This morning at a press conference, Rizin Fighting Federation announced multiple bouts for their April 17 show, as well as two new signings in the form of always-exciting lightweight Daron Cruickshank and heavyweight Chris ‘Huggy Bear’ Barnett.

Multiple fights added to RIZIN FF 1 next month, including debuts for Daron Cruickshank and ‘Huggy Bear’

Here is the post on the Rizin website for those who were not able to watch the press conference.

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Cruickshank (16-8, 1NC) will bring his exciting style from the UFC cage to the Rizin FF ring to take on former Shooto champion Shinji Sasaki (16-8-3). The 13-fight UFC vet has lost three-straight and has not tasted victory since October of 2014 where he beat Anthony Njokuani in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Sasaki is currently riding a three-fight win streak and most recently took out Won Sik Park via KO in 40 seconds at ROAD FC 29 two weeks ago.

Chris ‘Huggy Bear’ Barnett (14-2) will also make his debut on the card, and he’ll be taking on ‘Baby Fedor’ Kirill Sidelnikov (8-4). 29-year-old Barnett is is a real knockout-artist, with 12 of his 14 wins coming by way of KO, including a first round knockout over Shinichi Suzukawa in his most recent outing at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2015 on NYE. 27-year-old Sidelnikov is coming off of a big first round knockout over Carlos Toyota at ‘RIZIN FF WGP 2015: Day 1’ in a fight that was his first in five years.

24-year-old Teodoras Aukštuolis (8-3) will also return to action as he takes on Jaideep Singh (2-1). Aukštuolis was a RIZIN 2015 WGP semi-finalist, scoring a big KO over Jungle Fight champion Bruno Cappelozza on Day 1, he went on to lose to former Strikeforce champion and current Bellator LHW Muhammad ‘King Mo’ Lawal on Day 2 via decision. 6’5 Singh (2-1) also fought for RIZIN on NYE, as he headlined the three-day event opposite arguably the greatest fighter of all time; Fedor Emelianenko in a losing effort. Prior to this, Singh was most known for his 40-10 kickboxing record which saw him KO Sergei Kharitonov to win the K-1 WGP 2010 Final.

Another RIZIN 2015 WGP semi-finalist will return to action in the form of 23-year-old Russian Vadim Nemkov (4-1) as he takes on Sweden’s Karl ‘King’ Albrektsson (4-0). Nemkov made his Rizin debut on Day 1 of the 2015 WGP in the quarter-finals, knocking out former KSW LHW champion and UFC-vet Goran Reljić in the first round. On Day 2 in the semi-finals Nemkov lost to Jiří Procházka following an entertaining ten-minute battle. Albrektsson is a solid and athletic young fighter who is as well-rounded as they come for a guy with such limited experience. It’s also worth noting that Albrektsson has competed in some Shootfighting bouts which aren’t on his record.

And finally, jiu-jitsu ace Gabi Garcia (1-0) will return to action under the Rizin banner against Russia’s Anna Malyukova (1-0) in a light heavyweight contest. Gabi Garcia took part in the Rizin Fighting Federation show in December and took out Lei’D Tapa via knockout. Finding information on Malyukova is a bit tough, but she also won her debut MMA fight via (T)KO, and, according to Karim Zidan of BloodyElbow; trains out of Gladiator Fight Team Belgorod. She also won the Russian MMA Championship and the World Cup of MMA in Russia.

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