Weekend Round-up: New champs at RIZIN and Bellator

Taroslav Amosov and Roberto Satoshi were two of the big non-UFC winners of this weekend in MMA.

This past weekend was a big one in the world of MMA with most of the top promotions on the planet putting on shows. The biggest show was UFC 263 in Glendale, AZ. That event saw Israel Adesanya retain his UFC middleweight title with his second ever win over Marvin Vettori. The event also saw Brandon Moreno go from last pick on TUF and UFC roster cut victim to flyweight champion thanks to a submission victory over Deiveson Figueiredo.

In addition to that title changing hands, Bellator and RIZIN also saw new champs crowned.

Bellator 260

At Bellator 260 on Friday the promotion got a new welterweight champion as Yaroslav Amosov dominated Douglas Lima with high-pressure and relentless wrestling. That win took the Ukrainian’s record to 26-0 and extended his Bellator win streak to seven fights.

Amosov has been with Bellator since 2018 and had already notched impressive wins over former UFC prospect Erick Silva and three-time NCAA Division 1 wrestling champion Ed Ruth.

For Lima this isn’t new territory. The 32-9 Bellator mainstay first clinched gold at 170 lbs back in 2014 via the promotion’s old tournament format. He lost the belt a year later to Andrey Koreshkov. He would get revenge on Koreshkov in 2016, winning back the title with a third round KO.

Lima’s second title run was ended by Rory MacDonald at Bellator 192 in 2018. However, Lima would get back in the title picture again, beating Koreshkov again and then Michael Page to rematch MacDonald in the 2019 finale of the Bellator welterweight grand prix. He beat MacDonald by unanimous decision to get the belt for a third time.

Now we get to see if Lima has what it takes to get back on the comeback trail and whether or not Amosov will join the ranks of Koreshkov and MacDonald in Lima’s revenge tour ranks.

Also at Bellator 260 Jason Jackson passed the test versus Paul Daley, beating the notorious knockout artist with a unanimous decision. In the fight he avoided Daley’s arsenal while landing some nice strikes of his own, in addition to a smattering of takedowns.

Aaron Pico was also on the card. He outclassed Aiden Lee, taking him down repeatedly before snatching up an anaconda choke finish.

Full results:

Main Card

• Yaroslav Amosov def. Douglas Lima via unanimous decision (50-45, 49-46, 49-46)
• Jason Jackson def. Paul Daley via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Aaron Pico def. Aiden Lee via submission (anaconda choke) – Round 3, 1:33
• Mark Lemminger def. Demarques Jackson via TKO – Round 2, 3:36

Preliminary Card

• Kyle Crutchmer def. Levan Chokheli via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Justin Gonzales def. Tywan Claxton via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• Bobby King def. Nick Newell via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 30-27)
• Lucas Brennan def. Matthew Skibicki via submission (anaconda choke) – Round 1, 1:54
• Marina Mokhnatkina def. Amanda Bell via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Alex Polizzi def. Gustavo Trujillo via submission (straight armbar) – Round 1, 4:22

RIZIN 28

RIZIN brought MMA back to the Tokyo Dome for the first time in 20 years on Sunday. The main attraction for the show was a fight for the promotion’s inaugural lightweight title that pit BJJ ace Roberto Satoshi versus Tofi Musayev. The fight lasted around a minute thanks to Satoshi’s dangerous ground game. After getting Musayev down he was able to make quick work of his opponent, finishing him with a triangle choke.

The co-main event saw kickboxing superstar Tenshin Nasukawa fight three rounds with a different opponent in each round (under kickboxing rules). Those opponents were Koki Osaki, Hiroya Kawabe and Hideo Tokoro.

No official result was given for this spectacle, but it’s safe to say that Nasukawa put on an impressive display, dropping his second opponent and looking great against the other two. After the fight Nasukawa announced that he would have one more kickboxing bout in RIZIN but then transition to boxing.

RIZIN 28 also saw stoppage wins for Kai Asakura and Naoki Inoue in the first rounds of the promotion’s new bantamweight grand prix.

Full results:

• Kleber Koike def. Mikuru Asakura via submission (triangle choke) – Round 2, 1:49
• Tenshin Nasukawa vs. Koki Osaki, Hiroya Kawabe, and Hideo Tokoro — no official result announced
• Roberto Satoshi def. Tofiq Musayev via submission (triangle choke) – Round 1, 1:12
• Kai Asakura def. Shooto Watanabe via TKO – Round 1, 3:22 [bantamweight GP opening round]
• Naoki Inoue def. Shintaro Ishiwatari via KO – Round 1, 2:01 [bantamweight GP opening round]
• Hiromasa Ougikubo def. Takeshi Kasugai via unanimous decision [bantamweight GP opening round]
• Yuki Motoya def. Ryo Okada via unanimous decision [bantamweight GP opening round]
• Yutaka Saito def. Vugar Karamov via split decision
• Shoma Shibisai def. Tsuyoshi Sudario via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 3, 1:39
• Satoshi Yamasu def. Noah Bey via split decision

Elsewhere

Invicta FC pulled off their latest one-night Phoenix tournament on Friday. Jéssica Delboni rose to the top of that competition, beating Lindsey VanZandt in the final to secure top contender status at atomweight. This means she will rematch current atomweight champion Alesha Zappitella in the near future.

And Claressa Shields wasn’t the only boxing star to get an MMA win in the past seven days. Amanda Serrano secured her second win in the cage at iKON 7 this weekend via standing guillotine after just 60 seconds.