Rizin 4 took place today in Japan and we’ve got all the results for you below.
Today’s show saw Rizin’s openweight Grand-Prix come to a conclusion with both the semi-finals and final bouts.
Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ booked his place in the final with a first round TKO victory against Baruto Kaito, landing a knee to the mid-section of his portly opponent that sent him staggering to the canvas clutching his stomach.
Controversial wrestler Amir Alaikbari scraped to a split decision win over Valentin Moldavsky in the other semi-final to set up the final match-up most people had expected to see.
Early in the opening round of the final, Cro Cop landed a flush left hand that briefly dropped Aliakbari, and the former PRIDE star didn’t let him off the hook afterwards, pressing forward with more left hands, with another landing cleanly to sent his opponent crashing to the floor for a second time, with a few follow-up punches sealing the deal.
So, at 42 year-old, Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic is crowned Rizin’s openweight champion, and the normally stoic Croatian had tears in his eyes afterwards, and rightly so after having racked up three wins in the space of three days.
The other main attraction on the card was an intriguing match-up between rising star Kron Gracie and the wily veteran Tatsuya Kawajiri.
This was by far Gracie’s toughest test to date, but he proved to be up to the challenge, putting in a competitive showing in the first round and then finishing Kawajiri with a rear-naked choke in the second after pulling guard to take his MMA record to 4-0.
Another much talked about match-up on the card was the freak-show woman’s fight between the gigantic BJJ ace Gabi Garcia and 49 year-old former pro-wrestler Yumiko Hotta, and this was every bit as ridiculous as it had looked on paper, if not more so.
Hotta started the fight by running and bouncing off the ropes like you’d expect to see in WWE bout, but Garcia wasn’t having any part in that and promptly bounced a knee of her much older and much smaller opponent’s chin.
After that Garcia just mauled the wrestler, who frankly had no business being there in the first place, until the referee put an end to the farcical encounter.
Check out all the Rizin 4 results below.
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Rizin 4 Results:
Mirko Cro Cop def. Amir Aliakbari via TKO (strikes) in round 1.
Kron Gracie def. Tatsuya Kawajiri via submission (rear-naked choke) in round 2.
Erson Yamamoto def. Hideo Tokoro via submission (armbar) in round 1.
Rena Kubota def. Hanna Gujwan via KO (body kick) in round 3.
Andy Nguyen def. Miyu Yamamoto via submission (armbar) in round 1.
Kizaemon Saiga Dillin West via TKO (strikes) in round 1.
Gabi Garcia def. Yumiko Hotta via TKO (punches) in round 1.
Hayato Sakurai def. Wataru Sakata via TKO (punches) in round 2.
Mirko Cro Cop def. Baruto Kaito via TKO (knee to the body and follow up punches) in round 1.
Amir Aliakbari def. Valentin Moldavsky via split decision.
Tenshin Nasukawa def. Dylan Kawika Oligo via submission (ninja choke) in round 2.
