Yahoo Sport 
Fedor Retakes His Throne, King Mo Wins Rizin FF Grand Prix
It might be more than three years since Fedor Emelianenko last fought, but “The Last Emperor” was still far too good for Jaideep Singh. He needed just three minutes and four seconds to take the Indian down and finish him with punches for a first-round TKO at Rizin FF’s New Year’s Eve event in Saitama, Japan.
Their heavyweight bout was the main attraction of the night at the Saitama Super Arena. Fedor stalked the kickboxing veteran right from the start, looking to plant his feet and throw bombs. It took him just under 90 seconds to get the fight to the ground. From there, Singh was powerless to prevent the former Pride heavyweight champion overpowering him.
As Fedor moved from side control into full mount, Singh was holding on for dear life and desperately trying to stall, but with more than seven minutes remaining in the round time was not on his side. The Russian was picking his shots carefully and his opponent soon ceased defending himself intelligently, simply rolling onto his side and giving the referee no option but to stop the fight.
RELATED > The Odd Couple: Why Fedor Emelianenko and the UFC Need Each Other
For Fedor (35-4-0-1), it was a fourth win in succession and he looked back to something approaching his best, albeit against a very inexperienced opponent. Singh (2-1) suffered the first defeat of his MMA career and looked completely outmatched against the greatest heavyweight in the history of the sport.
In the final of the Rizin FF Heavyweight Tournament, Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal met Jiri Prochazka. The Czech had progressed after a grueling ten-minute war with Vadim Nemkovm, who was so exhausted he could not come out for the second round of their semifinal bout.
By contrast King Mo had expended relatively little energy to defeat Teodoras Aukstuolis by unanimous decision. The American looked sharp in the early stages, consistently slipping his opponent’s punches. Prochazka was the aggressor, but halfway through the round he made the mistake of chasing after the former Bellator champion and was finished with a perfectly timed straight right hand.
The finish came at 5:09 of the first round and secured King Mo a $300,000 U.S. paycheck, as well as taking his overall record to 19-4-0-1. Prochazka looks to be a promising prospect, but drops to 16-3-1 after suffering his first defeat in more than two years.
Earlier in the night, two-time K-1 Max champion Andy Souwer (1-0) got his MMA career off to the perfect start after stopping Yuichiro-Nagashima (4-3) with body punches in the first round of their lightweight match-up. Debutant Erson Yamamoto (0-1) wasn’t so fortunate, the featherweight was submitted by Kron Gracie (2-0) in the opening round.
(Follow @JamesGoyder on Twitter)
