On March 23rd, RIZIN CEO, Nobuyuki Sakakibara announced additional matchups for both RIZIN 35 and RIZIN Trigger Vol 3.
The events will take place on April 16th and 17th respectfully, at Musashino Mori Sports Arena, which has a max capacity of 10,000 seats. RIZIN Fighting Federation made an effort to take advantage of international travel restrictions that have started to loosen in Japan, so fans can expect foreign fighters to be present in the ring.
RIZIN Trigger Vol 3
Both Tatsuya “Yanbo” Saika and Kimihiro Eto will make their promotional debuts in a lightweight clash.
Saika is a Pancrase veteran and was an interim lightweight King of Pancrase. He unsuccessfully tried to unify the title taking on Takasuke Kume at Pancrase 325. This submission loss ended his five-fight winning streak.
Eto is a Shooto and One Championship alumni, who won his recent fight against Gunter Kalunda Ngunza at Shooto 2021 Vol 6.
Undefeated in RIZIN king Takaki Soya will square off against Nobuyoshi Nakatsukasa , who is making his promotional debut. Both fighters are looking to extend their respective winnings streaks to the third win in a row.
Shooto Watanabe will make his RIZIN Trigger debut against Takuma Sudo. In his last fight at the premiere edition of RIZIN LANDMARK Watanabe submitted Koki Naito, while unbeaten Sudo is riding a five-fight winning streak and is yet another debutant.
Hideki ‘Shrek’ Sekine realized his dream of fighting at NYE by defeating Shoma Shibisai at RIZIN 33. Now he will look to continue demonstrating the power of Pro Wrestling by defeating ex-sumo wrestler, Takakenshin, who will be making his MMA debut.
RIZIN 35
As it was previously reported, RIZIN 35 will feature three title fights as the Lightweight, Super Atomweight, and Featherweight championship belts will be on the line. The fight card was extended with six additional matchups.
A PXC and Pancrase veteran Kyle Aguon will be looking for his first win inside the RIZIN ring, as he lost his two previous fights to Vugar Karamov and Kleber Koike Erbst. His next opponent will be Takahiro Ashida, who also lost his last fight to Masanori Kanehara at RIZIN 31.
The aforementioned Karamov lost his last fight to Yutaka Saito at RIZIN 28 and will hope to bounce back by defeating Taichi Nakajima, who will be making his promotional debut.
In the heavyweight division, Shibisai will take on Rihards Biģis, who is unbeaten in both boxing and MMA.
A veteran with decades of experience and participant of the first fight in RIZIN’s history, Tsuyoshi Kosaka returns to the promotion as he shares the ring with Mikio Ueda. Kosaka’s last victory came at RIZIN Fighting World Grand Prix 2015 when he defeated James Thompson as it was followed by losses to Baruto Kaito, Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic, and Saša Milinković. He will take on karateka Miko Ueda, who will make his MMA debut.
UFC and Bellator alumni, Spike Carlyle will test himself against former Deep champion and five-time RIZIN participant, Koji Takeda. ‘The Alpha Ginger’ is riding a four-fight winning streak since suffering two losses that led to his UFC departure back in 2020.
The card is rounded up by Super Atomweight bout between Kanna Asakura and Satomi Takano. Asakura won the RIZIN Super Atomweight Grand Prix back in 2017 but unsuccessfully tried to win the championship belt on two different occasions. Takano is the current Shooto Super Atomweight Champion and will enter the RIZIN ring with a three-fight winning streak.
RIZIN 35 fight card:
Roberto de Souza vs. Johnny Case – for RIZIN Lightweight title
Ayaka Hamasaki vs. Seika Izawa – for RIZIN Super Atomweight title)
Juntaro Ushiku vs. Yutaka Saito – for RIZIN Featherweight title)
Kanna Asakura vs. Satomi Takano
Koji Takeda vs Spike Carlyle
Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. Mikio Ueda
Shoma Shibisai vs Rihards Bigis
Vugar Karamov vs. Taichi Nakajima
Takahiro Ashida vs. Kyle Aguon
RIZIN Trigger Vol 3 fight card:
Yusuke Yachi vs Luiz Gustavo
Kazumasa Majima vs Masanori Kanehara
Yuto Hokamura vs Kazuma Kuramoto
Hideki Sekine vs. Takakenshin
Shooto Watanabe vs. Takuma Sudo
Takaki Soya vs. Nobuyoshi Nakatsukasa
Tatsuya Saika vs. Kimihiro Eto
Main Photo via RIZIN FF English.
