Fedor Emelianenko picks up New Year’s Eve win in Japan, Shinya Aoki defends title, Bibiano Fernandes wins grand-prix
The annual New Year’s Eve show in Japan took place tonight at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan with Fedor Emelianenko headlining the event. The show also featured the DREAM lightweight title, a bantamweight grand-prix and a number of entertaining pro-wrestling bouts. So let’s get to it…
The main event of the evening saw formerly ranked number one fighter in the world, Fedor Emelianenko take on Japanese Olympic Gold Medallist, Satoshi Ishii. Fedor was much the bigger man heading into this one and used his stand-up to great effect early on in the fight as well as his strength to fight off the takedown attempts. Ishii landed a couple of nice low kicks but Fedor began to light him up with hard punches to the body. Another swift combo from the Russian saw him land a right hook which dropped Ishii and that was all she wrote.
The co-main event of the evening was an entertaining affair as current DREAM lightweight champion, Shinya Aoki took on Sengoku champion, Satoru Kitaoka. Aoki showed superior grappling throughout the first round, taking top control whenever he wanted and almost finished the fight with a triangle from the bottom which he soon switched to a sickening arm bar. The second round was much the same, although it was competed at a much slower pace, with Aoki taking top position and looking for the finish whenever he could but alas he couldn’t get the finish. The third round was much the same as the second, Aoki taking the fight down in the early going, Kitaoka regaining his feet in the middle section before Aoki taking him down again late on. Aoki also landed a nice high kick which seemed to hurt his opponent. The fourth round was all Aoki, taking Kitaoka down early and dominating him from there. At one point he had a very tight rear-naked choke attempt but was unable to finish his opponent. The final round saw Aoki once again take top control for much of the action before the referee stood them back up with a minute to go. A series of knees to the head from Kitaoka could have done major damage in the final few seconds but it wasn’t enough to force the stoppage. Aoki won the fight handily on the judges scorecards.
A number of interesting bouts featuring the best Japanese MMA has to offer littered the card with Megumi Fujii defeating Karla Benitez with an arm bar, Tatsuya Kawajiri pulling off an arm triangle choke to best Kazuyuki Miyata and Hayato “Mach” Sakurai defeating Ryo Chonan via unanimous decision. Later on in the evening we also saw Hiroyuki Takaya defeat Takeshi “Lion” Inoue via unanimous decision.
The DREAM bantamweight grand-prix got off to a good start with former champion, Bibiano Fernandes defeating Rodolfo Marques via unanimous decision and former UFC and WEC star Antonio Banuelos defeating Masakazu Imanari via split decision. Later on in the evening the two men would return to the ring to do battle with Fernandes getting the better of things in the first round and finishing the fight via TKO.
On a lighter note there were a number of professional wrestling bouts on the cards featuring come of the biggest names past and present from the worlds of MMA and K-1. Jerome LeBanner defeated Tim Sylvia in their match (no surprises there then), Kazuyuki Fujita defeated Peter Aerts, while Josh Barnett got the better of Hideki Suzuki. Kazushi Sakuraba and Katsuyori Shibata also defeated Shinichi Suzukawa and Atsushi Sawada in a tag team affair.
Check out the full results below.
MMA
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii
Shinya Aoki def. Satoru Kitaoka by unanimous decision
Hiroyuki Takaya def. Takeshi “Lion” Inoue by unanimous decision
BW GP Final: Bibiano Fernandes def. Antonio Banuelos via first-round TKO (punches)
Hayato “Mach” Sakurai def. Ryo Chonan via unanimous decision
Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Kazuyuki Miyata via submission (arm triangle)
Megumi Fujii def. Karla Benitez via submission (arm bar)
BW GP Semifinals: Bibiano Fernandes def. Rodolfo Marques via unanimous decision
BW GP Semifinals: Antonio Banuelos def. Masakazu Imanari via split decision
BW GP Reserve Bout: Yusup Saadulaev def. Hideo Tokoro via first-round KO (slam)
Mixed
Katsunori Kikuno def. Yuichiro Nagashima via second-round TKO (punches)
Kickboxing
Yuta Kubo def. Nils Widlund by knockout
Masaaki Noiri def. Kengo Sonoda by unanimous decision
Pro Wrestling
Jerome LeBanner def. Tim Sylvia
Kazuyuki Fujita def. Peter Aerts
Josh Barnett def. Hideki Suzuki
Kazushi Sakuraba and Katsuyori Shibata def. Shinichi Suzukawa and Atsushi Sawada
By Michael Pepper. (Follow me on Twitter)
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