It appears the rumors of Kyoji
Horiguchi’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Rizin Fighting Federation wrapped up 2020 in
style with an event that saw the crowning of two brand new
champions. In the Rizin
26 main event, former Rizin and Bellator MMA bantamweight champion Horiguchi (29-3)
recaptured the 135-pound championship by smashing former
titleholder Kai Asakura
(16-3). Horiguchi looked to chop down Asakura’s leading leg with
low kicks early in the fight, putting the defending champion on
alert as he saw annulled his reach advantage. The former Ultimate Fighting Championship title contender
put everything he had into these leg kicks, causing Asakura some
difficulties putting down his lead leg in the early going.
As soon as Horiguchi noticed he had his opponent hurt, he pressed
forward throwing heavy combinations. One of them landed on the
button, sending Asakura crashing down to the ground. The end came
when Asakura wasn’t able to defend himself any longer, and the
referee had to step in to save him from Horiguchi’s fury. The
official time indicated 2:48 minutes in the opening frame, avenging
a loss Horiguchi suffered to Asakura in 2019.
The co-main event saw young unbeaten kickboxing star Tenshin
Nasukawa lock horns with Kumandoi Phetjaroenvit. Nasukawa
dominated his opponent in the opening round with surgical striking.
Midway through the round, the Japanese fighter landed a kick while
his opponent was grounded. Kumandoi retaliated by angrily throwing
his opponent to the canvas. In the second stanza, the Japanese
fighter turned up the intensity and stunned Kumandoi with a punch.
It took a few seconds, but Kumandoi recovered from the shot and
came back with a few combinations of his own.
In the third round, Nasukawa worked the upper and the middle part
of Kumandoi. The Japanese fighter delivered some hard shots, and
Kumandoi survived to hear the final bell thanks largely to his
superhuman durability. When it came to hear the judges’ scorecards,
Nasukawa’s domination was rewarded with a unanimous decision
victory.
Earlier in the main card, Mikuru
Asakura (14-2) annihilated Satoshi
Yamasu (11-6) in a 150-pound catchweight contest. Asakura
stunned “Dominator” with a head kick before finishing him off with
a follow-up punch that put the former Dream champion away at 4:20 of the first frame.
In a Rizin special standing rules bout, Takanori
Gomi edged Koji Tanaka by majority decision after a furious
brawl; Ayaka
Hamasaki (21-3) captured the vacant 108-pound championship once
again after she sank a kimura combined with a leg scissor choke
that forced Miyuu
Yamamoto (6-5) to tap after only 102 seconds into the opening
stanza.
In the mid-card, UFC alum Naoki Inoue
(15-2) submitted Yuki Motoya
(24-9) with a rear-naked choke at three minutes flat in their
135-pound battle. Former KSW champion Kleber
Koike Erbst (26-5-1) left Kyle Aguon
unconscious (13-10) with a vicious brabo choke in a 148-pound
catchweight affair. Kyohei
Hagiwara (3-3) battered Ren
Hiramoto (0-1) in a 150-pound catchweight bout, forcing
Hiramoto’s corner to throw in the towel at 1:29 of Round 2. In a
135-pound clash, Hideo Tokoro
(35-30-2) submitted 2016 Olympic silver medalist wrestler Shinobu Ota
(0-1) with a lightning-quick armbar at 2:24 in the second
round.
In the opening section of the card, Nadaka Yoshinari mauled
Phetmalai Phetjaroenvit in their kickboxing match thanks to vicious
punches and elbows; UFC vet Yuta Sasaki
(23-8-2) upended Kenta
Takizawa (11-7) via unanimous consensus at the end of their
bantamweight clash; Kanna
Asakura (18-4) did enough to take home a unanimous decision
victory over Ai Shimizu
(7-2) in a 108-pound fight; Kazuma
Kuramoto (7-1) stopped Taiyo
Nakahara (15-9) thanks to a few punches accompanied by brutal
soccer kicks at 2:12 in Round 1; finally, Tsuyoshi
Sudario (2-0) chopped down Ikuhisa
Minowa (62-44-8) via leg kicks before punctuating the fight
with a few hammerfists at 3:19 into the first round.
The openweight, mixed rules match between Atsushi
Saito and Kawabe Hiroya ended up in a draw in a contest that
used the kickboxing rules in the first round and MMA in Round 2. A
few hours later, Rizin officials reviewed the footage and
overturned the draw, awarding “Shibatar” the victory by armbar,
with video footage showing Hiroya tapped out.
In the non-televised preliminary fight, Sakura Mori
(3-1, 1 NC) submitted Eru
Takebayashi (0-0, 1 NC) via armbar at 1:37 into the opening
frame; since Mori missed weight, the bout was automatically ruled a
no-contest.