Grappling specialist Alan
Yamaniha outworked 23-year veteran Hideo Tokoro
to take a unanimous decision victory in Sunday’s bantamweight main
event at Rizin
Fighting Federation Landmark Vol. 6 in Nagoya, Aichi,
Japan.

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Yamaniha (20-10-4, 4-2 Rizin) took advantage of an early mistake
from Tokoro (35-33-1, 3-5 Rizin), who slipped while attempting a
stomp and gave up his back in the process. Yamaniha maintained back
control for the rest of the round, and then continued his dominance
in Round 2 by hurting Tokoro with a punching flurry and following
up with elbows to Tokoro’s face after taking him down.

Tokoro’s best success came during the final five minutes. While
working from Yamaniha’s guard, Tokoro used body punches to set up a
tight shoulder choke that had Yamaniha in some trouble. Yamaniha
ultimately escaped, however, and he took Tokoro’s back again during
the final 90 seconds of the fight.

All three judges scored the bout in favor of Yamaniha, who has won
back-to-back fights for Rizin and joins a growing list of
bantamweight title contenders.

In the co-main event, contested at 139 pounds, Shoko Sato
(35-15-2, 1-0 Rizin) made the most of his Rizin debut by defeating
Shinobu
Ota (4-3, 4-3 Rizin) via split decision in a bout that did not
appear to be as close as the scorecards suggested.

Sato held a clear advantage in striking whenever he was able to
keep his distance from Ota, who tied him up in clinches at every
opportunity. Ota’s takedowns did not lead to anything on the ground
and Sato continued to pick him apart with jabs and right hooks. He
stunned Ota with a head kick in Round 3, then countered a takedown
with a tight guillotine choke, and appeared poised to take a
decisive win on the scorecards.

One judge disagreed and favored Ota’s clinch work, but the
remaining two both sided with Sato, who has won three of his past
four bouts.

Earlier in the night, Joji Goto
(15-6, 2-0 Rizin) made history by scoring his second victory in
a row via submission due to a twister, as he forced Junya
Hibino (6-3, 1-1 Rizin) to tap out to the painful hold at 2:00
of Round 2.

Goto, who won his Rizin debut against Trent
Girdham in June with the same modified twister that he utilized
on Sunday, trapped Hibino during a scramble on the mat. Hibino
briefly held out as Goto cranked on his neck before reluctantly
tapping. Prior to this year, Goto had never won a fight via
twister, but he has given future opponents something to be wary of
and is 6-2 during his past eight fights.

In other MMA action on the main card, heavyweight prospect Tsuyoshi
Kamiyama (8-2, 8-2 Rizin) stopped short-notice opponent
Dong
Hwan Lim (4-7, 0-1 Rizin) with punches at 2:10 of Round 3;
Yuki
Ito (15-5, 5-1 Rizin) edged out Road to UFC veteran Thanongsaklek
Chuwattana (9-6, 1-3 Rizin) – better known as “Topnoi Kiwram” –
via split decision at flyweight; Yusaku
Nakamura (18-10-1, 3-4 Rizin) won a narrow split decision over
Hiroya
Kondo (8-12-1, 0-2 Rizin) in a 128-pound catchweight bout;
middleweight Igor Tanabe
(4-0, 2-0 Rizin) stayed unbeaten by tapping out Koji
Shikuwa (5-10, 0-1 Rizin) with a triangle choke at 3:40 of
Round 1; and Machi
Fukuda (4-0, 1-0 Rizin) did just enough to win a split decision
against Shooto champ Ayaka
Watanabe (3-2, 0-1 Rizin) in women’s strawweight action.

Grachan champion Hidetaka
Arato (10-0, 1-0 Rizin) rallied back after a shaky first round
and stopped fellow heavyweight Satoshi
Kamiyama (0-3, 0-3 Rizin) with standing punches at 4:49 of
Round 2; UFC veteran Rogerio
Bontorin (17-5, 2 NC, 1-1 Rizin) won a unanimous decision
against Yutaro
Muramoto (11-8-2, 2-3 Rizin) at flyweight; Viktor
Kolesnik (25-4-1, 2-0 Rizin) extended his winning streak to
seven by defeating featherweight Ryo Takagi
(6-2, 0-1 Rizin) via unanimous decision; and lightweight Yusaku
Inoue (11-4-1, 1-0 Rizin) finished Kohei
Tokeshi (7-11, 1-3 Rizin) with a flying knee and punches at
1:11 of Round 1.

Rounding out the card, Genji Umeno defeated Yuto Saito via majority
decision in a bantamweight kickboxing match; Genki Takeno defeated
Ryota Naito via unanimous decision in flyweight kickboxing action;
Shogo
Oota (3-2, 1-0 Rizin) submitted Ginji Hara
(4-2, 0-1 Rizin) with an armbar at 1:52 of Round 1 during their
150-pound catchweight MMA bout; and Ryuki
Kirishima (4-1, 1-0 Rizin) opened the event with a two-round
unanimous decision victory over Masanari
Yamada (2-2, 0-1 Rizin) in a bantamweight MMA contest.

IMAK ADMIN

By IMAK ADMIN

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