In a result that absolutely no one saw coming, Masanori Kanehara won the featherweight championship of Japan's World Victory Road Sengoku MMA promotion, defeating Michihiro Omigawa in a final fight that neither fighter really deserved to be in.
Kanehara actually lost to Hatsu Hioki in the tournament's semifinal round, but Hioki suffered a concussion in the fight and wasn't cleared by doctors to advance to the final, so Kanehara took his place in the final against Omigawa, who entered the featherweight tournament with a record of 4-7-1 and was thought by many to be the worst fighter in the whole draw. Omigawa beat Marlon Sandro in a very questionable decision to get to the final.
And so the final of Kanehara vs. Omigawa went down, and it was nowhere near as good a fight as Hioki vs. Sandro would have been. Kanehara badly bruised Omigawa's face and was overall more active, and he won by split decision
Congratulations to Kanehara aside, the result has to be considered a major disappointment for a featherweight tournament that featured some of the best fighters in the world. The tournament was all set up for a Hioki-Sandro final that would have been one of the biggest featherweight fights of the year, and Kanehara beating Omigawa in the final just doesn't measure up.
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