Newly crowned Jungle Fight champion enters Rizin FF heavyweight tournament

Bruno Cappelozza claimed the new Jungle Fight 220-pound title Saturday night, and he’s already scheduled to be back in action.

Cappelozza scored a first-round TKO finish over Sandro Bezerra in the co-main event of Jungle Fight 82 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and earned a shot at the upcoming Rizin Fighting Federation heavyweight tournament. Rizin FF president Nobuyuki Sakakibara, who flew from Japan to Brazil and was in attendance, officially announced the news after the bout.

The Rizin FF eight-man heavyweight tournament’s first round takes place on Dec. 29, and the semifinals and finals will be featured on New Year's Eve. The tournament winner takes home $500,000.

Jungle Fight 82 featured a pair of other title bouts, crowning Eric Barbosa the new lightweight champion after a third-round TKO win over Ciro Rodrigues, and Amanda Lemos the new women’s bantamweight champion after a first-round submission against Caroline Cunha.

In the strawweight division, Monique Bastos made her Jungle Fight debut against Jennifer Gonzales, and needed less than four minutes to finish her opponent. Bastos, who became popular after choking a thief in September, used the same triangle choke to tap Gonzales.