Sengoku "No Ran" 1/4/09 Re-Cap

Sengoku “No Ran” 1/4/09

This show has two title fights for vacant titles. Takanori Gomi will fight Satoru Kitaoka for the Lightweight Championship and former UFC fighter Jorge Santiago will take on Kazuo Misaki for the vacant Middleweight Title. Also in action are former Elite XC Heavyweights Dave “Pee Wee” Herman and Antonio Silva (who held the Elite XC Heavyweight Title).

Heavyweight Fight- Dave Herman (13-0) vs. Mu Bae Choi (7-3)

Dave “Pee Wee” Herman has been very impressive in his Elite XC fights. The biggest names he has beaten are Ron Waterman and Kerry Schall so he’s relatively untested.

Choi is a Korean fighter who has a victory over Gary Goodridge but has lost to former Pro-Wrestler Sylvester Terkay (known as “The Predator” when he wrestled as a Bruiser Brody knock-off for Zero One in Japan). Choi has fought for K-1, Pancrase and Pride. Choi lost his first Sengoku fight to Marcio Cruz.

R1- Herman hit some good knees to the body early but got taken down after a clinch but got back up after little to no damage. Herman caught his opponent in the corner and peppered him with knees and strikes and took him down but Choi latched onto his leg so that he could survive the onslaught. Herman got taken down toward the end of the round and Choi tried a submission but Herman slipped out. Good first round, Herman won this due to the strikes that he landed but Choi showed a lot of heart.

R2- Slow start to the second round as it looks like Herman is kind of waiting for Choi to make a move and getting some wind back. Choi hits some strikes and Herman takes some punishment and goes down on the ropes and the ref stops the fight. Definitely a shocking loss for Herman. He’s pretty much self-trained, so if he can get in a good camp I think he’s got a ton of promise but he just didn’t look like he came into this fight with a good game plan and made too many rookie mistakes and it looked like he lost his wind.

Winner: Mu Bae Choi by TKO R2 2:22

Lightweight Fight- Sergey Golyaev (12-6) vs. Eiji Mitsuoka (14-6-2)

Sergey is a Russian fighter who has fought in M-1 and Shooto and is 1-0 in Sengoku with a Split Decision over Takanori Gomi (who is in the Lightweight Title Fight later on this same show).

Eiji has fought in KOTC, Pride and DEEP and is currently 2-1 in Sengoku. He has career victories over Joachim Hansen, Samy Schiavo, and Gleison Tibau and has lost to John Alessio and Satoru Kitaoka (Satoru is in the title fight later against Gomi).

R1- Eiji gets an early takedown. Sergey has a very active guard. Eiji controlled for the majority of the round and then got an arm bar out of nowhere for the win. Good showing for Eiji.

Winner: Eiji Mitsuoka by Submission (Arm Bar) R1 4:22


Heavyweight Fight- Antonio Silva (11-1) vs. Yoshihiro Nakao (7-1)

Silva is the freakishly large Elite XC Heavyweight Champion who has been suspended in the US for failing a drug test at a previous Elite XC event. Silva has a huge height advantage over his opponent. Silva fights out of American Top Team. Nakao has a win over Don Frye in K-1 in 2004.

R1- Silva is pushing this guy around and he calls a “timeout” due to his knee hurting. I’ve never seen that before. He can’t continue and the ref calls the fight.

Winner: Antonio Silva by TKO (Knee Injury) R1 1:42

Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal (2-0) vs. Yukiya Naito (15-4-2)

All of Lawal’s fights have been for Sengoku and so far he is 2-0. Not sure if this was contested under Light Heavyweight or Middleweight class as Lawal is listed at 185 on Sherdog and Naito is listed at 205. This is Naito’s first fight for Sengoku but he has previously fought in DEEP, K-1, and Pancrase. Naito is on a 6 fight win streak and has not lost since 2006. His last 4 fights were all by TKO and he has stopped his opponent before a decision in all 6 fights.

R1- King Mo is basically throwing punches and stalking his opponent. King Mo is definitely a free swinger with some personality. King Mo hit a big punch that hurt Naito and then jumped all over him and the ref stopped the fight. Very impressive performance from King Mo. He’s got my curiosity piqued. I would definitely like to see him again.

Winner: Muhammed Lawal by TKO (strikes)


Light Heavyweight Fight- Hidehiko Yoshida (8-6-1) vs. Sanae Kikuta (27-6-3)

Yoshida has wins over Naoya Ogawa, Don Frye, Kiyoshi Tamura, Mark Hunt and Tank Abbott and has lost to Wanderlei Silva (2x), Rulon Garnder, Cro Cop, James Thompson and Josh Barnett. He is 1-1 in Sengoku and has fought mostly in Pride in his career.

Kikuta has wins over Minoru Suzuki, Ikuhisa Minowa, and Alexander Otsuka and has lost to the likes of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Yuki Kondo, Murilo Bustamante, and Renzo Gracie. He is a veteran of Shooto, Pancrease, UFC, and Pride. He is 1-0 in Sengoku. I’m guessing this is a Light Heavyweight Fight as Sherdog has Yoshida listed at 225 and Kikuta 200.

