Yesterday’s Rizin 41 press conference was anything but a formal affair. Kickboxers Kouzi and Ryusei Ashizawa had a war of words and fists after their fight at Rizin 41 was officially announced. While press conferences are usually announcements of fights and statements from the fighters, this one featured the rare scuffle.
Kouzi vs Ryusei Ashizawa
Former K-1 kickboxers Kouzi and Ryusei Ashizawa got into a physical brawl at the Rizin 41 press conference. Photo courtesy of Rizin FF.
Kouzi and Ryusei Ashizawa are both former K-1 kickboxers who left the promotion to compete in Rizin. They are also large trash talkers. “I’ve always hated Kouzi from the K-1 days. He’s pretentious and didn’t show interest in me but at the end he’s sitting here next to me,” Ashizawa said. “His new promotion is sh*t. He’s boring and he’s finished.”
Kouzi did not respond kindly. “I’ve got nothing to say. Welcome to RIZIN you catfish faced douchebag.”
Eventually, Ashizawa had enough of the back-and-forth barbs and jumped from his chair and went after Kouzi. He kicked Kouzi and Kouzi struck back with the two being separated by officials.
Kouzi has gone 3-4-1NC in the promotion with his most recent fight being a boxing fight and win against Floyd Mayweather’s bodyguard Jizzy. Ashizawa will be making his Rizin debut at Rizin 41. His last fight was against Ya-Man in the K-1 vs Rise show, The Match, last year. Ashizawa lost by knockout.
Other Announcements
During the press conference, a few other MMA and kickboxing fights were announced. The two most notable fights announced were Kyle Aguon taking on Kyohei Hagiwara and the rare welterweight fight between two former UFC veterans Keita Nakamura and Kichii Kunimoto.
To see the full press conference you can watch the video here. Note it is only in Japanese.
Announced Card
Kouzi vs Ryusei Ashizawa (Kickboxing)
Makoto Shinryu vs Daichi Kitakata
Vugar Karamov vs Yoshinori Horie
Kiichi Kunimoto vs Keita Nakamura
Kyle Aguon vs Kyohei Hagiwara
Kintaro vs Koichi Ishizuka
Sho Patrick Usami vs Kim Kyung-Pyo
Yusaku Nakamura vs Mehman Mamedov
Shun Onishi vs Motoki (Kickboxing)
Attack on Yuuki vs Sota “Cerberus” Kimura (Kickboxing)
Asataro vs Shin Sakurai (Kickboxing)
Yuto Miwa vs Daichi Akihara (Kickboxing)
In a recent episode of the Couch Warrior Podcast, host Mike welcomed Charalampos Grigoriou, who recently won a contract during season 7 of Dana White's Contender Series after knocking out Cameron Smotherman one minute into the fight. The conversation delved into Grigoriou's martial arts journey, his feelings on representing Cyprus and Greece, and future plans.
