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.

Seventh-ranked middleweight “Twinkle Toes” Frank Trigg (17-6) grounded Olympic gold medalist judoka Makoto Takimoto (4-5) at will with single- and double-leg shots, then rained a dominant G’n'P over three rounds to pick-up a unanimous decision in his first fight since December 2007.

In other lightweight tournament match-ups, PANCRASEism’s Satoru Kitaoka (21-8-9) tapped eighth-ranked welterweight Matt Hughes‘s H.I.T. Squad pupil Clay French (16-3) in an Achilles lock at 31 seconds of round one.

IFL Champion “Lion” Ryan Schultz (20-10-1) suffered a surprise second-round knockout by Cage Force Lightweight Champion and former Shooto rookie champion Mizuto Hirota (10-2).

Finally, in an ugly-as-sin slog, Grabaka’s Kazunori Yokota (7-1-3) won a unanimous decision over Slovenian “Zelva” Bojan Kosednar (6-2), who earned two yellow cards for holding and grabbing the ropes.

Yokota saw yellow too for causing Kosednar to see stars with a low blow.

In undercard fights, heavyweight Dong Yi Yang (3-0) TKO’d Polish judoka Pawel Nastula (1-4) in a strange decision by the referee.

In the second round, Nastula worked an armbar, but released it for Yang to rise.  Nastula remained grounded and pointed to his cup, prompting to referee to call the fight at 2:15.

Europe Top Team light heavyweight Moise Rimbon (13-7-3) tapped Aussie kickboxer Peter Graham (0-2) in rear naked choke at 42 seconds of round two.

Valentijn Overeem (26-22) knocked out Yoshiki Takahashi (28-24-3) at 2:43 of round one with a flying knee.

Misaki successfully countered Clark’s aggressive stand-up for the “W”.

Ninth-ranked welterweight “The Goat” Nick Thompson (36-9-1) survived a “Maicon” Michael Costa (9-4) hook that detonated in the second round, leaving “The Goat” on the mat, to tap Costa at 4:13 of the round in a Kimura.

YAMMA Pit Fighting Heayweight Champion “Diesel” Travis Wiuff (53-11) cemented his return to being taken seriously with a first-round knockout of “Ironhead” Kazuyuki Fujita (15-7) at 1:24, a feet never previously achieved.

In the night’s main event, heavyweight Hidehiko Yoshida (8-6-1) ended a three-loss streak by tapping 46-year old kickboxer “Mo” Maurice Smith (12-13) in a neck crank at 2:23 of round one.

Sanae Kikuta (27-6-3) finished off Englishman Chris Rice (12-6), who entered the ring costumed as the Grim Reaper, in a first-round armbar at 3:54.

“Pe de Pano” Marcio Cruz (4-2) also tapped Korean heavyweight Mu Bae Choi (7-3) in a rear naked choke at 4:37 of round one.

Brazilian lightweight Rodrigo Damm (8-1) called out second-ranked lightweight “Fireball Kid” Takanori Gomi (28-3) after the referee ended “Gamebred” Jorge Masvidal‘s (13-3) night, controversially calling the fight at 4:38 of round two while Masvidal was recovering from a punch that dropped the brawler.

Middleweight Fabio Silva (10-4) knocked out Yoshiki Takahashi (28-23-3) with a knee at :24 of round two.