick early in the second round which pushed Muangthai back. Delval was backing up, avoiding a lot of strikes. Muangthai was finding periodic success with punches, chasing down Delval. Delval caught many kicks throughout the round. He was on his backfoot for the whole round, not throwing much in the second half of the round.

The referee warned Delval in the final round for being too passive. He was also warned in the second round. After the warning, Delval started to come forward more. The fight went it’s three scheduled rounds, heading to the scorecards. When heading to the scorecards, we had a split decision, with Muangthai PK.Saenchaimuaythaigymwalking away with the victory.

Bout 8: Liam Harrison vs. Mohammed Bin Mahmoud (Muay Thai Rules) (145 lbs)

Kicking off the main card was Liam Harrison and Mohammed Bin Mahmoud battling in a Muay Thai fight. Mahmoud landed a good head kick in the second minute of the fight. The first minute was slow-paced, with the referee encourage action a few times. Harrison landed a left hook halfway through the round which dropped Mahmoud. Harrison took him down again with punches, and taken out cold in the third time. Mahmoud was seemingly unaware of where he was the third time around. Showcasing explosive fists, Liam Harrison got a first round win.

Bout 9: Thanh Le (10-2) vs. Ryogo Takahashi (13-3) (155 lbs)

The next fight saw Krazy Bee gym fighter and Shooto veteran Ryogo Takahashi face Thanh Le, who is undefeated in ONE. Takahashi won his first ONE fight in May, stopping Keanu Subba with punches in under two minutes. Le threw a kick to the body early on which Takahashi caught. Both fighters took a while to get going in this fight. Takahashi slipped halfway through the round, getting dropped by a right hook while getting up. Le landed more punches to Takahashi flooring him again, ending the fight. Ending the extensive winning streak of Ryogo Takahashi, Thanh Le advanced to 2-0 in ONE.

Bout 10: Sangmanee Sathian Muaythai vs. Kenta Yamada (Muay Thai Rules) (145 lbs)

Switching back to Muay Thai, Sangmanee Sathian Muaythai fought Kenta Yamada. Sangmanee was throwing good left leg kicks early on. Yamada caught a few kicks, never really getting hit hard by any. Halfway through the round, Sangmanee threw down Yamada in a clinch. He continued with the kicks, really starting to rock Yamada with some. Apart from a few spiking elbows in the clinch, Yamada just took damage in this round.

Sangmanee continued with the strong kicks throughout the second round. A pause came as Yamada got a cut around his left eye. They continued shortly after. The pause didn’t change Sangmanee’s work rate, keeping with the kicks. Yamada charged forward with punches in the final seconds of the round, possibly in his best offence of the whole fight up until this point.

The third round was similar to the two before, as in Sangmanee found a home for kicks to the body. Yamada kept eating them, showcasing toughness more than anything else. Yamada survived for all three rounds, bringing the fight to a decision. Getting a unanimous decision win, Sangmanee Sathian Muaythai put on a great showcase of his kicks on this show.

Bout 11: Stamp Fairtex (3-0) vs. Puja Tomar (4-3) (115 lbs)

In the final MMA fight of the evening, undefeated Stamp Fairtex fought Puja Tomar. As usual, Fairtex had lots of dancing in her walkout. Fairtex was landing leg kicks early. Tomar caught a kick and got a takedown from it, although Stamp got up quickly. They went back to the ground moments later, with Stamp on Tomar’s back trying for a rear-naked choke. She let go of trying for the choke, and took full mount as Tomar flipped over. Tomar shifted around and tried to set up for something with Stamp’s legs. Stamp avoided that, going back into top position and landing some strikes. Stamp got on Tomar’s back again after Tomar grabbed for a leg. Stamp scored unanswered hammerfist strikes and punches from the top position. After starting to incorporate elbows into the attack, the referee stepped in to end the fight. Extending her MMA record to four-straight wins, Stamp Fairtex put on a brief and damaging performance against Puja Tomar.

Bout 12: Rodtang Jitmuangnon vs. Jonathan Haggerty (ONE Flyweight Muay Thai Championship) (135 lbs)

In the main event of the evening, Rodtang Jitmuangnon put his ONE Flyweight Muay Thai Championship on the line against Jonathan Haggerty in a rematch. The two fighters traded leg kicks to start the fight. Rodtang landed a good body punch. He landed a two-punch body combination a minute into the fight which dropped Haggerty. When they resumed, Rodtang was targeting the body even more.

Rodtang continued to target the body in the second round. Halfway through the round, Rodtang dumped Haggerty to the ground. Haggerty was landing good teep kicks every once in a while.

Rodtang threw Haggerty to the ground in a clinch to open the third round. Haggerty was backing up, but also landing strikes often. A timeout was called halfway through the round as Haggerty was hit in the eye. When they resumed, Rodtang smothered Haggerty. A combination of shots to the body dropped Haggerty for the second time in the fight. He got a cut around his right ear as well. After the knockdown, Haggerty got swept to the ground. In the third minute of the fight, Haggerty got dropped again. Rodtang landed another punch to the body to Haggerty, who was up against the ropes. Haggerty hit the ground for the third time in the fight, calling an end to the competition. After four knockdowns, Rodtang Jitmuangnon retained his ONE Flyweight Muay Thai Championship against Jonathan Haggerty, not needing scorecards this time.

