Look out, or rather, look up – Japanese heavyweight Ed Polo King has arrived on the global MMA stage, and the young phenom certainly means business.
The enormous prospect, who would tower over most heavyweights in the UFC, scored a stunning first-round knockout in his first-ever professional MMA fight earlier today.
RIZIN’s ‘tallest ever fighter’ scores stunning first-round KO
The final MMA event of 2024 is taking place right now in Saitama, Japan, with a whopping 22 fights scheduled for the annual RIZIN New Year’s Eve PPV bonanza.
Whilst we’ve still got several hours of combat sports action to go (with MMA, Kickboxing and Boxing bouts on the card), there have already been several viral moments – including a gigantic heavyweight scoring a sensational debut KO.
23-year-old Japanese heavyweight Ed Polo King stands at a towering 6’8”, making him the promotion’s tallest ever athlete, and used every inch to land a stunning first-round knockout over Satoshi ‘Takakenshin’ Kamiyama.
Kamiyama, who himself stands at 6’3”, held his own through the opening exchanges; however, as he tried to duck under a left hook, found himself in a Thai clinch and moments later, ate a brutal knee up the middle.
King followed up with several massive shots; two insanely powerful right hands sending Kamiyama crumbling to the canvas – a first-round knockout in his professional debut, not a bad way to start your MMA career.
King reacted to the KO win a few minutes later: “I feel great. I don’t satisfy and will train lot. I’m too early for world level. I will improve step by step. I train with Lutte avec frappe [Senegalese wrestling] partners. They will debut someday. Please look forward to it.”
Brawl erupts in ‘boxing fight’ that saw referee punched twice
As we mentioned before, there have already been several viral moments from RIZIN’s New Years’ Eve show – including a chaotic brawl that resulted in a referee being punched not once, but twice.
That bout was actually meant to be an exhibition boxing match between Iranian Kickboxer Sina Karimian and Japanese combat sports veteran, Rukiya Anpo.
Deep into the sixth round, Karimian decided to ditch the agreed-upon rules, and threw a spinning back fist – Anpo threw one back in return – before all hell broke loose.
As the two athletes began swinging for the fences, the referee was smashed by two enormous punches to the face, first by Anpo and then a second time by Karimian.
Never change RIZIN, never change.