Rizin has featured MMA, kickboxing, shootboxing, tag team grappling, and now can add bare-knuckle boxing to its resume. At a press conference on Thursday, Rizin CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara announced that former K-1 kickboxer Tatsuki Shinotsuka would be one of the opponents. The other opponent has not been announced at this time but it was said it could either be a foreign or Japanese fighter.
Bare Knuckle Scrap Slated for Rizin 46
Sakakibara said he attended the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship 57 show in Florida. There he met President David Feldman and agreed to work with one another. “It’s the most violent and exciting rule in martial arts. It’s so harsh that people who haven’t seen it before might be a little put off by it,” Sakakibara said.
Shinotsuka has previously competed in Rizin. He won his debut in the promotion at Rizin 45 where defeated Breaking Down fighter Daichi Tomizawa by unanimous decision.
During the press conference, Shinotsuka came out with three masked men. He was dressed very casually, emulating the fashion style of his friend Ren Hiramoto. “This time, I’m bringing bare knuckle to Japan, so I’m definitely going to win,” he said.
Other News
Also during the press conference, it was announced that an MMA match between Hiroaki Suzuki and Ya-Man has been canceled. While training, Ya-Man suffered damage to his MCL and ACL and will require a two-month recovery period. As of this printing, there is no word if Suzuki will face off against a replacement opponent.
#Yogibo presents #RIZIN46
🚨🚨 Match Cancellation 🚨🚨Hiroaki Suzuki vs. YA-MAN has been canceled.
YA-MAN sustained an injury during training, with damage to the medial collateral ligament and anterior cruciate ligament in the knee, requiring a two-month recovery period. As a… pic.twitter.com/MBdymuEVV7
— RIZIN FF English (@rizin_English) April 11, 2024
Announced matches for Rizin 46:
Chihiro Suzuki (c) vs Masanori Kanehara for the Rizin Featherweight Championship
Tatsuki Shinotsuka vs X (Bare Knuckle Boxing Rules)
Juntaro Ushiku vs Shinobu Ota
Taichi Nakajima vs Soo-Chul Kim
Makoto Shinryu vs Jun-Hyun Lee
Ji-Yong Yang vs Kazuma Kuramoto
Yoshiki Nakahara vs Vikor Kolesnik
Sora Yamamoto vs Ilkhom Nazimov
Ryo Takagi vs Taisei Nishitani
Bey Noah vs Yuaku Inoue
