Fighters of the Week

  1. Kazuto Ioka: Thwarted young Tanaka’s attempt to become the fastest boxer in history to win four-division gold, and remains the only Japanese boxer to hold that accolade, countering and left-hooking Tanaka to the canvas and eventually into the refs arms for the knockout win.

  2. Roger Gutierrez: Pulled off the biggest upset of the week and became a world champion, dethroning Rene Alvarado for the WBA Junior Lightweight championship on Saturday.

  3. Ryan Garcia: Overcame his toughest test to date, climbing off the canvas in the second round against Luke Campbell to finish him with a devastating body shot, claim interim WBC gold, and silencing many doubters of his grit.

  4. Felix Alvarado: Unlike his brother, he retained his world title in a fantastic fight against DeeJay Kriel, finally finishing him off in the tenth round, retaining his IBF World junior flyweight championship.

  5. Kyoji Horiguchi: In the main event of RIZIN 28 in front of almost 10,000 on New Year’s Eve in Saitama, Horiguchi captured the RIZIN bantamweight title over Kai Asakura after a TKO in the first round.

6. Mason Fowler: In the main event of Submission Underground’s 20th offering, it took 99 seconds for Fowler to defend his Absolute championship with an armbar over Ryan Bader.

7. Daigo Higa: The former flyweight world champion earned a fifth-round knockout of Yuki Strong Kobayashi and taking his secondary WBO title at junior bantamweight.

8. Craig Jones: Submitted the Olympic Judo gold medalist Satoshii Ishii in the co-main slot of Submission Underground 20.

9. Ayaka Hamasaki: Claimed the vacant RIZIN Women’s Super Atomweight title with an absolute bananas head-scissor choke on Miyuu Yamamoto.

10. Tenshin Nasukawa: For the third time in four years, Tenshin does what Tenshin does, show up on a New Year’s Eve RIZIN card and wins.

11. Naoki Inoue: In a bantamweight clash, submitted Yuki Motoya in the first round at RIZIN 26.

12. Hideo Tokoro: In another bantamweight tussle, Tokro also submitted his opponent, but by an armbar, Shinobu Ota.

13. Nadaka Yoshinari: The 19 year-old Yoshinari got to showcase his wares, scoring a nasty elbow KO in the first round.

14. Gillian Robertson: Slapped on a RNC to claim a win over Pearl Gonzalez at SUG 20.

15. Richie Martinez: Cemented his status as one of grappling’s best, showing it off by tapping CB Dolloway with an armbar in under a minute at Submission Underground 20.