The end of the Kazushi Sakuraba story continues to be a sad story for one of the biggest legends in MMA history, as “The Gracie Hunter” was stopped in the first round by top Japanese star Shinya Aoki at the first of two Rizin FF debut events in Japan.
In addition to the Sakuraba-Aoki main event, the beginning of the opening round of the Rizin FF Heavyweight Grand Prix kicked off. Below are quick-match results from the event.
Main Event:
– Shinya Aoki def. Kazushi Sakuraba via TKO (punches) in R1
Heavyweight Grand Prix (Opening Round)
– Vadim Nemkov def. Goran Reljic via TKO (strikes) in R1
– Jiri Prochazka def. Satoshi Ishii via KO (punch and knee) in R1
– Teodoras Aukstuolis def. Bruno Cappelozza via KO (punches) in R1
– Muhammed Lawal def. Brett McDermott via KO (punches) in R1
– Valentin Moldovsky def. Yuta Uchida via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:20 of R1 – (tourney reserve bout)
Featured Fights:
– Hiroyuki Takaya def. Dalki Hata via unanimous decision
– Hideo Tokoro def. Kizaemon Saiga via submission (armbar) in R1
– Anatoly Tokov def. A.J. Matthews via KO (punch) in R1
– Felipe Efrain def. Yuki Motoya via KO (punches) in R1*
– Kirill Sidelnikov def. Carlos Toyota via TKO (punches) at 2:33 of R1
– Tsuyoshi Kohsaka def. James Thompson via TKO (punches) at 1:58 of R2
K-1 Rules Fights:
– Hiroya Kawabe def. Akiyo Nishiura via KO (punch) in R3
Mixed Rules Fights:
– Hinata Watanabe def. Kazuyuki Miyata via TKO (knockdowns) in R1
