Tatsuya Kawajiri dropped down in weight to join Rizin’s bantamweight (138 lbs) tournament. Unfortunately for the beloved Japanese MMA pioneer, things didn’t go so well for him. After finding some success with top control early, the former PRIDE and Shooto star started telegraphing his takedowns more. This is when his opponent in Gabriel Oliveira capitalized with a perfectly timed knee.
Kawajiri was knocked out at the 1 minute mark of the second round, and you can watch the clip below:
There were questions on how the former lightweight champ in Japan would perform after cutting that much weight at his age.