Watch: Gomi KOs Guillard at RIZIN 11

UFC veterans Takanori Gomi, Diego Brandao, and Daron Cruickshank all won via stoppage in Saitama, Japan.

At RIZIN 11, Japanese MMA icon Takanori Gomi (35-15) scored his first win since 2014. That victory came over the once ‘Young Assassin’ Melvin Guillard (32-20-2). For Guillard, this was his eighth loss in a row (with five of those coming via TKO/KO).

A veteran of Shooto and PRIDE, Gomi’s UFC debut came in 2010 against current analyst Kenny Florian. ’The Fireball Kid’ dropped that bout via a thir- round RNC. Gomi would fight for the UFC another 12 times over a seven year period, though he would never live up to the expectations of those who followed his career in Japan.

In the ZUFFA organization, Gomi picked up wins over Tyson Griffin, Eiji Mitsuoka, Mac Danzig, and Isaac Vallie-Flagg, but the rest of his appearances resulted in losses. Those who got the better of Gomi include Nate Diaz, Clay Guida, and Jim Miller. Gomi ended his UFC tenure with a five fight losing skid, that was capped off by a ground and pound defeat to Dong Hyun Kim.

Gomi’s first appearance at RIZIN FF went down in December. He lost that debut via triangle choke to fellow Shooto standout Yusuke Yachi. But at RIZIN 11, Gomi — after a rather sloppy affair — was able to delight he fans by getting the job done against Guillard.

The first round knockout was Gomi’s first stoppage win since the Mitsuoka fight at UFC 144 in 2012. Check out the ending sequence between Gomi and Guillard here, via twitter’s @Bestrafer7.

Other big winners at RIZIN FF were Kanna Asakura (who once again defeated the popular Rena Kubota), Kyoji Horiguchi (who bested Hiromasa Ogikubo by decision for his 10th straight win since losing to Demetrious Johnson in 2015), Ji?í Procházka (who weathered some adversity to TKO Bruno Henrique Cappelozza), Diego Brandao (who won via TKO in his RIZIN debut), and Daron Cruickshank (who stopped Tom Santos to open the show).

See below for more highlights of the night’s action via Bestrafer7.

RIZIN 11 full results:

Kanna Asakura def. Rena Kubota via unanimous decision.

Kyoji Horiguchi def. Hiromasa Ogikubo via unanimous decision.

Ji?í Procházka def. Bruno Cappelozza via KO (punches, round 1 (1:23).

Takanori Gomi def. Melvin Guillard via KO (punches), round 1 (2:33).

Diego Brandao def. Satoru Kitaoka via KO (punches), round 1 (1:30).

Unurjargal Boldpurev def. Shoma Shibisai via unanimous decision.

Kaito Ono def. Yoshiya Uzatsuyo via KO (knee), round 2 (1:22). [Kickboxing rules]

Miyuu Yamamoto def. Saori Ishioka via split decision.

“Topnoi” Thanongsaklek def. Tadaaki Yamamoto via KO (punches), round 1 (1:06).

Daron Cruickshank def. Tom Santos via TKO, round 3 (4:11).