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Naoki Inoue Defeats Yuki Motoya Again to Retain Title at Rizin 50

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Rizin Fighting Federation bantamweight champion Naoki Inoue retained his title with a hard-fought victory against a familiar foe tonight in the main event of Rizin 50 in Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan. Inoue weathered a shaky final round and earned a split-decision win against challenger Yuki Motoya in a rematch from December 2020.

Inoue (19-4, 9-2 Rizin) needed only three minutes to submit Motoya (37-12, 1 NC; 12-8, 1 NC Rizin) when the pair first faced off at Rizin 26, but he had a much tougher fight on his hands against the veteran on Sunday. The first round was a good one for Inoue, who established his jab right away and used it to set up straight right hands that stifled Motoya’s movement and offense. Motoya took Inoue down with just over a minute remaining and he held the champion in a guillotine choke, which Inoue worked his way out of.

The second round was largely controlled on the feet by Inoue, whose jabs once again posed problems for his veteran opponent. Motoya did land one nice combination, but his attempts to get the fight to the ground were unsuccessful and Inoue pinned him in a corner. Motoya took Inoue down and kept him on the mat in the final round, which allowed him to rack up a considerable amount of control time as he hunted for a rear-naked choke and an arm-triangle choke against the ropes. Inoue defended and Motoya closed out the fight with punches from the top.

Motoya’s strong finish was enough to earn him the nod from one of the three judges, but the remaining two both sided with Inoue for a split-decision win and successful title defense. Inoue has won three straight bouts since a decision loss almost two years ago.

In the co-main event, which was also a very close fight, Karshyga Dautbek (18-3, 4-1 Rizin) put himself on a short list of featherweight title contenders by earning a split-decision win against former Rizin champion Chihiro Suzuki (13-5, 1 NC; 8-3, 1 NC Rizin).

Much like Motoya did in the main event, Suzuki came on strong in the final five minutes of the co-feature only to fall just short on the judges’ scorecards. It was all action right from the opening bell, and both men landed power punches while Dautbek also targeted the inside of Suzuki’s left leg with kicks to slow him down. Suzuki responded with leg kicks of his own, as well as a hard one-two, before being slammed down to the ground.

Dautbek staggered Suzuki twice with left hooks in the second round, but his failure to follow up allowed Suzuki to recover and Suzuki cut Dautbek above his right eye with jabs. Dautbek was very bothered by the blood dripping into his eye, and that seemed to distract him for the rest of the round as Suzuki later hurt him with a head kick. While Dautbek had early success with punches in the final frame, Suzuki finished strong with two more head kicks and a nice left hook. It seemed that Suzuki may have done enough to sway the fight in his direction, but two of the three judges favored Dautbek’s earlier damage.

Rizin newcomer Shunta Nomura (9-2, 1-0 Rizin) is expected to receive a lightweight title shot following his victory over former championship challenger Luiz Gustavo (14-4, 6-4 Rizin) in their featured clash. Gustavo took the fight to the mat by pulling guard with a guillotine choke following an early exchange of punches, but he was unable to secure a submission and Nomura punished him with two liver kicks when the fighters returned to their feet.

Nomura took Gustavo down in the second stanza and worked from his half guard before standing up and landing a soccer kick to Gustavo’s face. He dropped back down into side control and kneed Gustavo’s body during the second half of the round. The final round began with a clash of heads, which cut both men above their right eyes. Gustavo’s cut was on his forehead above the eyebrow, and significantly more severe, and the fight was paused twice before being waved off at the 2:27 mark of Round 3.

As the damage to both men had been caused by an accident, the judges scored the fight up to the point of the stoppage and awarded a technical unanimous decision to Deep champion Nomura, who has won four straight fights.

Opening up the main card, heavyweight prospect King Edokpolo (3-0, 2-0 Rizin) overcame what was easily his toughest test to date and earned a second-round TKO victory over former Deep titleholder Ryo Sakai (14-13, 0-1 Rizin).

Edokpolo used his tremendous reach advantage well in the opening minutes, but ill-advised flying knee attempts closed the distance and allowed Sakai to clinch and take him down into side control. Sakai landed elbows and knees on the ground, and he continued his dominance on the mat in the second round after getting another takedown. Just as Sakai appeared to be about to submit Edokpolo with a north-south choke, Edokpolo exploded out from the bottom and swept into mount, where he rained down punches and the fight was very quickly stopped at the 2:32 mark of Round 2.

Earlier on the card, Kyohei Hagiwara (8-10, 7-8 Rizin) made a triumphant return and dispatched Toby Misech (12-12, 0-1 Rizin) via TKO just 26 seconds into their featured featherweight fight; undefeated 24-year-old featherweight Shuya Kimura (5-0, 1-0 Rizin) continued his streak of first-round knockouts by finishing Takeji Yokoyama (6-2, 1-2 Rizin) with a massive right hook and follow-up punch in just 54 seconds; Yuki Ito (18-5, 8-1 Rizin) and Tony Laramie (10-3, 1-1 Rizin) engaged in a thrilling striking battle at 130 pounds that ended in a well-deserved unanimous decision win for Ito; battle-tested veteran Yoshiro Maeda (40-19-3, 2-0 Rizin) spoiled the pro debut of teen prospect Sanou Yokouchi (0-1, 0-1 Rizin) by forcing Yokouchi to tap out to a rear-naked choke at the 2:55 mark of Round 3 in another 130-pound clash; and Takeshi Izumi (6-3, 1-1 Rizin) won via unanimous decision against Spike Carlyle (15-7, 2-3 Rizin) thanks to severe scoring penalties that Carlyle incurred due to missing the lightweight limit by 4.4 pounds.

Former two-time Deep Jewels interim strawweight title challenger Machi Fukuda (7-2, 2-0 Rizin) notched her second Rizin victory by mauling Shooto Infinity League winner Seo Young Park (5-5, 1 NC; 0-1 Rizin) on the mat for a TKO stoppage at the 4:04 mark of Round 2; Deep strawweight champion Haruo Ochi (27-11-2, 1 NC; 3-0, 1 NC Rizin) rallied to submit Nobuyoshi Nakatsukasa (11-6, 1-2 Rizin) with a guillotine choke 1:23 into the third round of their 117-pound catchweight bout; Mamoru Uoi (26-15-4, 3-4 Rizin) dug deep to win a narrow split decision against Koki Akada (0-2, 0-2 Rizin) at bantamweight; and flyweight Hiroki Takaoka (11-9-6, 1-0 Rizin) submitted Seiya Ameyama (4-3, 0-1 Rizin) with a rear-naked choke at the 3:04 mark of Round 2.

In kickboxing matches on the early preliminary card, Ryoya Inai stopped Rinto Kako with punches at the 2:57 mark of Round 1 in 149-pound action; Ryuki Yoshioka took a split-decision verdict over Daiki Kirizume at 140 pounds; Shoji Otani knocked out Yamato Ashikaga at the 3:00 mark of the opening round at 139 pounds; and Ryuki won his 121-pound bout against Toki Kagawa via unanimous decision.

This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com

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