UFC Fight Night 75 results: Mizuto Hirota, Teruto Ishihara fight to rare split draw

Mizuto Hirota and Teruto Ishihara

SAITAMA, Japan – Mizuto Hirota and Teruto Ishihara battled back and forth in a seesaw fight that left both men battered and beaten.

In the end, the judges simply couldn’t agree on a winner, leaving Hirota (17-7-2 MMA, 0-2-1 UFC) and Ishihar (7-2-2 MMA, 0-0-1 UFC) to content themselves with a split draw (29-28, 28-29, 29-29) after an exciting three-round fight.

The featherweight bout – the tournament final of “Road to UFC: Japan” – opened up the main card of today’s UFC Fight Night 75 event at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. It aired on FOX Sports 1 following prelims on FOX Sports 2.

The fight was never short on excitement, thanks largely to Ishihara’s antics and Hirota’s dogged determination. It was a tone that Ishihira set early, beginning the bout with a fake glove touch that turned into a body kick. Not one to be easily discouraged, Hirota plowed forward through that and just about every other strike Ishihira threw, putting constant pressure on the younger fighter to compensate for the speed advantage he was giving up to Ishihira.

To his credit, Ishihira put his quickness to good use early on. Twice he dropped Hirota with his stinging left hand, and twice Hirota popped right back up to resume his attack, bulling his way in close to brawl it out some more. Midway through the second, the work rate began to take its toll on Ishihira, who slowed noticeably under the steady pressure of Hirota.

Once some of the spring had vanished from Ishihira’s step, Hirota looked to take the fight to the ground. Though he managed a couple takedowns, he wasn’t able to turn the fight into the kind of ground battle he might have liked. Instead, Hirota had to settle for a fight that kept returning to the feet, where he did his best to counter Ishihira’s speed with hard hooks and a style that relied on never taking a backward step.

As the fight headed to the judges after three rounds, it seemed they would have their work cut out for them. Not only was the fight close, it turned out to be too close for the judges to reach any consensus, with one judge giving it to Hirota, another to Ishihira, and a third calling it even. With that result after such a grueling fight, all the fighters could do was shrug in confusion and attempt tired smiles through swollen faces.

For Hirota, the draw snaps a three-fight winning streak. Ishihira comes away with his second draw in three years.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 75 results include:

• Mizuto Hirota vs. Teruto Ishihara split draw (29-28, 28-29, 29-29)
• Keita Nakamura def. Li Jingliang via technical submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 3, 2:17
• Nick Hein def. Yusuke Kasuya via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
• Kajan Johnson def. Naoyuki Kotani via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
• Shinsho Anzai def. Roger Zapata via TKO (injury) – Round 3, 0:47

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 75, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan and Mike Bohn contributed to this report on site in Japan.)