R1- Yoshida went for a kick and Kikuta got a take down a couple of minutes into the fight. Very slow first round. Kikuta controlled the fight so he gets the 10-9 score in round one but he didn’t do any damage.

R2- Yoshida gets on top early in this round. Both guys go for a leg lock but they get tangled up in the ropes so they are broken up. Yoshida lands some stand up and clearly has better stand up. Kikuta pulls guard and goes for a leg lock. They get stood back up and Kikuta pulls guard but Yoshida hits some Ground and Pound before Kikuta goes for another leg lock. Kikuta ended the round on top with some Ground and Pound. This was a good round and very close. I give it to Yoshida because his stand up with superior and all other things were about even. Kikuta tried some leg locks but didn’t seem close to getting a sub. I’ve got it 19-19 after two rounds.

R3- Yoshida lands some shots and then does a judo throw but Kikuta holds on and takes his back. Kikuta controlling this round by mounting Yoshida. Kikuta finishes the round with some Ground and Pound. Kikuta will win this decision 20-18. Not a dominating win but he controlled the first and third rounds. Surprisingly the judges render a split decision.

Winner: Sanae Kikuta by Decision (Split)


Middleweight Title Fight- Jorge Santiago (20-7) vs. Kazuo Misaki (21-8-2)

I most recently saw Misaki fight for Strikeforce in September when he stopped Joe Riggs with some Ground and Pound in the second round. Misaki is on a 3 fight win streak and has career wins over Denis Kang, Dan Henderson, Phil Baroni, and Ed Herman. In his career he has lost to Chris Lytle, Nate Marquardt (x2), Ricardo Almeida, Frank Trigg, Dan Henderson (although he beat him the next time he fought him), and Paulo Filho. Misaki is a veteran of Pancrase and Pride.

Santiago is on a 8 fight win streak since losing back to back fights to Alan Belcher and Chris Leben. He has also lost to Diego Sanchez, Manny Gamburyan and Joey Villasenor in his career. He has victories over Jeremy Horn, Kazuhiro Nakamura and Sean Salmon. He is 2-0 in Sengoku.

R1- Misaki got the first real advantage of the fight when Santiago hit a punch but Misaki tripped him and then jumped on top into his guard. Santiago caught Misaki in an arm bar but Misaki got out very quickly and retained guard. Very even first round with Misaki getting the edge due to controlling the action.

R2- Very even round with some good stand up exchanges. Santiago won this round with a couple of good strikes (one a over hand right and the other a kick to the side and Santiago definitely looks like he’s in better shape after two rounds. I’ve got it 19-19 after two rounds.

R3- Misaki went for a jumping kick but got caught and knocked down. Very close round as they stood up for the majority of the round and both guys landed some pretty decent shots. This round was a toss up.

R4- Misaki starts the round as the aggressor and is landing some leg kicks. Santiago finally caught one of the them and took Misaki’s guard with about a minute and a half left in the round. Santiago went for an arm bar after some brief Ground and Pound but Misaki rolled out and took Santiago’s guard but didn’t have any time to do anything. Another very close round. Last two rounds could have gone either way.

R5- Misaki has a good mouse over his eye as he comes out to start the round. Both guys cardio looks good. Santiago shot in after some even stand up and took Misaki down. Misaki has a cut over his eye. Misaki gave up his back and Santiago clamped in the Rear Naked and the ref stopped the fight.

Very good fight and a very close fight. Definitely deserving of a re-match down the round.

Winner and new champion: Jorge Santiago by Technical Submission (Rear Naked Choke) R5 3:26

Lightweight Title Fight- Satoru Kitaoka (23-8-9) vs. Takanori Gomi (29-4)

Gomi needs no introduction as he has been one of the best Lightweight fighters in MMA in the last several years. He holds career victories over Dokonjonsuke Mishima, Charles Bennett, Jens Pulver, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Hayato Sakurai, Marcus Aurelio, Mitsuhiro Ishida and Duane Ludwig. He has lost to Sergey Golyaev (who fought early on this show), Marcus Aurelio (although he won the re-match), BJ Penn and Joachim Hansen. In 2008 Gomi was 2-1 and in Sengoku he is also 2-1.

Kitaoka has fought mainly in Pancrase and is 4-0 in Sengoku. He has career wins over Eiji Mitsuoka (fought earlier on this show), Paul Daley, Kurt Pellegrino and Carlos Condit. He is on a 4 fight win streak, all in Sengoku.

R1- Gomi got a take down after Satoru missed a take down and he took Satoru’s back but Satoru quickly rolled through and both guys went for leg holds with Satoru locking one in on Gomi. Very exciting sequence and then Gomi tapped out. Wow, great showing for Kitaoki. Very reminiscent of Aoki/Alvarez.

Winner and new champion: Satoru Kitaoka by Submission (Achilles Lock) R1


I thought this was a pretty decent show. I was impressed by Muhammad Lawal and enjoyed the Santiago/Misaki fight as it was definitely FOTN. The Lightweight fights were both short but I think that with those 4 guys that Sengoku has a fairly competitive Lightweight Division and I would like to see more of Kitaoka as he is now on a 5 fight win streak in Sengoku.