Competing in front of 48,111 fans inside a packed Saitama Super
Arena, Ren
Hiramoto scored the biggest victory of his young MMA career in
devastating fashion Saturday at Rizin Fighting Federation: Super
Rizin 3 in Saitama, Japan. Hiramoto knocked out heated rival
Mikuru
Asakura in the featherweight main event to win the Rizin FF
‘Last Man Standing’ title. Leading in to tonight’s headliner, both Hiramoto (4-3, 4-3 Rizin)
and Asakura (17-5, 1 NC; 11-4 Rizin) had pledged to retire if they
were not victorious. Hiramoto was viewed by many as an underdog due
to his comparable lack of experience, but he looked like a seasoned
veteran tonight and needed just 2:18 to dispatch of Asakura.

Early on, Asakura landed two leg kicks and Hiramoto responded with
a powerful one of his own. A large welt immediately formed on the
side of Asakura’s right knee and Hiramoto landed another hard kick
as the fighters circled one another. Suddenly, Hiramoto sensed an
opening and he lunged forward with a combination of punches that
rocked Asakura and sent him stumbling backward. Hiramoto dropped
Asakura with a left hook to the temple and then finished him with
some brutal punches on the ground for an emphatic knockout win.

After beginning his pro MMA career with back-to-back defeats,
Hiramoto has won four of five fights since then and tonight’s
triumph against former Rizin title challenger Asakura was by far
his biggest. The next Rizin featherweight title shot is expected to
go to Kleber
Koike Erbst, but current champion Chihiro
Suzuki, who defeated Hiramoto in March 2022, got into a heated
exchange with Hiramoto during the latter’s post-fight
celebration.

The co-main event at Super Rizin 3 featured a three-round boxing
match between the legendary Manny
Pacquiao and Rukiya
Anpo, which was contested at 152 pounds. Any fears that this
would be a light sparring session were quickly erased when Anpo
cracked Pacquiao with multiple overhand rights in the first round.
While there were no judges for the contest, which could only end
via knockout or a time-limit draw, Anpo was definitely the more
effective striker during the first three minutes.

That continued in the second stanza, and Anpo once again landed
some nice overhand rights as well as combinations to the body.
Pacquiao was briefly hurt twice by Anpo’s punches in the final
round, but he rallied late in the fight and stunned Anpo with an
uppercut. The fighters continued to trade hard punches until the
final bell. Per the rules of the fight, the bout was declared a
draw, but Anpo’s stock rose significantly with his performance.

In another bout involving featherweight contenders, Yuta Kubo
(5-1, 5-1 Rizin) secured his fifth straight victory with a
second-round TKO stoppage of former Rizin champion Yutaka
Saito (21-9-2, 4-5 Rizin), who has struggled badly since losing
his title in October 2021.

The fight got off to a slow start in the opening round until the
final minute, when both fighters rocked each other with right
hooks. Kubo went high with head kicks, but Saito managed to block
each one. Kubo wore Saito down with body kicks throughout the
second round until he landed a final front kick to Saito’s liver
that doubled him over in a corner and ended the fight at the 4:19
mark of Round 2. Former K-1 champion Kubo’s takedown defense
continues to improve and his impressive string of wins has put him
in title contention.

Opening up the main card, Hiromasa
Ougikubo (27-8-2, 9-5 Rizin) won his flyweight grudge match
against former student Makoto
Takahashi (17-3-1, 1 NC; 4-2 Rizin) via unanimous decision. The
opening round was fairly uneventful, but the pace picked up in
round two after Takahashi sustained a cut above his left eye due to
a clash of heads. The fight was allowed to continue and Ougikubo
landed quick three-punch combinations.

In the final round, Ougikubo wobbled Takahashi with a left hook and
trapped him in a guillotine choke. Takahashi escaped and spent some
time in Ougikubo’s guard before the fighters stood and battled in a
clinch in the corner. All three judges scored the bout in favor of
Ougikubo, who has now won back-to-back fights.

The final preliminary bout before intermission was a 130-pound
catchweight contest between 24-year veteran Hideo Tokoro
(36-33-1, 4-5 Rizin) and Hiroya
Kondo (8-13-1, 1-3 Rizin), with Tokoro planning to retire at
its conclusion. Dedicating the fight to his wife, who is currently
battling cancer, Tokoro showed flashes of his younger self by
stopping Kondo with a right hook and three elbows at the 3:20 mark
of Round 1.

Elsewhere on the preliminary card, Ryusei
Ashizawa (1-1, 1-1 Rizin) took a hard-fought unanimous decision
victory over Koji Tanaka
(1-1, 1-1 Rizin) in a bantamweight bout that concluded with a
sensational Round of the Year contender in the final five minutes;
Rena
Kubota (15-5, 14-4 Rizin) stopped Kate Oyama
(5-7, 0-1 Rizin) with an onslaught of punches at the 4:18 mark of
Round 2 and then requested a shot at the Rizin FF women’s super
atomweight title; Ren
Sugiyama (2-1, 2-1 Rizin) knocked out Hiroaki
Suzuki (4-4, 4-4 Rizin) with a one-two combination at the 3:28
mark of Round 1 at featherweight; and Kazumasa
Majima (17-5, 3-4 Rizin) won his featherweight duel against
Suguru
Nii (17-10, 2-3 Rizin) via tapout due to a rear-naked choke at
the 3:11 mark of Round 2.

In flyweight bare-knuckle boxing matches, John Dodson
defeated Takaki Soya
via unanimous decision after five rounds, and Tai Emery won
her bout against Charisa
Sigala in just 37 seconds after breaking Sigala’s nose with a
right hook.

IMAK ADMIN

By IMAK ADMIN

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