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Sengoku 9 Recap
Posted by Marcos Villegas on the 3 August 2009 | View Comments
Hirota becomes new Sengoku lightweight champion; Fate smiles on Kanehara as he captures featherweight GP victory.
Submission standout and Gomi slayer Satoru Kitaoka got more than he could handle against Shooto ace Mizuto Hirota in the Sengoku 9 main event. In a classic wrestler vs. striker match, Hirota got the best of Kitaoka in their back and forth four round contest.
The opening round saw Kitaoka as the aggressor as he took Hirota down with multiple single and double legs attempts. Working from his back for most of the round, Hirota was able to defend against two guillotine attempts and took minimal damage. Kitaoka landed a foot stomp near the end of the round but both fighters scrambled with Hirota landing exchanges of his own and taking Kitaoka down before the end of the first.
The second and third rounds were much of the same going back and forth between both fighters. The second round was all Hirota. Figuring Kitaoka’s game plan was to take him down and work from the ground, Hirota stuffed Satorou Kitaoka’s takedown attempts and was effective with crisp foot work and use of fluid jabs that began to land on the champion. Finally getting a hold of his range, Hirota was able to avoid the heavy overhand hooks being thrown at him by simply moving back in the third. More jabs were thrown as Hirota was now landing power rights on the champion. Kitaoka though, was able to score a single leg takedown and the majority of the third was spent working in the guard. With the start of the fourth, Kitaoka tried to be the aggressor and immediately went in for a take down but could not fully commit. As both fighters were in the clinch, Hirota landed a series of strong knees to the body that forced Kitaoka onto the ground. Hirota then went in for the kill throwing a barrage of knees on the downed Kitaoka to win the fight by TKO at 2:50 in the fourth. Mizuto Hirota wins the Sengoku Lightweight championship improving his record to 11-4.
Featherweight Grand Prix Round 1:
The Featherweight Grand Prix gave way to surprises and upsets as Hatsu Hioki of Shooto fame took on Masanori Kanehara in the first semi-final round. Hioki dominated Kanehara for two rounds, getting into mount position multiple times and using effective offensive submissions while in the position. By the end of round one, with Hioki mounted on Kanehara, Hioki pulled a triangle and transitioned into an arm bar and then back into a triangle submission. Kanehara was too slippery and escaped the attempt as the first round came to a close. The second round showed Kanehara using his hands a bit more but Hioki was able to slip and take him to the ground where a guillotine was applied. The two men continued to work from the ground were Hioki attempted a reverse arm bar that Kanehara was able to squirm out of, followed by a rear naked choke attempt to finish off the second. At the beginning of the third, Kanehara came out as the aggressor with both fighters exchanging a lot more than the first two rounds. Hioki slipped in another guillotine attempt early in the round but Kanehara positioned out and worked from half guard landing effective strikes to the head and body. The end of the round plays out with Hioki in rubber guard and Kanehara landing the occasional strike. Hioki easily out points Kanehara en route to a decision, but is forced to bow out later unable to continue on to the final due to a concussion.
The second semi final match came to a surprising decision as undefeated Brazilian Marlon Sandro took on tournament underdog Michihiro Omigawa. Within the opening seconds of the first round, Sandro landed a heavy hook that rocked Omigawa back. More Sandro bombs were landed through out the round including an upper cut that staggered Omigawa once more. Omigawa answered back with a right that surprisingly staggered Sandro into the ropes. Towards the end of the first Omigawa scored a favorable impression with the judges by clinching and almost taking Sandro down before being saved by the ropes. The fight as a whole saw Omigawa appearing to be taking the majority of damage as the second round saw Sandro landing good left/right combinations. Omigawa mustered some offense in the second when he attempted to land a spinning back kick. The third round can be seen as a 50/50 round for both fighters. Omigawa kept coming forward, eating shots and partially blocking others as he effectively threw shots of his own, landing a low kick and a stiff body punch. Sandro then took the fight to the ground but Omigawa pulled a guillotine that Sandro quickly pulled out of returning the fight to a stand up position. With Omigawa continuingly coming forward, he was finally able to take Sandro down with 30 seconds left in the third round and landed a few shots before the bell rung. This may have given him the edge as he surprisingly took the decision. Ringside judges scored the fight 30-30, 30-30, with the last remaining judge favoring for Omigawa. Sandro is visibly shocked and Omigawa moves onto the finals.
