Two of the most recognizable names outside the realm of the UFC—Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Shinya Aoki—each ended the year in style Wednesday at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2014 in Tokyo.
After landing his patented left high kick on Satoshi Ishii, the 40-year-old Cro Cop landed a series of punches against the ropes to score a TKO win in the second round of their main event IGF heavyweight championship bout.
Earlier in the night, Aoki pulled off one of the most rarely seen submissions in MMA for the first time in his career when he secured a twister (spinal crank) in the first round of a lightweight tilt against Yuki Yamamoto.
The former Japanese Olympic gold medalist (judo) Ishii, who fell via TKO (doctor stoppage) to Cro Cop to lose his IGF heavyweight belt at Inoki Genome Fight 2 in August, scored a trip takedown in Round 1. Ishii then peppered Filipovic with punches and elbows in the guard for the remainder of the round.
Ishii notched another takedown in Round 2, only to allow a resilient Cro Cop to eventually pop back to his feet and begin his own offensive assault.
In the later stages of the round, Cro Cop began heaving left hooks and uppercuts that put Ishii on the defensive.
Cro Cop then wobbled Ishii with a high kick in the waning seconds of the round before finishing him off with a vicious set of follow-up punches just as the round ended.
Although the outmatched Yamamoto managed to land a solid knee to Aoki‘s jaw early, just seconds later, he found himself on the ground with the Brazilian jiu-jitsu and judo black belt on his back.
Aoki quickly slapped a figure-four on Yamamoto‘s right leg from the back and then slid his upper body to Yamamoto‘s left, where he began applying the crank to the top of the right side of Yamamoto‘s head. Yamamoto squirmed and resisted a bit before ultimately tapping to the intense pressure on his spinal cord.
Cro Cop earned his 30th career pro MMA win and his 22nd career TKO/KO. Filipovic has also won 23 times as a pro kickboxer, 12 of which came via TKO/KO.
Aoki, conversely, scored his 37th career pro MMA win and his 25th win via submission.
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