MMA Rundown – February 22-25, part 2 – WFCA, DEEP 82 Impact

We’re not done with this weekend’s fights, kids. The Western Hemisphere may not be as busy, but the rest of the world isn’t getting much rest.

First up, Akhmat Fight Club presents WFCA 45. This one’s headlined by former M-1 and Fight Nights fighter Maxim Grishin (25-7) against former UFC fighter Leonardo Guimaraes (12-5). Grishin notched back to back wins after a TKO loss to Magomed Ankalaev, and has career wins over Trevor Prangley and Rodney Wallace, as well as former UFC fighters Mario Miranda and Joachim Christensen. Guimarães finally snapped a four-fight losing skid with his win on the Brazilian circuit over then 1-2 Maicon Kobayashi at Watch Out Combat Series 48. Yes, Brazil continues the fine tradition of awkward promotion names, and that’s actually a good one.

Other fights include Abubakar Vagaev (16-2) riding a four-fight win streak as he faces 21-6 Rodrigo Cavalheiro. Vagaev has wins over Tiago Varejao and a rematch win over Beslan Ushukov, while being only 24 years old. Cavalheiro has had a consistent career, but appears to have a well-defined ceiling. His losses include fights against Blackzilians representative Jason Jackson, Marcin Held, and KSW’s Mateusz Gamrot. 17-1 Khusein Khaliev takes on 6-0 Tagir Tagirov, while Alexey Efremov (19-7-1 draw) will have his hands full against Shamil Abdulaev (10-0). Efremov has wins over longtime vet Xavier Foupa-Pokam and Ildemar Alcantara, with a draw and a loss against former WSOF fighter Vagab Vagabov.

WFCA posts their fights on their YouTube channel, no information is available on whether or not this will be streaming live.

Early Saturday morning brings some real meat and potatoes for the overnight crowd, as DEEP 82 Impact takes place at the famed Differ Ariake in Tokyo, Japan. Main event for this card is a middleweight title fight between Tatsuya Mizuno (17-12-1 draw) and Taisuke Okuno (13-11-2). Mizuno’s fought a who’s who of fighters all the way to heavyweight, including losses against Gegard Mousasi, Thiago Silva, Mirko CroCop, Babalu Sobral, and Sergei Kharitonov. He does have career victories over UFC fighter Ilir Latifi (DA GAWD), as well as Trevor Prangley and Melvin Manhoef. Okuno has losses against Yuta Watanabe, Yasubey Enomoto and Takasuke Kume. He has wins over Nick Thompson, Ryo Chonan, Akihiro Gono and Ryuta Sakurai.

Yuki Motoya (18-5) returns to action for the first time since his decision loss last April to former UFC flyweight title challenger Kyoji Horiguchi. His opponent will be Korean fighter Jae Woong Byun, who only has a 2-0 record, but earned a decision victory in his second pro fight against Masakazu Imanari (yes, really) in August of 2016.

Also on the card will be former RIZIN GP participant Ken Hasegawa (15-2-1 draw) against Genpei Hayashi (8-6-1 draw), as well as former UFC fighter Rin Nakai (19-2-1) taking on 1-2 Young Ji Kim (don’t ask). This card starts around 2:15am EST on Saturday morning.