Shaidulloev Beats A.J. McKee to Keep RIZIN and PFL Belts at 19-0

Razhabali Shaidulloev walked out of the Kyocera Dome Osaka with two featherweight belts still around his waist and a perfect record intact. The unbeaten champion outworked A.J. McKee across three rounds in Thursday's Super RIZIN 5 main event, taking a clean sweep on the cards — 30-27 across the board — to defend both his RIZIN and PFL titles and push to 19-0.

The number that matters most here isn't the crowd of nearly 49,000, though that's the kind of house most promotions dream about. It's the third round itself: this was the first time in 19 pro fights that Shaidulloev had ever been dragged into deep water. He handled it fine.

McKee actually landed the best early shot of the night, rocking the champion in the opening round. But instead of unraveling, Shaidulloev planted him on the canvas and rode out the rest of the frame. McKee sniffed out a choke, couldn't finish it, and spent the back half of the round fighting for scraps.

The Champion Took Over

Round two was where the fight tilted for good. Shaidulloev came forward, hurt McKee with a pair of clean hands upstairs and dug in a body kick that visibly drained him. From there it was ground-and-pound, and McKee had no answer.

By the third, McKee knew he needed a finish and threw everything he had — knees early, a scramble to Shaidulloev's back, a late takedown. None of it landed with enough force to change anything. Shaidulloev absorbed the pressure and coasted to the sweep.

The most interesting line came after the fight. Shaidulloev said he has just one bout left on his RIZIN contract, which reframes everything about the promotion's featherweight picture. And Kyoma Akimoto wasted no time making his case, climbing into the ring for a face-off. Akimoto's riding a six-fight win streak after beating former champ Kleber Koike in August, so he's the obvious next name.

Asakura Sends Aoki Home the Hard Way

The co-main was a homecoming story that curdled fast. Shinya Aoki was back in RIZIN for the first time in 11 years, and for a moment it looked like the veteran might turn back the clock — he took Mikuru Asakura's back and hunted a rear-naked choke.

Then he switched to an armbar, and that was the mistake. Asakura escaped the position, got on top, and hammered Aoki's head until the fight was waved off at 2:39 of the first round. A violent, decisive finish for the Japanese star, and a brutal end to Aoki's return.

The main card opener gave the crowd its controversy quota. Ren Hiramoto edged Karshyga Dautbek by split decision, ending the Kazakhstani's 12-fight unbeaten run — but not without argument. Dautbek rocked Hiramoto in the first and looked the better man late, and one judge scored it 29-27 the other way. The other two saw it 29-28 for the home fighter.

On the prelims, former RIZIN lightweight champ Roberto Satoshi bounced back from his title loss to Ilkhom Nazimov with a unanimous nod over Shunta Nomura. Satoshi revealed afterward he'd dislocated his shoulder in the first round, which explains the grind-it-out performance, and asked for a title shot on the traditional New Year's Eve card. He's got a compelling pitch: a 21-second knockout of current champ Luiz Gustavo already on his résumé.

Add it up and Super RIZIN 5 did its job. Shaidulloev keeps building an unbeaten case with a contract that's about to run short, Akimoto's queued up, and Satoshi is knocking on the door for the year-end card. The featherweight and lightweight ladders both got a shake — the question now is whether the champion sticks around long enough to clear them.