The first day of fights from new Japanese promotion Rizin Fighting Federation has just finished and you can check up on all the results below.
In the main event Shinya Aoki made easy work of the legendary Kazushi Sakuraba, finishing the 46 year-old grizzled veteran with sustained ground and pound after taking him down early in the fight.
The other main action of the day saw the opening round of the heavyweight Grand-Prix which saw four first round finishes.
There were some upsets along the way too with Jiri Prochazka demolishing Satoshi Ishii via knockout just 96 seconds into their fight after rocking him with a head kick before finishing with punches and knees to the head on the mat. Former UFC fighter Goran Reljic also suffered a loss with Vadim Nemkov lighting him up with a two-piece combo before finishing the job against the ropes, throwing in a soccer kick for good measure en-route to the KO stoppage.
Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal booked his place in the finals when he KO’d Brett McDermott on the feet with a hook late in the first round after outwrestling him for much of the contest, while Teodoras Aukstoulis also made his way to the last four by taking out Bruno Cappelozza with a big right hand after catching a kick coming in the opposite direction.
The semi-finals and final of the tournament will now take place on New Years Eve on the second day of the event along with Fedor Emelianenko fighting in the main event.
In the mean time, check out all the results from day one below.
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Shinya Aoki def. Kazushi Sakuraba via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 5:56
Jiri Prochazka def. Satoshi Ishii via knockout (strikes) – Round 1, 1:36 – heavyweight tournament opening round
Vadim Nemkov def. Goran Reljic via knockout (strikes) – Round 1, 2:58 – heavyweight tournament opening round
Teodoras Aukstuolis def. Bruno Cappelozza via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 3:32 – heavyweight tournament opening round
Muhammed Lawal def. Brett McDermott via knockout (punch) – Round 1, 9:10 – heavyweight tournament opening round
Valentin Moldavsky def Yuta Uchida via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 2:20 – heavyweight tournament alternate fight
Hiroyuki Takaya def. Daiki Hata via unanimous decision
Hideo Tokoro def. Kizaemon Saiga via submission (armbar) – Round 1, 5:15
Anatoly Tokov def. A.J. Matthews via knockout (punch) – Round 1, 0:55
Felipe Efrain def. Yuki Motoya via TKO (punches) – Round 1 (fight to be ruled no-contest due to Efrain missing weight)
Kirill Sidelnikov def. Carlos Toyota via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 2:32
Tsuyoshi Kohsaka def. James Thompson via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 1:58
