Fighters.com's Sixth-ranked lightweight Eiji Mitsuoka (13-5-2) popped Rodrigo Damm (8-2) with an overhand right in the first round Sunday night in Saitama, north of Tokyo, then slid a rear naked choke around the BJJ player's throat for the tap at 3:13 of the round. Mitsuoka advanced to the second round of the Sengoku lightweight tournament, the winner of which will fight second-ranked "Fireball Kid" Takanori Gomi (29-3). Gomi headlined Sengoku's fourth battle with a narrow decision over DEEP Lightweight Champion Seung Hwan Bang (5-2). It was Bang who provided the bang in his stand-up exchanges with the notorious big-puncher Gomi. But, Gomi edged Bang with stinging leg kicks and championship conditioning for the decision. ...

World Victory Road announced Tuesday that Polish judoka Pawel Nastula (1-3) will come out of retirement to face Korean wrestler Yang Dong Yi (2-0) at Sengoku 4 in Saitama 24 August. Nastula, a 1996 Olympic Gold Medallist, announced his retirement after the Nevada State Athletic Commission suspended him for a positive drug test. The suspension came after a submission loss to Fighters.com’s third-ranked heavyweight “Babyface Assassin” Josh Barnett (23-5) at PRIDE 32 in October 2006. Nastula’s other two losses were also to top-ranked heavyweights, “Minotauro” Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (31-4-1) and Aleksander Emelianenko (13-3). Yi won both his professional fights via first-round TKO at DEEP, most recently over Keigo Takamori (6-6) in August last year. ...

UFC middleweight Kazuhiro Nakamura (11-7) revealed on his blog today that the judoka-turned-fighter is brushing up on the sweet science. Nakamura is training with Japanese cruiserweight boxer Ryosuke Takahashi, a former Oriental & Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) Cruiserweight Champion with a 17-5 boxing record.  The OPBF is a minor title under the World Boxing Council umbrella of 11 regional sanctioning federations. Nakamura is set to battle Fighters.com's fourth-ranked light heavyweight "The African Assassin" Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (4-2) in an all-judo showdown on the undercard of UFC 84. Sokoudjou posted Tuesday on his blog that he's training with Olympic judoka's "Shango" Hector Lombard (15-2-1) of Cuba and Pawel Nastula (1-3) of Poland, evidently expecting his fight with Nakamura to be more of a demonstration of circle theory. ...