World Victory Road’s “Sengoku: Ninth Battle” took place on Sun., Aug. 2, 2009, at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

PRO MMA (promma.info) provided live play-by-play of all the action.

The Sengoku Lightweight Championship was on the line in the main event with Satoru Kitaoka taking on Mizuto Hirota. The fight went back and forth. PRO MMA (promma.info) had Kitaoka winning the first and third rounds and Hirota winning the second. It was not until the fourth round, when Kitaoka was visibly winded, that Hirota was able to finish him off with strikes and take home the title.

In the Sengoku Featherweight Grand Prix semi-finals Hatsu Hioki defeated Masanori Kanehara by unanimous decision and Michihiro Omigawa defeated Marlon Sandro by split decision.

Due to concussion, Hioki was not able to continue to the final round and was replaced by Kanehara. So it was Masanori Kanehara vs. Michihiro Omigawa in the Featherweight Grand Prix finals. In the end, Kanehara redeemed himself and pulled off a split decision victory over Omigawa.

One of the most anticipated fights of the night had the Bulgarian Blagoi Ivanov making his Sengoku debut against Kazuyuki Fujita. It was a battle of attrition between the big guys with Ivanov squeaking out a split decision against the seasoned PRIDE veteran.

Sengoku Lightweight Championship
Mizuto Hirota def. Satoru Ktaoka by TKO (strikes)

Sengoku Featherweight Grand Prix semi-finals
Hatsu Hioki def. Masanori Kanehara unanimous decision
Michihiro Omigawa def. Marlon Sandro by split decision

Sengoku Featherweight Grand Prix finals
Masanori Kanehara def. Michihiro Omigawa by split decision

Reserve Bout
Chan Sung Jung def. Matt Jaggers by triangle chode rd2

Non-Tournament Bouts
Kazuo Misaki def. Kazuhiro Nakamura by guillotine choke rd1
Eiji Mitsuoka def. Clay French by guillotine choke rd1
Blagoi Ivanov def. Kazuyuki Fujita by split decision
Yoshihiro Nakao def. Mu Bae Choi by unanimous decision
Dan Hornbuckle def. Akihiro Gono by KO (head kick) rd3
Ryosuke Komori def. Takeshi Numajiri by TKO (punch) rd1
Shigeki Osawa def. Toru Harai by TKO (doctor stoppage) rd1
Ikuo Usuda def. Koji Ando by unanimous decision

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