UFC, PRIDE, and Bellator vets take to the ring.
Welcome to your weekly coverage of big names on the regional circuit, belated edition!
On to the results...
First up is Guam's PXC 47, which last Friday played host to UFC veteran Darren Uyenoyama, who was taking his first fight of the year against Kentaro Watanabe (10-6-0).
Uyenoyama entered the UFC ostensibly as fodder for erstwhile wrecking-machine Norifumi Yamamoto but would end up earning an upset unanimous decision victory. He then dropped weight to become part of the UFC's first flyweight class, winning his debut at 125 before losing two in a row and receiving his walking papers. He's since maintained an undefeated post-UFC career, which includes Friday's bout with Watanabe, over whom Uyenoyama took a split-decision victory. He improves to 2-0 since his release and to 10-5-0 overall.
Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, long-time Bellator talent and former title challenger Rick Hawn (20-4, 10-4 Bellator) faced Derek Loffer (9-3 1-1 Bellator) in the main event of CES 28.
Late last year Hawn took a stab at Bellator's lightweight division, at which he dropped a unanimous decision to current title challenger Dave Jansen. Hawn had previously been knocked out by 170-pound kingpin Douglas Lima, and the two straight losses would close out his lengthy run with Bellator. Hawn has never been beaten outside Bellator, though, and he kept that streak going on Friday, taking a unanimous decision from Loffer. The win is his second in a row since his departure from that organization. For Loffer, Friday's bout stops a four-fight winning streak.
And on Saturday, at Hex Fight Series 2 in Melbourne, Australia, lightweight Ben Wall (7-3-1, 0-2 UFC), following the two TKO losses he suffered in the UFC, looked to return to the win column in a bout with Nick Patterson (16-4-1). Wall would be unable to pull it off, however, losing by majority decision. He's now been defeated three times in a row after starting his career unbeaten in eight. Patterson, meanwhile, has won five straight.
And on Sunday, TUF 12 veteran Andy Main (10-2-1, 1NC) continued his unlikely run of success in Pancrase at that organization's 265th event in Tokyo, submitting Hiroyuki Oshiro (5-2-2) with a triangle choke in under a minute. Main is 3-0-1 in Pancrase, a run which includes a TKO victory over former Top 10 featherweight and WEC alum Akitoshi Tamura.
Further up the card, PRIDE veteran and Pancrase fixture Yuki Kondo (58-30-9, 1-6 PRIDE, 1-2 UFC) looked to rebound from December unanimous-decision loss with a bout against Shingo Suzuki (11-8-3). The fight would, however, go poorly for the JMMA legend, whose night ended with a first-round TKO loss (only the fifth TKO loss of his nearly 100-bout career). Kondo has now dropped two straight. He's 3-2 since 2014.
In the co-main event, Kazuki Tokudome (13-6-1, 1-3 UFC), on a three-fight skid that ended his UFC career, set things right with a first-round knockout of Yoshihiro Koyama (20-8-2). The KO puts a stop to a three-fight win streak for Koyama.
And in the night's headlining bout, former Top 10 lightweight and Sengoku champion Satoru Kitaoka (36-13-9, 5-2 Sengoku, 1-2 Dream) took on Akira Okada (9-4-3) in the final round of a four-man lightweight tournament.
Kitaoka--who rose to prominence as Sengoku's inaugural lightweight champion following a first-round submission of Takanori Gomi, and who would go on to fight the likes of Shinya Aoki, Will Brooks, Willamy Freire, and Katsunori Kikuno (beating the latter two)--bested TUF alum Richie Whitson in the tournament semifinals. Okada, meanwhile. beat former Sengoku talent Taisuke Okuno and was riding a six-fight unbeaten streak into his finals bout with Kitaoka.
By the end of the night, Kitaoka's appreciable ground game would win out, earning him a unanimous decision victory. He's now won four in a row, a run which includes a defense of his DEEP lightweight title against UFC vet Yoshiyuki Yoshida.
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