This Week in KOs – RIZIN.12, Glory, & LFA

A quiet weekend for MMA doesn’t mean there’s not still plenty of fight stopping action to go around. MMA highlight Twitter never sleeps, so enjoy the best of the best in KO’s from the last week in combat sports.

It feels like a rare thing to get a week without a UFC, Bellator, or even a PFL event, but even with most of the world’s largest MMA promotions taking a break, there’s still been plenty of action to go around. LFA 47 brought heat, as did RIZIN.12, and a run of quality kickboxing and Muay Thai events meant no shortage of men getting separated from their senses.

Capturing all the action from around the moments from around the combat sports world are, as always, those brave souls who comprise MMA highlight Twitter. This week familiar faces Caposa, Jolassanda, Bestrafer7, and Kyle Johnson provided the bulk of the best in KO gifs and videos. So be sure to give each of them a follow, and you’ll never miss a moment.

Now, let’s get to the senses-separating violence…

RIZIN.12

Japan’s largest MMA promotion had center stage for big MMA events this week, with a kickboxing heavy card in Nagoya.

Lightweight Luiz Gustavo shocked Yusuke Yachi with a right hook in the second round, pushing his record to 9-0 and Yachi’s down to 20-7.

Taiki Naito made Shootboxing proud with a 2nd round leg kick destruction of Hannya Hashimoto in their kickboxing bout.

Featherweight Mikuru Asakura is 7-1 after picking up the biggest win of his young career. He starched UFC vet Hatsu Hioki with a beautiful headkick in the first round. Hioki is now 29-12-2 on the loss.

Shintaro Matsukara devastated Takahiro Okuyama with two knockdowns off right hooks to pick up the KO in the second round of their kickboxing bout.

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LFA 47: Jackson vs. Jennerman

Former UFC featherweight Damon Jackson headlined LFA 47, in a bout for the promotion’s interim title at 145 lbs. While he was joined by UFC vets William Patolino and Sean Spencer, Jackson was the only one of the three to pick up a win.

Featherweight Damon Jackson improved to 16-2 with a huge overhand right to the jaw of Nate Jennerman, dropping his opponent to 12-4 on the loss.

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Shooto Brasil 86

Welterweight Edson Pancio (7-0) followed a huge flying knee with a knee right to the liver to put away Wilker Lemos (5-1) in the second round.

Featherweight Joaquim Polonia is 7-5 as a pro after hitting Alan Alves Vieira with every right hand in the book, sending Vieira’s record to 2-3 in the process.

Light heavyweight Joao Paulo (3-0) landed a clipping high kick to the jaw of Vanderson Barbosa (1-1), sending the man sprawling.

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Pancrase 298

Flyweight Taiki Akiba climbed to 9-6-1 with a sneaky right uppercut to right hook combo off the sprawl, putting Yusuke Ogikubo down to 10-8.

Featherweight Yojiro Uchimura (16-12-3) put a career highlight on Vitor Toffanelli (15-9) with a left leg high kick that couldn’t have landed cleaner.

Welterweight Hiroyuki Tetsuka made it to 5-3 as a pro behind a left hook-right cross combo and some followup GnP that sent Toshikazu Suzuki to 8-7 on the loss.

Strawweight Takafumi Ato (8-8) showed big power for a small fighter, sticking Yuta Miyazawa (4-1) on the end of a perfect left hook.

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Other MMA

Heavyweight Alexander Soldatkin clubbed his way to 3-2 at Battle on Volga 5, behind a knee and a right hand that had Ilyas Khanov, now 1-2, trying to figure out what hit him.

Light Heavyweight Vladimir Seliverstov (5-1) found the wild right hand to KO Evgeniy Yalukov (2-3) early in round 1 at Battle on Volga 5.

Welterweight Vinicius Cruz hit 9-2-1 at Skull FC 2, even if he didn’t seem all that happy about following the ref’s orders to put away an already verbally submitted Eduardo Rufino with a crushing uppercut, sending Rufino to 7-4.

Bantamweight Rudney Carvalho (6-0) landed a power jab right to the jaw of Wallace Portela (4-1) for Portela’s first loss at Skull FC 2.

Lightweight Devonte Smith moved to 8-1 and earned himself a UFC contract at DWTNCS 2018: Week 8, delivering some classic Travis Browne elbows to the temple of Joseph Lowry. Lowry fell to 8-1 on his first career loss.

Welterweight Justin Smith (2-0) kept finding a home for his left hook, eventually putting Giovanni Pretorius (2-1) away in the first round at EFC 72.

Bantamweight Achmad Eko Priandono hit 4-1 at ONE PRIDE 21: Battle of Courage after getting far and away the better end of trading left hooks with Saepul Anwar, who fell to 3-1.

Welterweight Joel Champion (5-1) landed a winging right hand to the temple of Matthew Frincu (13-4) to send him toppling to the floor at RUF MMA 27.

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Kickboxing & Muay Thai

Ryot Waller picked up the highlight of the night at Glory 56, knocking out Zack Wells with a right hand that sent his head spinning.

Welterweight Minoru Kimura won himself a belt by absolutely bulldozing Hitoshi Tsukakoshi for three knockdowns in under two minutes at Krush 91.

Kenta Hayashi couldn’t help but find a home for his right hand at Krush 91 against Hiroshi Mizumachi on the way to a first round KO.

Heavyweight Ryo Aitaka landed a tight little right hook to the side of the head of Toshio for the 2nd round KO at Krush 91.

Heavyweight Jhonata Diniz sat Mikhail Tuterev down with a perfect right hand in their ACB Kickboxing 17 bout.

Jonatan Oliveira caught Vitaly Gurkov brawling at ACB KB 17 and put him away with a winging right hook.

Soe Lin Oo took on Muay Thai’s Iquezang in a Lethwei bout and won an unbelievable war behind clinch uppercuts and knees to the body late in the third round.

San Thu Oo landed a snap front kick right to the nose of Kyal Sin Phyo to stop their bout and pick up a Lethwei title.

That’s all there is for now. But This Week in Knockouts will be back again next Sunday for another trip through the world of combat sports highlights. So stay tuned!