NAGOYA, Japan, Nov. 25 -- After dropping two hotly contested split decisions in a row, Hatsu Hioki (Pictures) got back into the winner's circle on Sunday against TUF 5 alumnus Brian Geraghty.

The Nagoya-based grappler finally returned to his strengths and took the outclassed Geraghty to the ground, where he put on a clinic, much to the delight of his hometown crowd.

Hioki had not used his dangerous submission game in his last seven fights, other than one successful trip to the canvas to claim TKO's featherweight strap against Mark Hominick (Pictures). His last loss, against power puncher Jong Man Kim (Pictures), was solely the result of his refusal to take the fight down.

Staring at his third loss in a row, this bout was make or break for the lanky grappler.

In front of a vocal hometown crowd, Hioki teased for a minute in the first and looked as if he were going to strike with the UFC veteran. Soon, though, he took Geraghty to the cage and slammed him to the mat, then immediately transitioned to mount.

Some ill-fated advice from his corner led to Geraghty rolling to his knees and deliberately giving Hioki his back. At that point Geraghty received a free back realignment as Hioki stretched him out and attacked with chokes for the remainder of the round.

Geraghty tried in vain to land with his superior hands in the second round. However, Hioki delivered four successive low kicks and scored a takedown to the guard. Geraghty defended and escaped to his feet, where he landed several times to the midsection but was unable to string together a combination before getting taken down again.

Unable to defend as well this time, Geraghty ate punches in his guard for the majority of the round, causing the referee to have a close look at him.

In the third, Geraghty needed a knockout and Hioki gave him a chance. The Japanese fighter chose to stand with the Wisconsinite, and Geraghty landed some jabs and rights, though the strikes were insufficient in power and in number to get the required stoppage.

Halfway through the round, Hioki remembered that he didn't need to get punched if he didn't want to. He got Geraghty to the ground with wrestling that was much better than he had used in the Hominick title defense earlier this year.

Geraghty got to his feet again but only for a brief period before the bell rang. All three judges awarded the decision to Hioki, who was emotional as he attempted to address his hometown crowd. All he could manage was a thank you, then he left the ring.

With the win Hioki will be heading back to Shooto. He'll also need to defend his featherweight TKO belt soon. Recently there has been talk of stripping Hioki because he has defended the title only once since winning it 14 months ago.

Fighting in his 81st fight in nearly 13 years, Osami Shibuya (Pictures) could not connect with the counterpunch he was looking for in the first round of his fight with Brazilian import Gil Freitas. Giving up 76 fights worth of experience, Freitas was able to control the round on the mat after scoring a takedown against the Yokohama-based wrestler.

In the second, Shibuya got the takedown he was after, but Freitas escaped to his feet in front of the jubilant Brazilian contingent in the crowd. Standing, he scored his own takedown, and from half mount he controlled Shibuya and landed strikes.

In the third round, Shibuya finally landed some crisp counters while Freitas was wildly swinging for the fences. But it was too little too late for Shibuya, as all three judges thought that Freitas had done enough for the win.

Getting the night started, Max Fernandez came into his bout with massive support after making a name for himself as a purple belt on the local jiu-jitsu circuit. Now a brown belt, Fernandez showed exactly why he earned his rank. He quickly scored a devastating throw off the cage and transitioned to an armbar to force the tapout just a second too late against AACC-trained Yoshimoto Watanabe.

In the other MMA bout of the night, AXIS jiu-jitsu product Cristiano Kaminishi (Pictures) outworked Kazuhisa Tazawa (Pictures) for a split decision in a sloppy affair.

Tazawa was only looking to clinch in the first round. He executed a takedown and tried for a guillotine attempt while avoiding Kamanishi's wild strikes. In the second, both fighters were obviously exhausted. Tazawa tried to get the takedown, and Kaminishi struggled to land strikes, but neither was successful.

In the kickboxing portion of the evening, Alex Roberts (Pictures) survived an early knockdown to win a hotly contested decision against K-1 vet Tatsufumi Tomihar; Andrew Peck looked vicious with elbows in his decision win over Ryuta Noji (Pictures); Nicholas Pettas' protégé Jyunichi Maruyama won his bout with Atsuhiro Tsuboi (Pictures) despite getting a yellow card for repeated accidental groin strikes; and Danilo Zanolini won a decision against Syunsuke Ohishi.