Ahead of their return next weekend, RIZIN Fighting Federation has announced two new additions for the upcoming RIZIN 12 show in Nagoya.
RIZIN announced early Saturday morning that two new kickboxing match-ups will be joining the card. One of which will feature the return of recent promotional debutant Kaito.
A returning Kaito amongst two new kickboxing additions to RIZIN 12
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【RIZIN】KO勝ちしたSBエース・海人が連続参戦（イーファイト）https://t.co/cVeVNtugZv@0k8a2i1to
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Kaito vs. Sho Ogawa
At just 20-years-old, Kaito is a kickboxing ace fighting out of TEAM FOD. To many he is known as “The Prince of Shoot Boxing,” and seriously appears to be quite a prodigy when it comes to striking sports. He is a Shoot Boxing Super Lightweight Champion and recently made his RIZIN debut at last weekend’s RIZIN 11. Here he put on an incredible performance and absolutely starched Yoshiya with brutal leg kicks in round one before knocking him out with a knee to the jaw in round two.
Opposite him, it’s quite a stiff test. He faces a representative of OISHI GYM in the form of Sho Ogawa, a WBC Japan Muay Thai Champion. As a child, he looked up to kickboxing legend Ernesto Hoost, and earlier this year he won the HOOST CUP Japan Super Lightweight Championship. Ogawa has been studying karate since kindergarten and a win vs. Kaito would do wonders for him – as he is also quite young in his kickboxing career.
Taiki Naito vs. Hannya Hashimoto
Fighting of Striking Gym Ares, Taiki Naito is a former Shoot Boxing Super Bantamweight Champion and very recently won the one-night RISE DoA -57kg 2017 Tournament. In 2015, he made it to the finals of the BLADE FC JAPAN CUP -55kg TOURNAMENT. Here he lost to the great Tenshin Nasukawa since then he has made a promise to himself that, one day, he would avenge that loss to Nasukawa. Perhaps in a RIZIN ring.
Fighting out of Cross Point Kichijoji, Hashimoto is a veteran of HEAT and Ganryujima and a former GLADIATOR Champion. He enters the fight, happy to be taking on an opponent like Naito, and is predicting a KO win in Nagoya.
RIZIN 12 is set to go down on August 12, live from the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium in Nagoya, Japan. The lightweight bout between Yachi and Gustavo headlines the show.
Yusuke Yachi vs. Luiz Gustavo
Hatsu Hioki vs. Mikuru Asakura
Roque Martinez vs. Kiyoshi Kuawabara
King Reina vs. Kaitlin Young
Kiichi Kunimoto vs. Ryuchiro Sumimura
Kanako Murata vs. Angela Magana
Yuki Motoya vs. Kazuma Sone
Takiya Shota vs. Syuto Sato
Ryuki vs. Naoya
Shintaro Matsukura vs. Takahiro Okuyama
Kaito vs. Sho Ogawa
Taiki Naito vs. HASHIMOTO
