Akihiro Gono junks retirement, joins stacked DEEP 62 fight card on April 26 in Tokyo

DEEP 62 will be one of the most stacked fight cards in the recent history of the 12 year old Japanese promotion with three title fights and the return of Akihiro Gono, who officially retired from MMA after losing to Bellator's Michael Chandler last May.

Set for April 26th at the Tokyo Dome City Hall, the event is set to be headlined by a lightweight title fight between the reigning champion Daisuke Nakamura (27-13) and the challenger Satoru Kitaoka (30-12-9). Nakamura has won his last three fights while Kitaoka is coming off a TKO loss to Will Brooks at DREAM 18.

DEEP Welterweight Champion Yuya Shirai (23-12-1) will also be putting his belt on the line when he takes on Dan Hornbuckle 23-5). The American is the only non-Japanese fighter on the card and has fought for both Sengoku and Bellator in the past.

The third title fight sees Yoshiro Maeda (30-12-4) defend his bantamweight belt against Daiki Hata (15-9-7). Maeda is also coming off a loss at DREAM 18 when he was submitted in the opening round by Bibiano Fernandes while Hata is unbeaten in his last seven outings.

Gono (32-18-7) has been competing in stand-up fighting since announcing his retirement from the sport of MMA but will return at DEEP 62 to take on Taisuke Okuno (11-7-2). Aged 38, Gono has lost his last three fights and will want to get back to his winning ways against Okuno who is best known for knocking out Ryo Chonan in 2010 but has not registered a win since.

Daisuke Nakamura vs Satoru Kitaoka

Yoshiro Maeda vs Daiki Hata

Yuya Shirai vs Dan Hornbuckle

Tatsumitsu Wada vs Yusaku Nakamura

Takafumi Otsuka vs Makoto Kamaya

Akihiro Gono vs Taisuke Okuno

Katsuya Toida vs Seiji Akao

Katsunori Tsuda vs Shota Shidochi

Daisuke Endo vs Masato Kobayashi

Hirotaka Miyakawa vs Toshinori Tsunemura

Kosuke Umeda vs Edward Matsuura

Takashige Hirukawa vs Hideki Kiyota

Hiroshi Takahashi vs Yoshihiko Shinzato

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