Sengoku Soul of Fight: Hioki Takes Home Title, Nakamura Wins Grand Prix

Hatsu Hioki

Consistently ranked as one of the top ten fighters in the world, Hatsu Hioki finally added a Sengoku championship to his resume as the Japanese fighter unseated Marlon Sandro during the year end “Soul of Fight” show in Japan.

Hioki has fought and defeated some of the top fighters in the world during his career, and has also faced some controversial decisions along the way as well. He decided this time there was going to be no controversy and dominated the Brazilian for the better part of five rounds to walk out with the featherweight title.

Mixing precisely timed striking with a potent ground game, Hioki out worked the ultra aggressive Sandro at every moment, while almost finishing the fight on a couple of occasions. Hioki now reigns atop the Sengoku featherweight world, and will enter 2011 as their champion.

Keita “K-Taro” Nakamura finished off the Sengoku welterweight Grand Prix with a submission victory over Yasubey Enomoto to take home that belt on Thursday. Nakamura dominated the fight with a knockdown and ground control before getting a takedown, and locking in a fight ending rear naked choke.

Taiyo Nakahara felt Mighty Mo’s pain at Sengoku during the bantamweight Grand Prix as he was knocked below the belt three times in his fight with Akitoshi Tamura, resulting in a disqualification. Nakahara will move on in the tournament to face Shunichi Shimizu in the finals at another date.

Also on the card was former top women’s start Megumi Fujii who bounced back from her first career loss with a unanimous decision victory over Emi Fujino.

SENGOKU SOUL OF FIGHT FULL RESULTS:

Hatsu Hioki def. Marlon Sandro by unanimous decision
Kazuo Misaki def. Mike Seal by TKO (strikes) at 1:15, R1
Megumi Fujii def. Emi Fujino by unanimous decision
Yoshiro Maeda def. Masenori Kanehara by TKO (strikes) at 1:27, R1
Taisuke Okuno def. Ryo Chonan by KO (punch) at :19, R1
Maximo Blanco def. Won Sik Park by unanimous decision
Keita Nakamura def. Yasubey Emototo by submission (rear naked choke) at 3:48, R2
Jadamba Narantungalag def. Kazunori Yakota by KO (punch) at 2:03, R1
Mamed Khalidov def. Yuki Sasaki by TKO (punches) at 2:22, R1
Dave Herman def. Yoshihiro Nakao by unanimous decision
Taiya Nakahara def. Akitoshi Tamura by disqualification (low blows)
Shunichi Shimizu def. Manube Inoue by unanimous decision
Rin Nakai def. Mika Harigai by submission (keylock) at 2:09, R1
Misaki Takimoto def. Amy Davis by split decision
Yukio Sakaguchi def. Jin Suk Jung by unanimous decision
Kiyotaka Shimizu def. Ichiro Sugita by split decision
Sotaro Yamada def. Yi Sak Kim by TKO (punches) at 1:40, R1