RIZIN Otoko Matsuri took place on May 4th, 2025 and one of the most interesting fights on the card was between the veteran Daisuke Nakamura and Taisei Sakuraba. As the son of the legendary Kazushi Sakuraba, there has been a lot of attention on Taisei as he embarks upon his professional MMA career. It’s still very early days though of course, as Taisei had only had one fight before he stepped in the ring to face Nakamura. He won his debut in just 26 seconds too, so he was coming in to this with almost zero fight experience and taking on a man with more than 60 professional fights.
Where Sakuraba would normally have an advantage over opponents on the ground, Nakamura is an accomplished grappler who already had 18 submission wins to his name in MMA. One thing that did go in Sakuraba’s favor is the fact that Nakamura had lost his last six fights in a row and was already 44 years old. The huge wealth of experience paid off in the end though, as Nakamura was able to get the submission win over Sakuraba with a tight armbar in the second round. It was a big moment for Nakamura because it was his first win in over two years, while Sakuraba will now be looking to learn from the experience and bounce back from his first loss.
RIZIN Otoko Matsuri Full Results
Razhabali Shaidulloev defeats Kleber Koike via Knockout – Punches
Shaidulloev for the RIZIN FF featherweight championship
Mikuru Asakura defeats Chihiro Suzuki via TKO – Doctor’s Stoppage
Kyoma Akimoto defeats Ryo Takagi via Decision – Unanimous
Kyohei Hagiwara defeats Taisei Nishitani via Knockout – Punch
Mikio Ueda defeats Shoma Shibisai via TKO – Leg Kicks
José Augusto defeats Tsuyoshi Sudario via Decision – Unanimous
Intermission
Marek Samociuk defeats Daniel James via Decision – Unanimous
KOUZI vs Sina Karimian ends in a Draw – Time-limit
Makoto Shinryu defeats Yuki Ito via Decision – Unanimous
Daisuke Nakamura defeats Taisei Sakuraba via Submissiom – Armbar
Danny Sabatello defeats Shinobu Ota via Knockout – Punches
HIROYA defeats Tatsuki Shinotsuka via TKO – Corner Stoppage
Takaki Soya defeats John Dodson via Decision – Unanimous
Taio Asahisa defeats Yoshiya Uzatsuyo via Knockout – Head Kick
Erson Yamamoto defeats Daichi Tomizawa via Submission – Rear-naked Choke
Joe Hiramoto defeats Toki Tamaru via Decision – Unanimous
The footage of Daisuke Nakamura submitting Taisei Sakuraba at RIZIN Otoko Matsuri was uploaded to the official X account of RIZIN FF:
