60 articles
Rizin’s first show of 2025 goes this weekend with Rizin 50. The promotion is going to a new market and new arena. Rizin 50 will go down from the Anabuki Arena Kagawa in Kagawa, Japan. This is the first event the arena has had, as it was just completed last year. The show will feature […]
RIZIN’s final show of the year, RIZIN 26, has added four more fights to it’s New Year’s Eve card. The Saitama Super Arena show as of this writing has a total of 11 MMA fights and one kickboxing match. RIZIN held a press conference on Thursday to announce the new fights. Check out our previous cov...
RIZIN’s final show of the year, RIZIN 26, looks to be pulling out all the stops with another title fight. The announced New Year’s Eve card will have Miyuu Yamamoto taking on former super atomweight champion Ayaka Hamasaki for the vacant belt. Also announced was a high profile bantamweight match ...
RIZIN 25 saw the crowning of its first featherweight champion. Shooto featherweight champion Yutaka Saito went on to beat Mikuru Asakura via unanimous decision in a highly anticipated fight. This brought Asakura’s first loss since starting in RIZIN and his second loss in his pro career. That wasn...
RIZIN 24 was an all over the place show. There were some great finishes alongside some pretty baffling decisions by the judges. But most of the fighters who came out on top looked especially great. All in all, with a card that had 11 fights (Three kickboxing and eight MMA), there were four finish...
RIZIN announced at a press conference earlier today the return of kickboxing superstar Tenshin Nasukawa to the promotion. At the press conference, CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara announced Tenshin would be taking on former K-1 kickboxer Koji at RIZIN 24 in a kickboxing match. This show will also be RIZIN...
RIZIN has finally returned! The Japanese MMA promotion will be putting on its first show since it took a hiatus when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Japan. It is a part of a double bill of shows with RIZIN 22 going up tonight and RIZIN 23 tomorrow. In the main event, Krazy Bee‘s Yusuke Yachi (21-9) wil...
There is a lengthy history of pro wrestlers crossing over into MMA. From the nascent days of this sport, professional wrestlers have indulged their desire to go from work to a shoot. In this episodic series, I will review fights where pro wrestlers foray into the combat world. It’s like a weird, ...
Shooto featherweight champion Yutaka Saito (17-4-2) is happy to be making his RIZIN debut. The 32-year-old fighter has wins over Caol Uno, Hiroyuki Takaya, and “Lion” Takeshi Inoue. He will be taking on Shooto and Pancrase fighter Kazumasa Majima (14-1) at RIZIN 23 in a featherweight match. In an...
Bellator 243 official weigh-ins went down Thursday morning at the Mohegan Sun Arena. The card is to be headlined by a rematch with Michael Chandler vs. Benson Henderson. In their first match, Chandler won by split decision. The co-main event will see former UFC heavyweights Timothy Johnson and Ma...
After months of no shows and no word on the future of RIZIN, CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara announced this week the promotion will be returning in August with back to back shows. RIZIN 22 and RIZIN 23 are scheduled to be put on at the newly built PIA Arena in Yokohama August 9 and 10. The promotion will...
JMMA fans can rejoice! Japan looks to soon be reopening which means Japanese sports can come back. It looks like RIZIN might start having shows as early as June. RIZIN CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara even hinted at a “martial arts mega event” that would be announced. Most of 2020 was tough on the promoti...
RIZIN has not had a great week. During a press conference, RIZIN CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara announced the cancellation of their RIZIN 22 and RIZIN 23 May show due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The same week, RIZIN bantamweight champion Manel Kape announced on his Instagram that he had signed ...
Heavyweight Roque Martinez (15-5-2) has a lot to be happy about. He won his most recent fight in RIZIN after two back to back losses. He just celebrated his 34th birthday. Now the brawler from Guam is throwing his hat in the business side of MMA. He is helping fund the new promotion, Brawl. Marti...
RIZIN 21 may not have had a lot of hype going in, but fans who tuned in were rewarded with lots of highlight-reel finishes. Mikuru Asakura (13-1) in the main event finished Mexico’s Daniel Salas (16-7-1) with a head kick and ground and pound in the second. In the co-main event, Victor Henry (20-4...
When RIZIN 21 started announcing matches for their first show of 2020, five kickboxing matches were announced. Some names might be recognizable to hardcore J-Kick fans but for most tuning in, this will be the first time seeing these fighters. These kickboxers have mostly gotten the opportunity to...