MMAFighting.com
Kyoji Horiguchi took just nine seconds to stop former UFC title contender Ian McCall in the main event of RIZIN FF 10 Sunday in Fukuoka, Japan.
Horiguchi slipped a punch and blasted back with a counter left hook that introduced “Uncle Creepy” to the canvas. The referee dived in between the two fighters to stop the action as Horiguchi tried to land further shots on the ground.
In his post-fight interview, Horiguchi called for a kickboxing showdown with striking virtuosoTenshin Nasukawa, who requested that RIZIN put on a kickboxing tournament following his win in the co-main event.
With the quick KO, the American Top Team fighter is now on nine-fight winning steak.
Finishing off the striking bouts on the night, Nasukawa stopped Yusaku Nakamura with a second round TKO after a one-sided showcase, improving his kickboxing record to 30-0.
The 19-year-old sensation had the MMA veteran shooting for takedowns throughout the first round. After each big shot he landed, Nakamura would dive in on his legs, which eventually forced a warning from the referee. Tenshin underlined his dominance in the final seconds of the first with a spectacular variation of rolling thunder that sent Nakamura down.
Nakamura had to be wary of staying on his feet in the second, which only opened him up to more punishment. At the midway point, Tenshin buckled him for a fourth time with a crisp left hand, prompting the referee to wave the fight off.
Kanna Asakura followed up her super atomweight Grand Prix winning performance against previously undefeated Rena Kubota with a dominant win over Canadian, Melissa Karagianis.
Following the win, Rena confronted her foe in the ring and proposed that the two should meet for a second time. Asakura insisted that Rena does not deserve an immediate rematch given that she had not competed since suffering her first career loss. Rena earmarked RIZIN’s June event as a date for the rubber match, stating that she would “do everything in her power” to get the win back.
Asakura dominated Karagianis from start to finish with her superior wrestling. She came close to finishing the fight on a number of occasions in the second round as she attempted to finsh an armbar. Despite some gnarly contortions, Karagianis proved tough enough to see the fight through.
Yusuke Yachi solidified his status as the best lightweight in Japan with a split-decision win over UFC veteran Diego Nunes.
Nunes was visibly exhausted by the time the third round kicked off after several failed attempts to take Yachi down in the second. When he eventually did force the action to the ground during the second, he appeared to have his bell rung by two up-kicks.
The Brazilian brought a sense of urgency to the final round after being on the receiving end of the action in the first. After getting back to his feet from a Yachi takedown, Nunes burst forward in an attempt to land a flying knee. Although he landed some solid ground and pound, it was Yachi who landed the most jarring shot of the final stanza when he cracked the UFC veteran with a sharp overhand right in the closing exchanges.
UFC veteran Daron Cruickshank scored a spectacular head kick knockout in the first round of his clash with Koshi Matsumoto.
“The Detroit Superstar” marched Matsumoto down from the first bell and had success landing knees from the Thai clinch. After blasting Matsumoto with a flush knee, he caught him with a well-timed head kick as the Japenese fighter looked to distance himself from the American’s grasp.
Matsumoto crumbled to the floor when the left leg connected. Instead of following the shot up, Cruickshank stuck up his middle finger and pointed it in the direction of his fallen opponent.
Manel Kape suffered a second consecutive loss to a Japanese bantamweight when Kai Asakura edged him to a split-decision nod.
The fight started at a hellish pace. Both men found themselves on wobbly legs and were forced to defend tight chokes in the first five minutes. Asakura took the momentum in the second round, taking the outspoken Angolan fighter down and controlling him before barely missing a massive stomp and a soccer kick in the final seconds.
Kape’s cries of “Asakura is a bitch” weren’t enough to goad his opponent into opening up for a big shot in the third, but both fighters enjoyed patches of success over the final five minutes.
When the split decision was announced in Asakura’s favor, Kape remarked that the result was “f*cking bullsh*t”, siding with many who believed he did enough to win the fight.
Former Invicta atomweight champion, Ayaka Hamasaki, didn’t set the world on fire in her RIZIN debut as she was forced the distance by Josh Barnett student, Alyssa Garcia.
Hamasaki found herself staving off a rear-naked choke and an armbar attempt from the American in the final minutes of the contest. When the final bell sounded, Hamasaki had latched onto an arm of her own, but Garcia proved too tough to tap out. Although she wasn’t at her best, the Japanese submission ace did enough to get the unanimous decision nod after 15 minutes.
Check out the full results for RIZIN FF 10 here.
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