From the Shadows to the True Champion

A shocking result awaited at RIZIN.44, held at the Saitama Super Arena on September 24th.

The main event of this tournament was
Kleber Koike vs. Masanori Kanehara.

Kanehara is a 40-year-old veteran fighter.
He once fought and defeated the "Kid of God," Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto.

Since joining RIZIN in 2021, he has been on an undefeated three-fight winning streak.
Although his opponents were also accomplished fighters (see below), Kanehara's experience gave him the edge, and he left an impression of dominance.

・Takahiro Ashida (Former DEEP Champion)
・Kazumasa Majima (3rd Rebel FC Champion)
・Sora Yamamoto (1st PFC Champion, 1st Fighting NEXUS Champion)

In fact, there were whispers that Kanehara might be the strongest Japanese featherweight, earning him the nickname "The Secret Boss of Japanese Featherweights."

Meanwhile, Kleber fought Mikuru Asakura at RIZIN.28, held at the Tokyo Dome in 2021.
He shocked the world by choking out the popular fighter Mikuru Asakura with a triangle choke.

Although he was stripped of his championship belt due to missing weight for his title match against Chihiro Suzuki,
his overall record is 31 wins and 7 losses, with 27 of those wins coming by way of submission, making him the strongest jiu-jitsu practitioner in the RIZIN featherweight division.

Incidentally, he has been undefeated against Japanese opponents for 14 years.


Before the fight, there were various opinions flying around:
Will the matchup be evenly matched?
Kanehara is the only Japanese fighter who can win!In the end, Kleber will win by submission!

And so on.

Amidst all this, Kanehara boasted that he matched up well against Kleber and showed confidence.

The unfolding of the fight was exactly as he had described.

In the first round, I think Kleber had his usual slow start. Toward the end, it looked like Kanehara had a flash knockdown from Kleber's knee strike.
From there, Kleber went into a guillotine choke.
Judging by the screams from the audience at that moment,

Can even Kanehara not beat Kleber?
I guess all Japanese fighters fall to this ground game

many people must have felt that defeat was imminent.

However, the man himself seemed completely calm.
The guillotine choke wasn't locked in, and since Kanehara felt he had no problem, he seemed to be making Kleber expend energy while preparing for the next grappling exchange.

I was surprised to read in an interview that this was a result of his experience.

He avoided grappling exchanges in the first round, but
after facing him, he judged that he could win even in grappling, and from the second round on, he aimed for takedowns.
And just as he intended, he timed his takedown to match Kleber's striking and succeeded.

He maintained position and wore Kleber down.
Kleber couldn't do anything even in the ground exchanges.
It was the first time I had ever seen him like that.
In the cross-promotional event with the American MMA organization Bellator, he lost to Patricio Pitbull, but in that match, even Pitbull was wary of Kleber's ground game, and the fight was primarily a stand-up battle.

However, in this match, Kanehara initiated takedowns in both the second and third rounds and dominated Kleber even in the ground game.

I couldn't hide my excitement at seeing a development I had never witnessed before.
Until now, no fighter had been wary of Kleber's ground game and gone for takedowns themselves.
On the contrary, even when they stunned him with strikes, they wouldn't follow up and would choose to keep the fight standing.

I used to wonder if that was the best strategy, thinking, 'Go for the ground and pound!', but I never imagined a fighter would actually go for takedowns on their own.

That sense of being able to win even if the fight goes to the ground, backed by experience, and the actual ability to handle it without any issues,
I even felt a sense of dignity like an MMA master.

Except for the first round, Kanehara dominated the fight,
and secured a brilliant 3-0 decision victory.
It was a complete victory.

With things turning out this way,
the next step is a title match against the current champion, Vugar Keramov.
The time has come for the shadow champion to become the true champion.
I cannot take my eyes off him from here on out.

P.S.
Before that, there is the title match between Keramov and Chihiro Suzuki. It is worth noting whether we will see a repeat of the shocking Pitbull KO victory.