Highlights: Brennan Ward rallies to clinch second round submission at Rizin Day 2

Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Bellator’s Brennan Ward extended his win streak on Thursday morning with a submission victory at Rizin Fighting Federation. The American rallied from a lackluster opening round to defeat Japan’s Ken Hasegawa by rear-naked choke in the second round. With the win, Ward moved to 13-3 with four consecutive wins in 2015 alone. A title shot in Bellator could be in his future.

Rizin FF’s second show features the long-awaited return of former Pride FC heavyweight champion and Russian legend Fedor Emelianenko. The Stary Oskol native will meet 2-0 DEEP champion Jaideep Singh in the main event of the evening. It will mark Fedor’s first fight in nearly four years.

Video courtesy of ZombieProphet.

Check out the finish below:

Brennan Ward vs Ken Hasegawa #RizinFF #Rizin Finish pic.twitter.com/xiikIMLY8M

— ZombieProphet (@ZProphet_MMA) December 31, 2015

Follow along with the live updates and results here. Spike TV holds exclusive rights to the North america broadcast and will present a tape delayed version titled ‘Breakfast with Fedor’ on Thursday morning at 10am ET.

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About the author

Karim Zidan

Karim Zidan is a investigative reporter and feature writer focusing on the intersection of sports and politics. He has written for BloodyElbow since 2014 and has served as an associate editor since 2016. He also writes for The New York Times and The Guardian. Karim has been invited to speak about his work at numerous universities, including Princeton, and was a panelist at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival and the Oslo Freedom Forum. He also participated in the United Nations counter-terrorism conference in 2021. His reporting on Ramzan Kadyrov’s involvement in MMA, much of which was done for Bloody Elbow, has led to numerous award nominations, and was the basis of an award-winning HBO Real Sports documentary.