Sengoku 9: Oh, no Gono, hello Fedor slayer

For casual MMA fans, the two most-interesting bouts of the Sengoku “Ninth Battle” in Saitama, Japan, on Sunday were contested in non-tournament action.

Akihiro Gono made a return to MMA action only to be laid out cold by a devastating Dan Hornbuckle head kick in the third round. Brutal is a fair way of describing it as the UFC and Pride FC veteran stiffened like a slab of Kobe beef and fell awkwadly into the ropes. Gono was stretchered out several minutes later and post-event reports from the hospital claimed he’d been diagnosed with a concussion, possible brain hemorrhaging and damage to his neck, although he is expected to be released in a day or so and make a complete recovery.

Meanwhile, 2008 Combat Sambo World Champion Blagoi Ivanov – aka the guy who beat Fedor Emelianenko – showed little of his Fedor-slaying ability as he eked out a split-decision victory in his MMA debut over hard-hitting Kazuyuki Fujita. Ivanov’s next opponent will be Fedor’s little brother, Aleksander Emelianenko, at September’s Fighting Mixed Combative.

Here are the official results for Sengoku 9:

Lightweight title bout:

Mizuto Hirota (12-3-1) defeated Satoru Kitaoka (24-9-9) by TKO (Knees) – (-R4)

Featherweight Grand Prix Final:

Masanori Kanehara (14-6-5) defeated Michihiro Omigawa (7-8-1) via split decision

Featherweight Grand Prix Semi-finals:

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

Featherweight reserve bout:

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

Gold Cup Lightweight Final:

Ikuo Usuda (5-0) defeated Koji Ando (2-1-2) by unanimous decision

Gold Cup Featherweight Final:

Shigeki Osawa (3-0) defeated Toru Harai (6-3) by TKO (Punches) (4:24-R1)

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