New Sengoku champs

The World Victory Road organization crowned two new champions and hosted a knockout of the year candidate on its most recent offering, "Sengoku Ninth Battle," on Aug. 2 at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

Mizuto Hirota wrested the lightweight belt from No. 6-ranked Satoru Kitaoka in Kitaoka's first defense since submitting Takanori Gomi in January. Hirota, a Shooto and Cage Force veteran coming off a stoppage of Mitsuhiro Ishida, fended off Kitaoka's trademark takedown-to-submission game in the first round, and began to pick at his fatigued opponent as the fight unfolded. Hirota stuffed a series of takedowns in the fourth round and began finding success with knees, stopping Kitaoka with knees to the head on the floor 2:50 into the round. Kitaoka said in a post-fight press conference that he didn't take the fight seriously enough, and thought he would only need enough gas to hook an early submission.

Ninth Battle also featured the head-scratching conclusion to Sengoku's talent-laden featherweight grand prix tournament. Prior to winning the tournament and being crowned 145-pound champion, Masanori Kanehara had lost soundly to bracket favorite Hatsu Hioki via unanimous decision. Hioki, however, ended up worse for wear. The gifted submission artist said he felt wooziness and a loss of strength after the fight, and doctors did not allow him to continue. Kanehara went on to defeat Michihiro Omigawa, who had upset Marlon Sandro earlier, via split decision in the final.

Omigawa's win over Sandro focused a lot of discussion on Sengoku's "must decision" rule, which forces judges who score fights a draw to pick a winner based on aggressiveness. The rule is designed to prevent fighters who have two rounds locked up to coast to victory. But in the case of Omigawa-Sandro, the rule appeared to result in an unjust nod. Sandro appeared to mostly command all three rounds in the boxing department against a tough Omigawa, but two judges who had the fight a draw ended up siding with Omigawa. Sandro decried the decision afterwards.

The scoring system also factored into a heavyweight bout between Kazuyuki Fujita and Blagoi Ivanov, the Bulgarian Sambo fighter who defeated Fedor Emelianenko last year in that sport. The bout developed into a slugfest, with Ivanov wind-milling punches in memorable fashion in the second. One judge gave the fight to Fujita, another to Ivanov. A third judge who had a draw leaned toward Ivanov and awarded him the “must decision." Ivanov told FightersOnly.com that he broke both of his hands in the effort.

The card also featured a scintillating head kick knockout by Illinois-based fighter Dan Hornbuckle, who ruined Akihiro Gono's return to Japan from the UFC with a third-round knockout, which was mostly the result of foot impact as opposed to shin. Hornbuckle was offensively effective for the entire fight, using reach and speed to wear down Gono, who required hospitalization for a concussion and neck injury. Gono is expected to make a full recovery. Hornbuckle told the Sherdog Radio Network's "Jordan Breen Show" that he's looking at a Sengoku return in November and, if successful, could challenge for a welterweight title on New Year's Eve.

Also picking up wins at Ninth Battle were Kazuo Misaki (first-round technical submission over Kazuhiro Nakamura), Chang Sung Jung (second-round triangle over Matt Jaggers), Eiji Mitsuoka (first-round guillotine over Clay French) and Yoshihiro Nakao (decision over Mu Bae Choi).

Sengoku also held the final fights in its "Gold Cup" tournament for up-and-coming fighters, who received exposure in a reality show-esque presentation on Japanese television. Ryosuke Komori (4-1), Shigeki Osawa (3-0) and Ikuo Usuda (5-0) picked up the wins.

Sengoku "Ninth Battle" airs on tape delay this weekend on HDNet.