Rizin
44 concluded with a shocking upset in Sunday’s featherweight
main event in Saitama, Japan.

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Masanori
Kanehara (29-12-1, 4-1 Rizin), who has enjoyed a career
resurgence since joining the Rizin ranks in 2020, bested former
featherweight champ Kleber
Koike Erbst (31-7-1, 1 NC, 6-2, 1 NC Rizin) at his own game en
route to a lopsided unanimous decision win.

Kanehara stunned Koike with the first punch of the fight and he
continued to have success on the feet until Koike scored a takedown
and trapped him in a guillotine choke. Kanehara freed his neck and
spent the remainder of the round punching from Koike’s guard. In
the second stanza, Kanehara took Koike down and tried to finish the
Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace with an arm-triangle choke, but he was
unable to pass Koike’s half-guard.

Momentum was clearly on Kanehara’s side entering Round 3, and
despite a Koike rope grab, Kanehara took the fight to the ground
again and controlled position from the top. All three judges scored
the fight in favor of Kanehara, who may be in line to challenge the
winner of the featherweight title fight between Vugar
Karamov and Chihiro
Suzuki in November.

Speaking backstage, Kanehara credited his recent muay thai training
and the support of his teammates for preparing him for the matchup.
He further noted that he was confident that he could deal with
Koike’s ground game and so he willingly engaged with him in
grappling scrambles on the mat, for which the Saitama crowd showed
its appreciation.

In the co-main event, another former Rizin featherweight champion,
Juntaro
Ushiku (21-8, 3-2 Rizin), used his superior grappling skills to
secure a clear unanimous decision victory over heavy-handed striker
Kyohei
Hagiwara (7-8, 6-6 Rizin). The opening round was Hagiwara’s
best, but Ushiku took over with takedowns in the final 10 minutes,
and he held back control for nearly the entire duration of Round
3.

Opening up the main card, Yoshinori
Horie (13-4, 4-1 Rizin) made a successful lightweight debut and
edged out Spike
Carlyle (14-6, 1-2 Rizin) via unanimous decision. Horie’s jabs
and leg kicks allowed him to dictate the pace in Round 1, but
Carlyle scored with a six-punch flurry and a knee to Horie’s face
early in the second stanza. He was warned for punching the back of
Horie’s head during a clinch, however, and then repeated the same
foul late in Round 3. That resulted in Carlyle being given a yellow
card – a 20% point deduction on the judges’ scorecards – and sealed
his fate to a defeat.

On the preliminary card, lightweight Rukiya Anpo defeated Sho
Patrick Usami via unanimous decision in the event’s lone
kickboxing match; Yoshiki
Nakahara (18-6, 3-1 Rizin) took a unanimous decision win over
Rikuto
Shirakawa (11-8-1, 3-2 Rizin) at featherweight; Kazumasa
Majima (16-4, 2-3 Rizin) defeated the previously unbeaten
Takeji
Yokoyama (5-1, 1-1 Rizin) via unanimous decision in another
145-pound bout; flyweight Ryuya
Fukuda (21-7-1, 2-0 Rizin) defeated Erson
Yamamoto (4-6, 3-6 Rizin) via doctor stoppage at 1:37 of Round
3; Taichi
Nakajima (16-12, 1-1 Rizin) took home a dominant unanimous
decision victory over Ryo Okada
(17-6-3, 0-2 Rizin) at bantamweight; Shoma
Shibisai (10-3-1, 5-2 Rizin) overcame early struggles on the
feet and submitted fellow heavyweight Janos
Csukas (7-2, 0-2 Rizin) with a heel hook at 2:27 of Round 1;
and Ramazonbek
Temirov (15-2-1, 2-0 Rizin) kicked off the night’s action at
flyweight with a crushing KO of Takaki Soya
(12-6-1, 3-2 Rizin) at 3:15 of the opening frame.

IMAK ADMIN

By IMAK ADMIN

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