Just finished watching this event today I know I'm late giving thoughts but overall a really good event imo, my favorite moment was Nakamura subbing young Sakuraba totally unexpected and proved Rizin isn't into fight fixing as I was thinking that Nakamura was purposely keeping his hands down. Really like Asahisa always exciting as well as Hiramoto and Erson getting a win those first 3 fights were a great way to kick off the event.
I didn't think Dodson won like Brown did while commentating just felt he hit more air while Soya got td's and imo landed better shots, Kondo's destruction of Shinotsuka was great and satisfying, Sabatello just outmatched Ota who had a lot of heart it is what it is. Worst fight on the card for me though was Sina Karimian just feel like he's a big guy that relies more on power and it was the one freakshow fight and also didn't care for Akimoto's fight I don't know just felt it was kind of boring while the commentary was exaggerating about the action but not a big deal as most of this event was entertaining.
Now the 3 quarter final HW matches first the James vs Samociuk while many probably found this boring I didn't thought James would win, the first round was action packed and there were times during this fight were I really thought Marek was gonna get finished like on his back eating shots from James so for him to out grapple and win a decision was impressive to me, James has 2 wins over Golm who isn't the best but was in the UFC at one point and had a win over Fortune until he tested positive.
Augusto vs Sudario this fight was weird and annoying mostly because of Augusto not finishing it when he could have, this is a criticism of modern mma that guys take it for granted that just because they get a knockdown that the fight should be stopped when really it was just dramatic, fighters way back would not have hesitated to rush in and land 5 extra shots. From that point on Augusto acted like he was the one who nearly got KO'd by not doing much and I feel he could have finished Sudario but instead layed back.
Ueda vs Shibisai I like both of these Japanese HW's and was looking forward to this, I had no idea who would take this or how good either of them really were until this match. Ueda has got some unique striking skills and I love that he uses Karate he looked like a beast here and I am really looking forward to see how far he goes in this tournament, I can't really make a prediction on who would win this at this stage given that there is still a quarter final match that needs to happen but Ueda could make it to the final I think he's that good.
The co-main was surprising the game plan that Asakura implemented and I thought it caught Suzuki off guard, the way this ended I think somewhere down the line there should be a rematch as before it ended Suzuki was really going for the finish and trying to score a KO, Asakura knew how dangerous this fight was and just did what was needed good performance.
Main event all I can say is that Shaydullaev is one of the best in the world the performance says it all, he crushed Koike quite easily and has many weapons including his wrestling he's very solid and I see him holding onto that belt for a long time.
A very good event by Rizin one of the better I've seen in a long time most of the fights were good imo, I'll be looking forward to the june, july and september events for sure.