Australian fighter Robert Lisita (pictured left) last night did what no other fighter has done previously, when he stopped Japanese veteran Takeshi ‘Lion’ Inoue in the main event of Rebel Fighting Championships 1 – Into The Lion’s Den.
The event was held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore.
Lisita started the fight on the front foot, coming forward looking to unleash and make the fight a scrap. Inoue though, kept his distance utilising his jab and leg kicks. Lisita secured a takedown in the second half of the round, but Inoue was able to immediately get back to his feet.
In the second round, Inoue pin-point striking started to find it’s mark but as the round continued, Lisita was able to secure the neck of Inoue in a bulldog choke, before falling back to the canvas and forcing Inoue to tap at the 3:19 mark of round two.
The submission loss was the first time that 33 year-old Inoue had been stopped in his 10 year – 29 fight career, with his previous 8 losses all coming via a decision. With the loss Takeshi’s record drops to 21-9.
A massive win for 30 year-old Lisita who in August also upset Nova Uniao trained Rodolfo Marques. Lisita has been basing himself out of the Phuket Top Team in Thailand and now takes his record to 13-5 with his third straight win.
On the preliminary portion of the card, Suman Mokhtarian from the Australian Top Team gym got a call-up three days out of the event, and managed to edge out a unanimous points decision over Mubarak Abdat. Mokhtarian was in Thailand training at Phuket Top Team at the time and successfully lost 7 kilograms after getting the late call-up.
Also on the undercard, fellow Australian Top Team fighter Amy Adam was submitted by her opponent, Singaporean fighter May Ooi. The submission came 38-seconds into the third and final round by rear-naked choke.
Official Results (Main Card):
- Robert Lisita (Australia) def Takeshi Inoue via Submission (Bulldog Choke), Rd 2, 3:19
- Gyo Pyung Hwang def Syafiq Abdul Bin Samad via KO (Flying Knee), Rd 1, 0:42
- Taiyo Nakahara def Marcos Vinicius Borges Pancini via KO (Punches), Rd 1, 3:21
- Alberto Mina def Glenn Sparv via TKO (Knee & Punches), Rd 1, 2:44
- Doo Hwan Kim def Chris Hofmann via KO (Punches), Rd 1, 4:35
Official Results (Prelims):
- Suman Mokhtarian (Australia) def Mubarak Abdat via Decision (Unanimous)
- Garie Tang def Mohd Amir Bin Ghafar via Submission (Armbar), Rd 1, 1:21
- Andy Neo Hong Chee def ChongQing He via Decision (Unanimous)
- May Ooi def Amy Adam (Australia) via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke), Rd 3, 0:38
- Ashraf Bing shafi def Azman Azman via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke), Rd 1, 1:58
- Amirul Syafiq def Shafian Samsuri via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke), Rd 2, 1:22
- Muhammad Nazri Sutari def Mah Yong Jian via TKO (Punches), Rd 1, 1:30
