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By: Alex Williams, MMATorch Contributor Takanori Gomi, the last reigning Pride FC lightweight champion and ranked by many as the number two 155 pounder in the world behind BJ Penn, was upset by Sergey Golyaev via a controversial split decision at the latest Sengoku event in Saitama, Japan, which took place early this morning U.S. time. Though Gomi was hurt and nearly stopped by Golyaev in the second round, many observers thought that he otherwise controlled the action enough to deserve the judges' nod. Golyaev, having not fought in two years, entered the bout with a 10-6 record.
In other news from the event:
*UFC veteran Jorge Santiago defeated two opponents in one evening (the second of whom was Kazuhiro Nakamura) to win the promotion's Middleweight Grand Prix. Since being cut by the UFC two years ago after suffering knock out loses to Chris Leben and Alan Belcher, Santiago has been on a tear, going 8-0 with all eight victories coming via knock out or submission. This marks his second 185 pound tournament victory, his first coming in Strikeforce last year. Seven of his past eight victims have fought in the UFC and/or Pride FC: Nakamura, Logan Clark, Yuki Sasaki, Trevor Prangley, Seal Salmon, Jeremy Horn, and Andrei Semenov.
*Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal, a Team Quest exponent, violently slammed and battered veteran Fabio Silva in just his second pro fight. Lawal, a middleweight with a wrestling background, fought at heavyweight and scored a two minute knock out against the much-more experienced UFC and Pride FC veteran Travis Wiuff in his debut.
A thorough rundown of the entire event, including information on Satoru Kitaoka's Lightweight Grand Prix win and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira's victory, can be found at Sherdog.
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