Sengoku Raiden Championship announced on Thursday, April 15 that its featherweight champion, Masanori Kanehara (16-7-5), will face Marlon Sandro (16-1) for his first title defense at SRC 13 on June 20.
Previous rumors suggested that the title match was originally scheduled for SRC 12 in March; however, the match was scrapped after Kanehara withdrew due to injury. At SRC 12, Sandro demolished Kanehara's teammate, Tomonari Kanomata, in nine seconds to earn the third, first-round KO victory in his last four fights.
The stunning victory over Kanomata cemented Sandro's status as the top contender. In fact, Kanehara seemingly gave verbal consent to Sandro's title challenge when he rushed in to the ring to rescue the supine Kanomata immediately after the fight.
A product of the famed Nova Uniao camp in Rio de Janeiro, Sandro incurred his first and only loss of his career to Michihiro Omigawa in the semi-final round of the Sengoku Featherweight grand prix last year. Visibly upset over the controversial split decision loss, he has since rebounded with back-to-back, first-round KO victories over Yuji Hoshino and the aforementioned Kanomata.
ZST veteran, Kanehara went from tournament dark horse to winner during the same featherweight tourney. Despite dropping an unanimous decision to the tournament favorite, Hatsu Hioki in the semi-final round of the tournament, he returned in the final to face Michihiro Omigawa on the same night after Hioki was deemed unable to proceed to the final due to concussion. He edged Omigawa via split decision in the final to become the inaugural featherweight champion of the Japanese promotion.
Kanehara continued his ascent when he bested the Japanese MMA icon, Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto in a "DREAM vs. SRC" cross-promotional bout at Dynamite!! 2009 on New Year's Eve. In preparation for the upcoming title defense against Sandro, he will travel to the US and join the Jackson's MMA stable for a month-long training camp.
Elsewhere, 2004 Olympic judo silver medalist, Hiroshi Izumi (1-1) will return for his third professional fight against a yet-to-be-announced opponent at SRC 13. Also confirmed for the fight card is the current lightweight King of Pancrase and Venezuelan wildman, Maximo Blanco (5-2-1).
Stay tuned to MMAmania for more information regarding the upcoming SRC 13 fight card.
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