During Rizin FF’s press conference on Thursday, a great bantamweight fight announcement from Sakakibara was overlooked. As he announced a big fight between two young prospects in Maike Linhares and Soo Chul Kim.

Jungle Fight Champion Maike Linhares meets former ONE Champ Soo Chul Kim at RIZIN 2

Brazil’s Linhares (9-0) is the current Jungle Fight bantamweight champion, beating Rodrigo Praia for the vacant title at Jungle fight 81 in September. He has never gone the distance, with five submission wins and four (T)KO’s. At only 22-years-old, Linhares was also one of my top “Fighters to Watch” coming out of Brazil.

24-year-old South Korean, Nam (11-5-1) has been fighting under the ROAD FC banner exclusively since late-2013. In August he fought to a Draw vs. Marlon Sandro. Prior to this he had finished four opponents in a row, including stoppage victories over Issei Tamura (SUB1) and Motonobu Tezuka (TKO1). Before this streak, he lost his ONE bantamweight title to Bibiano Fernandes by decision. He initially won the title by knocking out Leandro Issa.

This fight will reportedly take place at RIZIN 2 on December 31, which will be headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Jaideep Singh. 

12.31 RIZIN FIGHTING WORLD GRAND-PRIX 2015 さいたま3DAYS さいたまスーパーアリーナ大会▼キム・スーチョル（韓国／ROAD FC TEAM FORCEジム）vsマイケ・リニャーレス （Maike Linhares・ブラジル）

— ゴング格闘技 (@GONG_KAKUTOGI) December 18, 2015

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