Road to UFC finalist Toshiomi Kazama waged war with Dana White's Contender Series alum Charalampos Grigoriou at UFC Vegas 95 today, with both fighters in desperate need of a win to preserve their jobs.
The end would see Kazama mounting a brilliant comeback on the expertise of his grappling background to win the fight. Here's how it went down:
The battle began with Kazama (11-4) pushing to move the fight into his world, clinching with Grigoriou (8-5) and attempting to use his judo to get the fight down. Having no success, an illegal knee to the headed of a downed Grigoriou briefly halted the action as Charalampos recovered. Referee Jason Herzog brought in the doctor to examine Grigoriou, and the fight continued in the center of the cage.
Immediately, Toshiomi Kazama pressed his opponent back against the cage and took his back. Kazama was all over Grigoriou, but was eventually reversed and forced to try and submit off of his back. Another reversal from Kazama got him back to the dominant position, eventually finding the back of Grigoriou once again. As the seconds of round one ended, the Japanese judoka slid to the side to attempt an inverted triangle, but the round concluded.
Charalampos Grigoriou came out for round two striking wild like his career hinged on a finish in this round. A left hook found the chin of Kazama, and he fell to the mat stunned. the punches from top position rained down on Kazama, but Road to UFC veteran was able to weather the storm to slow things down.
The writing was on the wall of what Kazama was planning as he opened and raised his guard up the back of Grigoriou. Once he controlled the arm of his opponent, he locked in a textbook triangle choke and illicited the tap moments later at 1:55 of round two.
Most likely, Toshiomi Kazama had saved his UFC job and earned his first promotional win as he'd dropped his first two fights.
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