Yamazaki’s Grabaka teammate Yuki Sasaki (Pictures) took on Taka Kunou in a relatively short bout. Kunou caught one of Sasaki’s kicks, scoring the only takedown. After taking some knees from a bad position on his way back to his feet, Sasaki landed a big right hand that caught Kunou on the chin, sending him to his knees. From here the Grabaka fighter fired more punches until the referee stepped in and stopped the fight at the 2:20 mark of the first.
After a fairly even first round, Vieira landed a huge jumping knee to the head to open the second, followed by a seamless transition to his staggered opponent’s back, dragging him to the mat. The Japanese fighter showed his resilience and weathered the storm, fighting off the choke and an armbar attempt that followed.
The third round saw Obiya land several shots while standing. Vieira would go for the shot whenever he got in trouble, only to end up on his back where the Japanese fighter continued to rain down punches from the top. The fight went the distance and Vieira looked pretty banged up by the end. The judges awarded Obiya the unanimous victory.
SK Absolute fighter Hidehiko Hasegawa (Pictures) put on quite a grappling clinic in his fight against U-file Camp member Daisuki Nakamura. Hasegawa went for a kneebar from the bottom, then shifted around to take his opponent’s back. While Nakamura defended the choke, Hasegawa transitioned to an armbar. The end of the first saw both fighters struggling to apply leg submissions.
The second round saw the SK Absolute fighter controlling his opponent’s back again. Nakumura worked for an Achilles, then a kneebar towards the end of the round but ran out of time. Hasegawa took the unanimous win.
DEEP announced that the main event for their fifth anniversary show on February 5 at Korakuen Hall would pit current champion Ryuta Sakurai (Pictures) against Ryo Chonan (Pictures) in a bout for the title.