The tournament seeks a successor to Ryo Chonan, who vacated the DEEP title for the UFC last year.

The first bout featured Akihiro Gono and Kazuo Misaki Grabaka stablemate Riki Fukuda taking a unanimous decision over former title holder Ryuta Sakurai, 15-14-4, to improve to 9-3.

Yuichi Nakanishi pulled even to 7-7-3 with a split decision over another Grabaka fighter, Eiji Ishikawa, who dropped his fifth straight.

MMA vet Daijiro Matsui, 10-18-4, also eeked out a split decision over 9-4 Young Choi.

The final tournament session saw 10-5 Yuya Shirai taking a unanimous decision over 5-2-4 Sojiro Orui.

In undercard action, Yasuhito Namekawa submitted Carlos Toyota in an Achilles lock 2:58 into round one to improve to 20-16-3.

Toshiaki Kitada and Isao Terada added draws to their records at 143-pounds,  as did “Barbaro44″ Yoshihiro Tomioka and Seigo Inoue at 154-pounds and Ken Hamamura and Chigetoshi Iwase at 176-pounds.

Yoshiyuki Nakanishi was able to find a definitive finish with a unanimous decision over Shunsuke Inoue, remaining undefeated at 3-0.

In the event’s only Future Fighting Spirit matchup, Ryoji Suzuki submitted Kenta Okuyama by rear naked choke at 2:08 of the second round to improve to 2-2.