Bellator and Rizin held a special event on New Years Eve event and you can see all the results below.
It was a good night for Bellator as they won all five of the co-promotion match-ups, and that included the main event, which pitted former Bellator featherweight champion AJ McKee against Rizin lightweight champ Roberto de Souza.
In the opening round de Souza pulled guard, but McKee was able to settle on top and stay there utilizing ground-and-pound while fending off submission attempts from de Souza. In the second round they traded strikes, with de Souza making the bigger impact with his high kicks. De Souza then got the action to the mat, but didn’t do a whole lot with it and McKee eventually got out from under him and began going to work with big strikes on top. The final five minutes saw de Souza get the upperhand as he went for takedowns and stayed aggressive on the mat, but ultimately it wouldn’t prove to be enough for him, with McKee emerging victorious via unanimous decision.
Meanwhile, in the co-main event, Bellator’s featherweight champ Patricio ‘Pitbull’ Freire beat Rizin’s 145lb kingpin Kleber Koike unanimously on the scorecards.
This wasn’t an action-packed fight, with Pitbull being more cautious than usual on the feet, appearing to be wary of Koike’s impressive submission prowess. That led to him doing his best to keep his distance and pick his shots, and with Koike unable to make anything stick when he did have brief moments on the mat, it was Pitbull who would go on to win on the scorecards.
Kyoji Horiguchi has been both a Bellator and a Rizin champion during his decorated career, but last night he was fighting for Bellator and picked up a unanimous decision win over Hiromasa Ougikubo as he dominated the striking action and put him down at times, but ultimately couldn’t finish his opponent.
Meanwhile, Bellator’s Juan archuleta and Gadzhi Rabadonov also beat Rizin’s Soo Chul Kim and Koji Takeda on the scorecards to complete their 5-0 unbeaten streak at the event.
Check out all the results from the event below.
A.J. McKee defeated Roberto de Souza via unanimous decision
Patricio Pitbull defeated Kleber Koike via unanimous decision
Kyoji Horiguchi defeated Hiromasa Ougikubo via unanimous decision
Juan Archuleta defeated Soo Chul Kim via a split decision
Gadzhi Rabadanov defeats Koji Takeda via unanimous decision
Seika Izawa defeated Si Woo Park via a split decision
Naoki Inoue defeated Kenta Takizawa via submission (armbar), in Round 2 – 3:53
Junior Tafa defeated Tsuyoshi Sudario via TKO, in Round 1 – 1:38
John Dodson def. Hideo Tokoro via knockout in Round 1 – 1:43
Boxing: Ren Hiramoto defeated Genji Umeno via knockout in Round 2 – 3:00
Yuki Motoya defeated Rogerio Bontorin via knockout in Round 2 – 2:56
Johnny Case defeated Nobumitsu Tyson via TKO in Round 1 – 0:36
Chihiro Suzuki defeated Yoshiki Nakahara via knockout in Round 1 – 4:44
Sho Patrick Usami defeated BeyNoah via knockout in Round 1 – 0:45
Yushi Sakura defeated Tatsuya Nakazawa via unanimous decision