Laying Down Leather #7: New Year’s Eve, NJPW and More!

Happy new year, and welcome to another episode of Laying Down Leather! It has returned, and my goal is to maintain it on the site for this whole year. I hope everyone has a good 2020, as I plan to have a good one as well.

Just like every year this time around, a few big events happened, and they were all in Japan. Let’s talk about them, shall we?

MMA

As many of you might know, RIZIN 20 took place on New Year’s Eve. I have a LOT of notes on the event. If you want to skip past it, click here.

Overall, RIZIN 20 was an amazing event. Personally, I’d say it was the best MMA event I watched in 2019. Of course nobody likes the intermissions, but they weren’t super bad. If the intermission issue never goes away, oh well.

The event saw the stock of Tofiq Musayev rise exponentially, defeaing Patricky Pitbull. He’s been fun to watch for the past year, and it’s nice that he’s getting the recognition.

While Miyuu Yamamoto’s performance over AMP The Rocket was good, please stop giving Rocket all of these close matchups. She’s a clear prospect but taking lots of losses early in her career.

Source say Johnny Case has went to PFL, but if he didn’t, I’d love to see him back. Maybe he can pull a Satoshi Ishii and do both in one year. Not that Ishii’s 4-3 2019 run was good, though.

Whether you’re a fan or not of Tenshin Nasukawa after the tabloids had their fun with him this winter, you have to admit that he is an absolute beast. I did not expect him to crush Rui Ebata in such a damaging fashion.

I don’t have a ton more to say about the show, but if you could only watch some fights, I’d recommend:

Jake Heun vs. Satoshi Ishii
Hiromasa Ogikubo vs. Shintaro Ishiwatari
RENA vs. Lindsey VanZandt
Tofiq Musayev vs. Patricky Pitbull
Seo Hee Ham vs. Ayaka Hamasaki

I didn’t catch the PFL finale, but I saw the results…

Nice to see Ray Cooper III win the grand finals after her came up short last year.

I’m interested to see Ali Isaev as he continues to be undefeated. Same with Kayla Harrison.

Wrestling

I watched the two nights of Wrestle Kingdom at the Tokyo Dome this week as well. Both shows had some amazing wrestling on it. It was not the best Wrestle Kingdom I’ve seen, but it sure did not disappoint.

NJPW has done only one-night of Wrestle Kingdom in the past, changing that this year to two nights. Quite honestly, I’d prefer if they went back to the two-night format. While the first night had some great matches, the bottom half of the card felt lame. Not so much the case with the second night.

Uhh, spoilers:

Kenta spoiling the part that Tetsuya Naito almost finally got was amazing. Just further shows how NJPW is great at their long-term booking.

Obviously, very saw to see Jushin Thunder Liger retire. But, the brightside of it was it was on his terms, and not decided by fate. I was lucky to witness him live a couple of times.

TJPW’s 1/4 show was a fun viewing. If you enjoy comedy wrestling, you’ll absolutely love Shoko Nakajima versus Hyper Misao. The post-match promo between Maki Itoh and Thunder Rosa was also funny.

Just an update about content on the site, while I’ll do these weekly little “blog”-ish posts, I’ll try to also get more professionally shaped columns out too. Stay tuned!

Upcoming work:

On lwos.life, I’ll be doing my annual K-pop awards hopefully later this week. I really enjoy writing it, and hopefully you’ll enjoy reading it (if you’re interested of course).

The hope is to cover the ONE Championship event on this site on Friday. I’ll likely do it live, but hey, no promises.

Take care, and see you around!

Johnny Case Signs New Deal With PFL

After a four-fight run in RIZIN, Johnny Case (27-7-1) will return to the Professional Fighters League for their 2020 season.

First reported by Ariel Helwani of ESPN, news broke on Tuesday that Case would join the lightweight division of the PFL for it’s 2020 season.

Case fought once in PFL back in 2018, going to a two-minute draw against Natan Schulte in the quarter-finals. He was meant to face Jason High in the regular season, however, did not fight as High missed the lightweight limit by four pounds.

The most recent fight for Case was at RIZIN 20 on New Year’s Eve, losing to Tofiq Musayev (18-3) in the semi-finals of the RIZIN Lightweight Grand Prix, being stopped with punches in the first round.

Case debuted in RIZIN on New Year’s Eve 2018, defeating Yusuke Yachi due to a cut. He went on to stop Satoru Kitaoka and Roberto Satoshi de Souza in 2019. He finished his RIZIN run with a 3-1 record.

Earlier in his career, Case also competed in the UFC. He finished his major-league run with a 4-2 record, with his two losses being the final two fights of the stint.

Natan Schulte won the lightweight playoffs for the second time on New Year’s Eve, defeating Loik Radzhabov via decision.