On Thursday night, RIZIN made a rather large announcement that has seemingly gone completely under the radar amidst all the Floyd Mayweather, Tenshin Nasukawa media day frenzy.
RIZIN CEO, Nobuyuki Sakakibara, took to Twitter and said this.
今年最後の冒険をします！RIZIN.14追加大会として『Cygames presents RIZIN 平成最後のやれんのか！』(全席指定、一律5,000円)を大晦日の午前中に急遽開催することにしました。ファンの皆さんのご要望に少しでもお応え出来ればと思います。ぜひ平成最後の大晦日は朝から格闘技三昧で年越ししましょう！ pic.twitter.com/cKTt3BCtOO
— 榊󠄀原信行 Nobuyuki Sakakibara (@nobu_sakakibara) December 7, 2018
A very rough translation of this is as follows;
“We now have an additional fight card to go along with RIZIN 14, as Cygames presents ‘RIZIN: Heisei’s Last Yarennoka’. This event has been decided and it will be held in a hurry on the morning of NYE, before RIZIN 14. I hope we can respond to the demands of fans. Let’s have a New Year’s Eve with martial arts galore from the morning!”
This left fans confused. Would this be a full-fledged mixed martial arts card, as somewhat of a precursor to RIZIN 14? Or would this be akin to what the promotion has done in years past when they would host a fan expo event for those in attendance in between the 29th show and 31st shows they used to put on?
MMASucka has confirmed with sources close to the event, and this will indeed be an actual fight card. Announcements will begin to roll out on the 10th of December. By all accounts, it seems as though this event will be 3-4 hours or so in length. So it won’t be the typical 7+ hour spectacle RIZIN is used to providing.
It will be an appetizer before the main course RIZIN 14 will provide hours later, as this new second show will begin at 9am local time.
