Patchy Mix knew he wouldn’t get his hands raised Tuesday in Tokyo, as he missed weight for his RIZIN 54 co-main event bout with Shoko Sato and any other result other than a loss would be immediately overturned to a no-contest, and the two-point deduction for the miss made the difference in the end.
Mix was more than six pounds over the bantamweight limit, the reason why he was docked two points, and decided to go for the finish early on. Sato survived a rear-naked choke in the opening round, and another submission attempt in the third, damaging Mix’s leg when on the feet. Sato was declared the unanimous decision winner (28-27 x3), extending Mix’s losing skid to four.
Rising 20-year-old prospect Kyoma Akimoto dominated and beat former champion Kleber Koike in the main event to secure a shot at the 145-pound belt – which will be put on the line in September — alongside the inaugural PFL title — between Razhabali Shaidulloev and AJ McKee.
Akimoto was able to stop the Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist from taking the fight to the ground, fighting smart from the distance to land enough to leave Koike with a bloody face to win a decision.
“A lot of people are saying I don’t need to fight for the belt,” Akimoto said after the win. “Right now, I’m the only one who can bring an overseas belt back to Japan, so I want to fight the winner of AJ McKee and Shaidulloev in the main event at Nagoya Dome [on NYE]. But I think this [left] hand might be broken. I’m gonna take a little time off and then work my way back toward the belt.”
The card also featured a pair of heavyweight grand prix semifinal matches, with King Edokpolo and Tsuyoshi Sudario advancing to the tournament final in November.
A Plinio Cruz-trained Edokpolo floored Mikio Ueda with a violent knee knockout in the second stanza to celebrate with an Alex Pereira-inspired Khaby Lame meme pose, while Kamiyama stopped Ryo Sakai with a right hook followed by a soccer kick.
Check the complete RIZIN 54 results below.
Kyoma Akimoto def. Kleber Koike via unanimous decision
Shoko Sato def. Patchy Mix via unanimous decision
King Edokpolo def. Mikio Ueda via second-round knockout (0:47)
Tsuyoshi Sudario def.. Ryo Sakai via first-round TKO (4:26)
Yuki Ito def. Alibek Gadzhammatov via second-round TKO (3:50)
Koji Takeda def. Kazumasa Majima via first-round submission (triangle choke) (4:58)
Joji Goto def. Azizbek Temirov via submission (rear-naked choke) (3:41)
Joe Hiramoto def. Ryoma Shishimoto via first-round knockout (1:36)
Naoki Tanaka def. Issa Hosokawa via second-round TKO (doctor stoppage) (3:09)
Kaiwen Li def. Arata Mizuno first-round knockout (4:27)
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