~RIZIN JAPAN GP 2021~
Bantamweight Tournament Winner!!!
#RIZINJAPAN_GP/ Hiromasa Ougikubo@Hiromasa0401
#RIZIN33 pic.twitter.com/5Vvws1nQUU
— RIZIN FF OFFICIAL (@rizin_PR)
December 31, 2021
The last Rizin Fighting Federation event in 2021
featured many upsets that went down at the legendary Saitama Super
Arena in Japan on Dec. 31.
The main attraction at Rizin 33 was the 135-pound grand prix finale
between Hiromasa
Ougikubo and Kai
Asakura. Both contenders had already competed on the bill once
as Asakura defeated Kenta
Takizawa (13-8, 3-3 Rizin) while Ougikubo upset Naoki Inoue
(15-3, 5-1 Rizin) on the scorecards. “The Ultimate Fighter” Season
24 competitor Ougikubo (25-5-2, 7-2 Rizin) put his wrestling
background to work against Asakura’s striking, dodging most of his
opponent’s strikes and using his punches to set up takedowns. On
the mat, Ougikubo landed excellent ground-and-pound all while
forcing his opponent to carry his weight.
Asakura largely kept his opponent’s assault at bay in Round 2, but
Ougikubo answered with some heavy bombs in the final seconds. The
third frame saw Asakura pushing forward for a finish as Ougikubo
relied on takedowns to stifle the former champ’s offense. The last
foray from Asakura (19-4, 11-3 Rizin) wasn’t enough to sway the
ringside judges, who unanimously sided with Ougikubo. In addition
to taking home the victory, Ougikubo avenged a loss at the hands of
his opponent at Rizin 23 in August 2020. In the post-fight
interview, a visibly emotional Ougikubo asked his girlfriend to
marry him, sealing the deal on a day he will remember forever.
In the co-main event, Roberto de
Souza tapped Yusuke
Yachi and became one of the few Rizin champions to notch a
successful title defense. “Satoshi” (13-1, 6-1 Rizin) moved the
action to the canvas as soon as possible, displaying a wide array
of submission attempts to his opponent’s dismay. Yachi (23-12, 8-6
Rizin) fought off the setups and seemed relatively unconcerned with
the grappling prowess of the champ, but was constantly forced to
defend the numerous submission attacks. Midway through Round 2,
Souza chained together a sequence that started with a kimura,
transitioned to a triangle choke and finished with an armbar. After
attempting to resist for a few seconds, Yachi tapped as the
official time indicated 3 minutes and 30 seconds. De Souza will
ride a four-bout winning streak in his next assignment.
Earlier on the card, Mikuru
Asakura (16-3, 1 NC; 10-2 Rizin) evened the score with Yutaka
Saito (20-6-2, 3-2 Rizin) by routing his foe and picking up a
unanimous decision; the boxing exhibition between kickboxing phenom
Tenshin
Nasukawa and former Pride Fighting Championships lightweight
kingpin Takanori
Gomi ended with a draw after six minutes of action; Deep vet Si Woo Park
(6-4, 1-0 Rizin) laid claim to a unanimous decision win over
Rena
Kubota (12-4, 11-3 Rizin) in a shocker at 110 pounds.
Before the intermission, reigning Jewels strawweight beltholder
Seika
Izawa (5-0, 1-0 Rizin) scored a major upset by putting away
current Rizin atomweight champion Ayaka
Hamasaki (23-3, 9-1 Rizin) with elbows and punches at 2:50 of
Round 2 in their non-title clash; Koji Takeda
(13-2, 3-2 Rizin) submitted Noah Bey (1-2,
1-2 Rizin) with an armbar in the second round at 4:12; 48-year-old
Hideki
Sekine (11-5, 1-1 Rizin) pounded Shoma
Shibisai (7-3, 1 NC; 3-2 Rizin) out with punches at the 2:09
mark in the second stanza; Kyohei
Hagiwara (6-4, 5-2 Rizin) did enough to snag a unanimous
decision over former One Championship title challenger Hiroaki
Suzuki (1-1, 1-1 Rizin) in their featherweight affair.
In a 137-pound kickboxing barnburner, “Ya-Man” Ren
Sugiyama outpointed “Kouzi” Koji Tanaka
via majority decision; the 200-pound catchweight exhibition match
between “Shibatar” Hikaru
Saito and Yuta Kubo
ended with Saito hitting a flying armbar in 94 seconds; at
bantamweight, Olympic medalist Shinobu Ota
(2-1, 2-1 Rizin) smashed Kazuma Sone
(24-22-1, 0-4 Rizin) with vicious soccer kicks and stomps at the
3:55 mark in Round 2; in the alternate grand prix semifinal,
Yuki
Motoya (29-10-1, 1 NC; 6-5, 1 NC Rizin) defeated Yuto
Hokamura (18-12-2, 2-3 Rizin) via unanimous consensus.
In the featherweight amateur battle that opened the event, Kota Miura
stopped Yushi
Sakura with a soccer kick followed by a punch at the last
second of the first frame.