Weekend Rundown: Yamaguchi, Bahadurzada, Goulet Victorious

King of the Cage flyweight champion Mamoru Yamaguchi stopped Greg Guzman on second-round elbows in the KOTC “Sniper” headliner on Thursday at the San Manuel Casino in San Bernardino, Calif. Guzman, who failed to meet his mandated weight requirement for the fight, met his demise 2:21 into round one.

Yamaguchi -- the world’s third-ranked flyweight behind Jussier da Silva and Yasuhiro Urushitani -- has rattled off four consecutive victories, three of them finishes. The 33-year-old former Shooto champion has lost to only two men, Urushitani and Shinichi Kojima, in the last eight years.

Other winners at KOTC “Sniper” included Shooto mainstay Yukinari Tamura (rear-naked choke submission against Tony Hervey), Bellator Fighting Championships veteran Saad Awad (first-round technical knockout against Bryson Kamaka) and Reuben Duran (first-round guillotine choke submission against Kana Hyatt).

Bahadurzada KOs Pereira

Shooto light heavyweight champion Siyar Bahadurzada needed just 94 seconds to knock out Shooto South America titleholder Carlos Alexandre Pereira in the Shooto Brazil 17 main event on Friday at the Hebrew Social and Sports Club Gymnasium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Pereira went down on the end of a Bahadurzada punch.

A semifinalist in the 2008 Sengoku middleweight grand prix, Bahadurzada has won three fights in a row and 11 of his last 13. The 26-year-old Golden Glory rep agreed to a four-fight contract with Strikeforce in May. The defeat snapped an eight-fight winning streak for Pereira.

Other victors at Shooto Brazil 17 included Nova Uniao’s Hacran Dias (second-round technical knockout over Cesario di Domenico), Luis Ramos (unanimous decision against Igor Fernandes) and Bellator veteran Johnny Eduardo (unanimous decision over Paulo Dantas).

Goulet Stops MacGrath, Halts Two-Fight Skid

UFC exile Jonathan Goulet put an end to his two-fight losing streak, as he stopped Matt MacGrath on first-round punches in the Ringside MMA “Invasion” headliner on Saturday at the Gilles Tremblay Arena in Beauport, Quebec, Canada. MacGrath met his demise 1:39 into the match.

Goulet dropped MacGrath with a head kick and finished off the Maximum Fighting Championship veteran with punches on the ground.

It was the 31-year-old Goulet’s first victory in more than two years, as he entered the match on the heels of consecutive defeats to Marcus Davis and the world-ranked Mike Swick. A nine-year veteran of the sport, he still has never lost three fights in a row. Goulet was pruned from the UFC roster following his second-round TKO loss to Davis at UFC 113.

Gallicchio, Geurin, Others Advance to M-1 Selection Finals

World Championship Fighting and Ring of Combat veteran Tom Gallicchio submitted Aaron Meisner with a third-round rear-naked choke in an M-1 Selection 2010 “The Americas Round 3” welterweight tournament semi-final on Saturday at Bally’s Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J.

Gallicchio, who has won five of his past six fights, finished Meisner 1:26 into round three. He will face Lee Bentley -- a knockout winner against Colin Schrader -- in the welterweight final on Sept. 18.

Meanwhile, Mike Geurin earned a unanimous nod against “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 8 cast member Shane Primm in one of two middleweight semi-finals. He will meet Sportfight veteran Tyson Jeffries -- a split decision winner over Plinio Cruz -- in the middleweight final on Sept. 18.

Other winners at the event were heavyweights Kenny Garner (unanimous decision over Andrei Kapylou) and Patrick Bennett (unanimous decision against Mehdi Hassan), light heavyweights Daniel Vizcaya (first-round arm-triangle choke submission against Chris Sydnor) and Byron Byrd (first-round technical knockout against Sammy Collingwood) and lightweights George Sheppard (split decision over Josh Bacallao) and Jose Figueroa (unanimous decision against Joshua Thorpe).

Quick Hits

John Maguire defeated Wayne Murrie by split decision to capture the Olympian MMA Championships welterweight crown at OMMA6 “Battlestars” on Saturday at the Liverpool Olympia in Liverpool, England. The defeat snapped Murrie’s seven-fight winning streak …Unbeaten light heavyweight prospect Jimi Manuwa knocked out Valentino Petrescu with a first-round punch to retain his Ultimate Challenge MMA title at UCMMA “Invincible” on Saturday at The Troxy in London. The end came 3:08 into round one, as Petrescu experienced defeat for the first time as a professional … Yoichiro Sato retained his Shooto Pacific Rim middleweight championship with a unanimous decision over Takasuke Kume at Shooto “Gig Tokyo 5” on Saturday at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo. The 25-year-old Sato has rattled off three consecutive victories.