Shungo Oyama Wins Middleweight Grand Prix at Road FC 6 in Korea

Shungo Oyama finishing Hae Suk Son in the final of the Middleweight Grand Prix. Courtesy of Manabu Takashima.

Shungo Oyama continued his recent renaissance by defeating two opponents in one night to claim the Road FC Middleweight Grand Prix title. He has now won five straight fights and improves to 13-13, leaving him one win short of having a positive record for the first time since 2001.

The quarter finals took place at Road FC 5 in December with Oyama defeating Denis Kang in the most notable of the four matchups. The Japanese fighter's reward for that performance was a semi final with Jong Dae Kim, which he won with a first round heel hook, while Hae Suk Son stopped Eun Soo Lee with strikes early on in their fight.

It took Oyama just over two minutes to take Son down and finish him with punches for a victory which few would begrudge him given the calibre of opposition he consistently faced early on in his career. The Japanese middleweight has been in there with Wanderlei Silva, Mirko Crocop, Dan Henderson, Renzo Gracie, Melvin Manhoef and Carlos Newton.

As the middleweight Grand Prix reached its conclusion a 135 lbs tournament got underway with Andrew Leone taking on Kyung Ho Kang, the number one Korean fighter at the weight. The American had announced his intention to compete at flyweight in future but has agreed to continue to compete in the division at least for the duration of this tournament after being put forward by ONE Fighting Championship to provide an international presence.

Perhaps with this information in mind Kang, who had an 9-5 record going into this fight, decided to attempt an ambitious weight cut in order maximize his size advantage, The plan backfired when he missed weight by 5 lbs and even though reports suggest he rehydrated back up to over 155 lbs he was hit with a point per round penalty meaning that he effectively had to secure a stoppage if he wanted to win.

Leone was on the receiving end of some solid knees to the head while on the ground in the opening round and also survived an armbar attempt, but was never dominated to the extent that Kang could recover his three point deficit and progressed to the semi finals courtesy of a decision win.

There were three other fights in the bantamweight tournament. It is is unclear whether they were quarter finals or just qualifiers but the winners were Jae Hoon Moon, Dae Hwan Kim and Jae Hyun So.

Full results:

Jae Hoon Moon defeated Jin Suk Jung via TKO
Dae Hwan Kim defeated Kwang Su Park via decision
Jae Hyun So defeated Myung Sik Kwak via decision
Hyung Seok Lee defeated Chung Il Jeo via submission (Guillotine Choke)
Seok Mo Kim defeated Jung Min Kang via TKO
Eun Soo Kim defeated Sang Soo Lee via KO
Hae Suk Son defeated Eun Soo Lee via TKO advances to 185 lbs Tournament Final
Shungo Oyama defeated Jong Dae Kim vis submission (Heel Hook)
Jae Young Kim defeated Hee Seung Kim via submission (North-South Choke)
Andrew Leone defeated Kyung Ho Kang via decision advances to 135 lbs Tournament Semi Final
Lee Moon Han defeated Jung Won Lee via decision
Shungo Oyama defeated Hae Suk Son via TKO wins 185 lbs Tournament