Rizin Fighting Federation bantamweight champion Naoki Inoue
retained his title with a hard-fought victory against a familiar
foe tonight in the main event of Rizin
50 in Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan. Inoue weathered a shaky final
round and earned a split-decision win against challenger Yuki Motoya
in a rematch from December 2020.

Inoue (19-4, 9-2 Rizin) needed only three minutes to submit Motoya
(37-12, 1 NC; 12-8, 1 NC Rizin) when the pair first faced off at
Rizin 26, but he had a much tougher fight on his hands against the
veteran on Sunday. The first round was a good one for Inoue, who
established his jab right away and used it to set up straight right
hands that stifled Motoya’s movement and offense. Motoya took Inoue
down with just over a minute remaining and he held the champion in
a guillotine choke, which Inoue worked his way out of.

The second round was largely controlled on the feet by Inoue, whose
jabs once again posed problems for his veteran opponent. Motoya did
land one nice combination, but his attempts to get the fight to the
ground were unsuccessful and Inoue pinned him in a corner. Motoya
took Inoue down and kept him on the mat in the final round, which
allowed him to rack up a considerable amount of control time as he
hunted for a rear-naked choke and an arm-triangle choke against the
ropes. Inoue defended and Motoya closed out the fight with punches
from the top.

Motoya’s strong finish was enough to earn him the nod from one of
the three judges, but the remaining two both sided with Inoue for a
split-decision win and successful title defense. Inoue has won
three straight bouts since a decision loss almost two years
ago.

In the co-main event, which was also a very close fight, Karshyga
Dautbek (18-3, 4-1 Rizin) put himself on a short list of
featherweight title contenders by earning a split-decision win
against former Rizin champion Chihiro
Suzuki (13-5, 1 NC; 8-3, 1 NC Rizin).

Much like Motoya did in the main event, Suzuki came on strong in
the final five minutes of the co-feature only to fall just short on
the judges’ scorecards. It was all action right from the opening
bell, and both men landed power punches while Dautbek also targeted
the inside of Suzuki’s left leg with kicks to slow him down. Suzuki
responded with leg kicks of his own, as well as a hard one-two,
before being slammed down to the ground.

Dautbek staggered Suzuki twice with left hooks in the second round,
but his failure to follow up allowed Suzuki to recover and Suzuki
cut Dautbek above his right eye with jabs. Dautbek was very
bothered by the blood dripping into his eye, and that seemed to
distract him for the rest of the round as Suzuki later hurt him
with a head kick. While Dautbek had early success with punches in
the final frame, Suzuki finished strong with two more head kicks
and a nice left hook. It seemed that Suzuki may have done enough to
sway the fight in his direction, but two of the three judges
favored Dautbek’s earlier damage.

Rizin newcomer Shunta
Nomura (9-2, 1-0 Rizin) is expected to receive a lightweight
title shot following his victory over former championship
challenger Luiz
Gustavo (14-4, 6-4 Rizin) in their featured clash. Gustavo took
the fight to the mat by pulling guard with a guillotine choke
following an early exchange of punches, but he was unable to secure
a submission and Nomura punished him with two liver kicks when the
fighters returned to their feet.

Nomura took Gustavo down in the second stanza and worked from his
half guard before standing up and landing a soccer kick to
Gustavo’s face. He dropped back down into side control and kneed
Gustavo’s body during the second half of the round. The final round
began with a clash of heads, which cut both men above their right
eyes. Gustavo’s cut was on his forehead above the eyebrow, and
significantly more severe, and the fight was paused twice before
being waved off at the 2:27 mark of Round 3.

As the damage to both men had been caused by an accident, the
judges scored the fight up to the point of the stoppage and awarded
a technical unanimous decision to Deep champion Nomura, who has won
four straight fights.

Opening up the main card, heavyweight prospect King
Edokpolo (3-0, 2-0 Rizin) overcame what was easily his toughest
test to date and earned a second-round TKO victory over former Deep
titleholder Ryo Sakai
(14-13, 0-1 Rizin).

Edokpolo used his tremendous reach advantage well in the opening
minutes, but ill-advised flying knee attempts closed the distance
and allowed Sakai to clinch and take him down into side control.
Sakai landed elbows and knees on the ground, and he continued his
dominance on the mat in the second round after getting another
takedown. Just as Sakai appeared to be about to submit Edokpolo
with a north-south choke, Edokpolo exploded out from the bottom and
swept into mount, where he rained down punches and the fight was
very quickly stopped at the 2:32 mark of Round 2.

Earlier on the card, Kyohei
Hagiwara (8-10, 7-8 Rizin) made a triumphant return and
dispatched Toby Misech
(12-12, 0-1 Rizin) via TKO just 26 seconds into their featured
featherweight fight; undefeated 24-year-old featherweight Shuya
Kimura (5-0, 1-0 Rizin) continued his streak of first-round
knockouts by finishing Takeji
Yokoyama (6-2, 1-2 Rizin) with a massive right hook and
follow-up punch in just 54 seconds; Yuki Ito
(18-5, 8-1 Rizin) and Tony
Laramie (10-3, 1-1 Rizin) engaged in a thrilling striking
battle at 130 pounds that ended in a well-deserved unanimous
decision win for Ito; battle-tested veteran Yoshiro
Maeda (40-19-3, 2-0 Rizin) spoiled the pro debut of teen
prospect Sanou
Yokouchi (0-1, 0-1 Rizin) by forcing Yokouchi to tap out to a
rear-naked choke at the 2:55 mark of Round 3 in another 130-pound
clash; and Takeshi
Izumi (6-3, 1-1 Rizin) won via unanimous decision against
Spike
Carlyle (15-7, 2-3 Rizin) thanks to severe scoring penalties
that Carlyle incurred due to missing the lightweight limit by 4.4
pounds.

Former two-time Deep Jewels interim strawweight title challenger
Machi
Fukuda (7-2, 2-0 Rizin) notched her second Rizin victory by
mauling Shooto Infinity League winner Seo Young Park
(5-5, 1 NC; 0-1 Rizin) on the mat for a TKO stoppage at the 4:04
mark of Round 2; Deep strawweight champion Haruo Ochi
(27-11-2, 1 NC; 3-0, 1 NC Rizin) rallied to submit Nobuyoshi
Nakatsukasa (11-6, 1-2 Rizin) with a guillotine choke 1:23 into
the third round of their 117-pound catchweight bout; Mamoru Uoi
(26-15-4, 3-4 Rizin) dug deep to win a narrow split decision
against Koki Akada
(0-2, 0-2 Rizin) at bantamweight; and flyweight Hiroki
Takaoka (11-9-6, 1-0 Rizin) submitted Seiya
Ameyama (4-3, 0-1 Rizin) with a rear-naked choke at the 3:04
mark of Round 2.

In kickboxing matches on the early preliminary card, Ryoya Inai
stopped Rinto Kako with punches at the 2:57 mark of Round 1 in
149-pound action; Ryuki Yoshioka took a split-decision verdict over
Daiki Kirizume at 140 pounds; Shoji Otani knocked out Yamato
Ashikaga at the 3:00 mark of the opening round at 139 pounds; and
Ryuki won his 121-pound bout against Toki Kagawa via unanimous
decision.

IMAK ADMIN

By IMAK ADMIN

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