Preview: Sengoku 'Seventh Battle'

Sergey Golyaev vs. Eiji Mitsuoka

Courtesy of his brow-raising upset of Takanori Gomi in November, Golyaev has now become a piece of MMA esoterica, much in the way Kirkland Laing and Drake Thadzi have been immortalized in boxing. If the still relatively anonymous Russian has designs on a more legitimate legacy, he'll have to make lightning strike twice against Eiji Mitsuoka.

The stakes are high for both fighters. While Golyaev suffers the slight of watching Gomi, his victim, fight for Sengoku's lightweight title later in the evening, Mitsuoka has to watch Satoru Kitaoka, the man who heelhooked him out of the Sengoku lightweight tournament in November, do likewise. The brass at WVR have already intimated that this bout may well serve as a title eliminator, giving the winner a crack at validation, revenge, or maybe just Sengoku's lightweight crown.

Golyaev's prospects aren't great. His win over Gomi was not exactly the kind of win from which you can derive an idea of legitimate improvement: he was nearly submitted and backpedaled for most of the fight. His one major offensive salvo was more the product of Gomi twisting his ankle than anything else, and the decision was still positively bogus. While he'll enjoy a reach advantage on Mitsuoka, and likely be the better technical striker, Mitsuoka's striking has become very serviceable and certainly enough for him to get inside on Golyaev, where he'll be able to finish takedowns, more than likely his fantastic single-leg.

On top, Mitsuoka should have little trouble with Golyaev. Whether or not he ground-and-pounds his way to dominant position, or catches him in a scramble with his nastily effective guillotine, Golyaev is going to get his neck wrung unless he lands a hail mary punch or knee early on in the fight.

And so, the once-mediocre Mitsuoka, who was once embarrassingly tapped twice by Chris Brennan in under five minutes, marches on into a title shot in a major promotion, while Golyaev, who upset one of the sport's perennially outstanding fighters, is consigned to being a curiosity in the dustbin of MMA history.

Is there a more lovably erratic sport than this? I think no.