Featherweight Grand Prix final: Michihiro Omigawa vs Masanori Kanehara
The final match of the Featherweight Grand prix saw Masanori Kanehara outhustle a visibly marked and fatigued Michihiro Omigawa for three rounds en route to capture the Sengoku Featherweight Grand Prix. Kanehara went on the offensive immediately in the first by gaining Omigawa’s back while standing and applied body hooks. Rights and lefts were thrown to Omigawa’s head for a good amount of time before the former UFC vet was able to roll out and secure Kanehara in his guard until time ran out. Kanehara continued to push the pace in the second as a surprise knee found its way to Omigawa’s nose followed by a brief flurry of punches from Kanehara. The only significant offense Omigawa was able to mount was a guillotine attempt, but the slick Kanehara was able to navigate through and landed a series of brutal knees and hard body shots as he passed into half guard from Omigawa’s guard. With his face extremely swollen, Omigawa surprisingly got his second wind in the third round landing a significant straight right while Kanehara countered with a right body kick to start off the round. Omigawa pressed the action as he skillfully negated a takedown attempt by Kanehara and took him down allowing Omigawa to throw a good amount of hammer fists before switching into a foot lock. Looking to stop the gaining momentum of Omigawa, Kanehara landed a perfectly timed liver shot that hurt Omigawa midway through the third. Though the round went to Omigawa, his inspired offensive was too little, too late. Masahori Kanehara goes on to win by unanimous decision on two of the judges score cards, scoring his biggest accomplishment in his young fighting career by winning the Featherweight Grand Prix!
Hornbuckle shocks; Ivanov makes successful debut:
The entertaining Akihiro Gono made his hometown return to Japan, after a brief three fight stint in the UFC. The fan favorite came out to a mash up of “living the vida loca” ditching his usual DJ Ozma entrance. The return would not be a pleasant one as Gono faced a very game Dan Hornbuckle in what would be a surprising fight at Gono’s expense. In the beginning of the first round both fighters felt each other out by not initiating aggressive offense strikes, only occasionally landing leg kicks while moving in and out. Midway thru the first it was Gono who loosened up a bit as he landed hooks that were connecting flush on Hornuckle. Hornbuckle answered almost a minute later by circling to Gono’s left and landing a hook of his own which backed up the Japanese fighter momentarily. Hornbuckle was able to apply a Thai plum and land a series of knees to the body before taking Gono to the ground. The two fighters ended the first standing with Gono landing a hard body punch to close the round. Gono feeling that he had lost the first round, came out strong in the second almost landing rights at will to the head and body of Honrbuckle. Though Gono dominated the first half of the second, Hornbuckle was able to use his large reach advantage to score a double leg take down in the middle of the round in which he worked in Gono’s half guard and transitioned that position into a full mount. The fighters grinded the rest of the round in that position, as if saving their energy for the fireworks to come in the third round.
Fireworks is exactly what the fans got in the Saitama Super Arena as Hornbuckle went on the offensive from the opening bell in the final round by landing a hard kick to Gono’s body. Gono responded well by performing perfectly executed footwork to create distance so that the Amercian could not land any significant hits. With this strategy seeming to work, Gono once again started picking off selected shots to both the head and body of Hornbuckle. Getting a bit comfortable, Gono threw a lazy right kick to Hornbuckle’s body that was caught and answered by a devastating right counter kick on the chin of Gono abruptly knocking him unconscious before he landed on the canvas! Much to the shock of everyone in the arena, Hornbuckle pulls the surprising upset!
The in ring inexperience of Blagoi Ivanov was put on display as he made his MMA debut going up against Pride veteran Kaziyuki Fujita. Riding off hype that was given for recently beating Fedor Emelianekno in a sambo tournament a few months back, Ivanov pulled a hard fought three round decision over Fujita. Fujita’s granite chin withstood much of the bombs landed throughout all three rounds in which both fighters exchanged heavy haymakers with one another. The younger Ivanov got the better of the exchanges by staggering Fujita on multiple occasions in the first round. Fujita was able to execute a double leg takedown after he was hit by a wild hook and took the Belarusian down. Ivanov immediately transitioned into a guillotine choke attempt but Fujita defended well and shrugged it off. Both men stood up and Ivanov scored a quick knee to the solar plexus of Fujita as both men ended the first round with a flurry.
The second and third rounds proved to be a much slower pace in action as both men showed significant sings of fatigue. Fujita scored with multiple takedowns in both rounds but was never able to inflict much damage once on the ground. Fujita did have a spur of brilliant offense, as towards the end of the second he was able to clinch with Ivanov and landed a barrage of inside uppercuts. The crafty Fujita even attempted an arm triangle in the later stages of the third round but was not able to lock it in. Ivanov landed the cleaner shots throughout the fight, even cutting Fujita at the beginning of the third. While the multiple takedowns scored by Fujita made a difference on the judges score cards, two ringside judges had the fight at 29-29 a piece with the final judge giving his “must decision” side to Ivanov.
In other notable bouts:
Chan Sung Jong def Matt Jaggers by triangle submission (2nd rd at 1:25)
Eiji Mitsuoka def Clay French by guillotine submission in the first (1:51)
Kazuo Misaki def Kazuhiro Nakamura by guillotine in the first (3:03)
Yoshihiro Nakao def Mu Bae Choi by decision
Ikuo Usuda def Koji Ando by Unanimous decision
Shigeki Osawa def Toru Harai by TKO (ground) in the first (4:24)
Ryosuke Komori def Takeshi Numajiri by TKO (ground) in the first (3:25)
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