Tatsuya Kawajiri and Kazushi Sakuraba were in action at DREAM.11 Tuesday to fill seats and as expected, each walked away promptly with a W on their record.
Sakuraba, a guaranteed legend in MMA, took on boxer Rubin Williams, who has only been training grappling for one year.
Sakuraba opened the fight gnawing Williams from a distance with kicks before shooting for the single-leg. From side control, Sakuraba punched and slapped at Williams until securing the kimura for the submission win.
Sakuraba ends a two-fight losing streak and improves his record to 25-12-1.
On paper, Kawajiri was the overwhelming favorite against the now 2-4 Melchor "Barracuda" Manibusan and the outcome of the fight did nothing to disprove that.
Kawajiri backed from an initial punch combo and clinched to put Manibusan to the ground. From there, Kawajiri advanced to full mount and rained down punches for the referee stoppage win.
But realistically, the fight served its purpose as a gimme fight for Kawajiri after placing him against the far more experienced kickboxer Masato at a K-1 World Max event in July where Kawajiri lost by second-round TKO. With the win over "Barracuda," Kawajiri moved to 25-5-2 and extends his MMA win streak to three.
Kawajiri said after that he would like a title shot (against the winner of Shinya Aoki vs. Joachim Hansen) on New Year's Eve.
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