Hisaki Kato scored one of MMA’s best KOs of 2015 when he walloped Joe Schilling in 2015. Now the two men will rematch under the Bellator banner next month, but this time it’ll be in the kickboxing ring.
One of the top knockouts from 2015 came from Hisaki Kato, who flattened Joe Schilling with this extraordinary one-punch KO at Bellator 139 in June. While Kato has had two MMA bouts since that win, Schilling has switched to his more comfortable role as a kickboxer, where his last 3 fights have all come under the GLORY banner.
On Friday night, during the Bellator 155 broadcast, the Kato vs. Schilling rematch was announced for Bellator’s Kickboxing 2 on June 24th in St. Louis, Missouri. The event immediately follows Bellator: Dynamite 2, which also airs on Spike TV.
Schilling (2-5 MMA, 19-8 kickboxing) is coming off a majority decision loss to Jason Wilnis at GLORY 30 in Los Angeles, a fight which was a rematch of a GLORY 24 bout between them, which Schilling won via injury TKO. Kato (6-2 MMA, 0-0 kickboxing) quickly stopped Yuta Watanabe at Rizin FF last month in Japan. The 33-year-old followed up the big Schilling win by being violently KO’d by Melvin Manhoef in November.
The Bellator: Dynamite 2 main event will be a 215 lbs catchweight clash between the returning Quinton Jackson and Satoshi Ishii, with a lightweight championship co-main event featuring a rematch between Michael Chandler and Patricky Freire. Also announced for the main card is a women’s flyweight matchup between undefeated prospect Ilima Macfarlane (3-0) and fellow prospect Rebecca Ruth (6-1).