At today’s press conference RIZIN CEO, Nobuyuki Sakakibara has announced the first matches for the RIZIN Trigger Vol. 3 and RIZIN 35, three for each event. In the case of the latter, all three are both rematches and title fights.
The aforementioned events will take place on April 16 and 17 respectfully, at Musashino Mori Sports Arena, which has a max capacity of 10,000 seats. The most important fact is that international travel restrictions started to loosen in Japan and RIZIN Fighting Federation is willing to take full advantage of that starting April.
RIZIN Trigger Vol 3
Interestingly enough, the third edition of the Trigger, which utilizes a six-sided cage instead of a ring, will also be headlined by a rematch. The protégé of Wanderlei Silva, Luiz Gustavo will once again take on Yusuke Yachi. Their first meeting at RIZIN 12 ended with Gustavo knocking out a Japanese fighter in the second round.
The rest of the card includes Yuto Hokamura vs. Kazuma Kuramoto and Masanori Kanehara vs. Kazumasa Majima.
RIZIN 35
RIZIN Lightweight Title Fight
Roberto ‘Satoshi’ de Souza won the RIZIN Lightweight Title at RIZIN 28 by submitting Tofig Musayev via triangle choke. Since then he has successfully defended his title once at RIZIN 33 against the aforementioned Yachi, this time with a triangle armbar submission. This was his fourth win in a row.
Now the Japanese-Brazilian grappler will defend his title against the man, who handed him his only loss in a career – Johnny Case. The American fighter returned to action for the first time since 2019 when he lost to Musayev. Case took on Satoshi at RIZIN 19 and beat him into submission in the very first round.
RIZIN Featherweight Title Fight
The current RIZIN Featherweight champion, Juntaro Ushiku won the belt in his debut last October at RIZIN 31. He defeated Yutaka Saito by hitting him with a knee and lacerating his face near the eyeball, forcing the in-ring doctors to stop the fight. Ushiku pulls out double duty, as he is also currently the DEEP Featherweight champion with his last defense taking place in December 2021. Now, he returns to RIZIN to defend the promotion’s championship gold against a familiar foe.
RIZIN Super Atomweight Title Fight
Seika Izawa and RIZIN Super Atomweight Champion, Ayaka Hamasaki have met before in a non-title affair at RIZIN 33. That night, the much younger Izawa pulled off an upset by TKOing Hamasaki with ground-and-pound offense during the second round.
Hamasaki is regarded as one of the greatest atomweight fighters of all time and has a 23 – 3 professional MMA record. Izawa made her RIZIN debut in her second fight under the 115-pound weight limit after capturing the DEEP Jewels Strawweight title. She was 14 months pro when stepping inside the ring to fight Hamasaki and picked up interest in MMA only because the pandemic shut down all of the judo competition in the country. Now, she has a 5 – 0 record and looks to finalize her ambitions of becoming a RIZIN champion, while Hamasaki intends on proving to everybody that the first fight result was nothing more than a fluke.
RIZIN Trigger 3rd – Apr. 16, 2022
Luiz Gustavo vs. Yusuke Yachi
Yuto “Kintaro” Hokamura vs. Kazuma Kuramoto
Masanori Kanehara vs. Kazumasa Majima
RIZIN 35 – Apr. 17, 2022
Ayaka Hamasaki vs. Seika Izawa – for the RIZIN Super Atomweight Championship
Juntaro Ushiku vs. Yutaka Saito – for the RIZIN Featherweight Championship
Roberto “Satoshi” de Souza vs. Johnny Case – for the RIZIN Lightweight Championship
Main Photo: Embed from Getty Images
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