Sengoku 9 results and recap for Aug. 2 event from Saitama Super Arena

Sengoku 9, which featured the promotion’s featherweight grand prix, took place earlier this morning (Sunday, Aug. 2) from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

For fans in North America it will air via tape delay on HDNet this Friday, Aug. 7 at 10:00 p.m. ET.

Kick-starting the event was a heavyweight showdown that would see Yoshihiro "Kiss" Nakao pick up a tiresome decision victory over Korean import Choi Mu Bae.

We then moved swiftly onto the featherweight grand prix semifinals, with Hatsu Hioki taking on Masanori Kanehara.

Though it was a bout that saw Hioki dominate the majority of, Kanehara didn’t give up and showed his tenacity by surviving and scrambling out of numerous submission attempts. He was also mounted several times, enduring punishment as Hioki rained down many blows from the top position.

Kanehara managed to turn his luck around in the third round and mounted a better offense; however, it was not enough to win the fight, which when it came to its conclusion saw Hioki take the decision nod.

And in the other featherweight semifinal Michihiro Omigawa went the distance with Marlon Sandro and ended up scraping a gift decision win from the judges -- it was a terrible decision that should have been Sandro’s win.

Regardless, Omigawa was headed to the final to meet with Hioki. Of course, both participants were given time to rest and later met toward the end of the show.

In non-tournament action, Akihiro Gono made a return to mixed martial arts action -- albeit an unsuccessful one -- that not only saw him lose, but in devastating fashion when he was brutally knocked out by a vicious head kick courtesy of Dan Hornbuckle into the last round of their bout.

Meanwhile, 2008 Combat Sambo World Champion Blagoi Ivanov garnered a decision victory in his MMA debut over hard-hitting slugger Kazuyuki Fujita. He now will have to make a quick turnaround because he’s set to take on Aleksander Emelianenko in September at Fighting Mixed Combative.

Kazuo Misaki made short work of judoka Kazuhiro Nakamura in their middleweight showdown by locking on a guillotine choke to submit his foe just three minutes into the bout.

Unfortunately, despite winning his semifinal match-up, Hatsu Hioki due to injuries sustained in his semifinal bout had to pull out of the final on the advice of doctors. The man he defeated, Masanori Kanehara, stepped up to take his place.

And I can’t help but feel Chang Sung Jung got the short end of the stick with this. He did after all win the featherweight reserve bout earlier in the evening, which in most cases would qualify him as being the most logical replacement. In addition, he fought Kanehara in a closely contested battle at Sengoku 8 this May, which the verdict of could have easily gone the other way in Jung’s favor.

But once again he was passed over.

Even Marlon Sandro would have been more deserving because he never really lost his semifinal bout and giving him a second crack at Omigawa would have made up for how he was wronged earlier. However, it didn't appear to concern WVR. And from all this hub-bub it seemed that it was much more important to have two Japanese finalist competing whether they should be there or not.

In what has been a stellar tournament feels somewhat tainted now with the two finalist not really deserving of being so.

Despite whether his participation in the final was deserved, Kanehara put a beating on Omigawa for the duration of the bout and went on to be crowned the first Sengoku featherweight champion for his efforts.

The man he lost to, Hatsu Hioki, is likely waiting in the wings for a rematch and a crack at the gold somewhere down the line.

In the main event of the evening, Mizuto Hirota captured the Sengoku lightweight title from Satoru Kitaoka, thanks to some deadly knees on a grounded Kitaoka in the fourth round that would put an end to good a back and forth scrap between the two.

Here are the official results for Sengoku 9:

Sengoku lightweight title bout:
Mizuto Hirota (12-3-1) defeated Satoru Kitaoka (24-9-9) by TKO (Knees) - (-R4)

Sengoku Featherweight Grand Prix Semifinals:
Hatsu Hioki (20-3-2) defeated Masanori Kanehara (13-6-5) via unanimous decision
Michihiro Omigawa (7-7-1) defeated Marlon Sandro (14-1) via split decision

Sengoku Featherweight Grand Prix Final:
Masanori Kanehara (14-6-5) defeated Michihiro Omigawa (7-8-1) via split decision

Sengoku featherweight reserve bout:
Chang Sung Jung (7-1) defeated Matt Jaggers (11-6) by triangle choke (1:25-R2)

Sengoku Gold Cup Lightweight Final:
Ikuo Usuda (5-0) defeated Koji Ando (2-1-2) by unanimous decision

Sengoku Gold Cup Featherweight Final:
Shigeki Osawa (3-0) defeated Toru Harai (6-3) by TKO (Punches) (4:24-R1)

Sengoku Gold Cup Bantamweight Final:
Ryosuke Komori (4-1) defeated Takeshi Numajiri (1-2) via TKO (Punch) (3:25-R1)

Non-tournament bouts:
Kazuo Misaki (22-9-2) defeated Kazuhiro Nakamura (13-10) by guillotine choke (3:03-R1)
Blagoi Ivanov (1-0) defeated Kazuyuki Fujita (15-8) via split decision
Dan Hornbuckle (18-2) defeated Akihiro Gono (29-15-7) by KO (Head Kick) (2:50-R3)
Eiji Mitsuoka (16-6-2) defeated Clay French (16-6) by guillotine choke (1:51-R1)
Yoshihiro Nakao (8-2) defeated Choi Mu Bae (9-4) via unanimous decision