MMA News

Tag: Rizin

  • Rizin 51: Huge flyweight Grand Prix semifinals and Reserve Bout are Set

    Rizin 51: Huge flyweight Grand Prix semifinals and Reserve Bout are Set

    The RIZIN flyweight Grand Prix semifinals have been set, as well as an alternate bout for the tournament, for Rizin 51 in the Fall. On September 28th, Yuki Motoya will be taking on Makoto Shinryu in one of the semi final clashes.

    Motoya is a veteran of over fifty professional MMA bouts and the 35-year-old has tested skills with several notable names during his tenure in the sport. Motoya has battled the likes of Tatsumitsu Wada, Masakazu Imanari, Kyoji Horiguchi, Patchy Mix, Hiromasa Ougikubo, Victor Henry, Justin Scoggins, Kai Asakura, and Rogério Bontorin to name but a few.

    For Shinryu, he is entering with around half the professional MMA experience of Motoya who is ten years Shinryu’s senior. After Shinryu lost a narrow split decision to Jose ‘Shorty’ Torres, the 25-year-old combatant would secure bounce back wins over Yuki Ito and Erson Yamamoto. Shinryu has also fought in mixed martial arts with individuals who have big combative cache like Hiromasa Ougikubo, Tatsumitsu Wada, Diego Paiva, Hideo Tokoro, and Kyoji Horiguchi.

    The other side of the grand prix bracket will see Hiromasa Ougikubo versus Alibek Gazhammatov transpire.

    Ougikubo notably has a win over current UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja and the tenured veteran is on a three fight win streak that is comprised of victories against John Dodson, Makoto Shinryu, and Jose ‘Shorty’ Torres. The 38-year-old has tested skills with fighters like Kai Asakura and Kyoji Horiguchi with Ougikubo previously capturing the 2021 Rizin bantamweight Grand Prix championship with a focus on also adding a RFF flyweight GP title to his mantle.

    For Gazhammatov, while he only boasts a 6-0 pro MMA record, the Dagestan native has a one hundred percent finishing rate. Gazhammatov is 2-0 specifically under the Rizin banner after a four fight run with ACA Young Eagles and most recently finished the well regarded Takaki Soya with strikes at Super Rizin 4 in July.

    Rizin 51 semi finals set and the reserved bout has been announced

    The reserve bout is only fifty percent filled out at this juncture as Yuki Ito will test skills with the dreaded TBA with a more firmed up bout cofnirmation expected in the coming weeks.

    Rizin 51 emanates from IG Arena in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan with a headliner set between Razhabali Shaydullaev and Viktor Kolesnik for the RFF featherweight championship.

  • Ryan Bader Signing With RIZIN, Will Fight On New Year’s Eve

    Ryan Bader Signing With RIZIN, Will Fight On New Year’s Eve

    The next stop for former Bellator heavyweight and light heavyweight champion is now known, as it appears he is signing with Japanese MMA promotion RIZIN.

    Bader appeared at the Rizin: Otoko Matsuri event held at the Tokyo Dome on May 4, announcing plans to take on the winner of the RIZIN Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament. Such a fight would take place at the end of this year at RIZIN’s annual New Year’s Eve card.

    This will be Bader’s first MMA fight since his 21-second TKO loss to Renan Ferreira at the PFL vs. Bellator Champions vs. Champions card in February 2024. Bader officially parted ways with the PFL in March, two months after it was officially announced that the PFL was folding the Bellator brand. The PFL had formally purchased Bellator MMA in November 2023.

    Ryan Bader To Fight In RIZIN On New Year’s Eve

    Bader won the Bellator heayvweight championship by winning the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix held from January 2018-January 2019. The tournament saw Bader defeat Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal, Matt Mitrione and Fedor Emelianenko to become champion. Bader became the first Bellator heavyweight champion since Vitaly Minakov was formally stripped of the title in 2016 and became the first double champion in Bellator history.

    Bader defended the heavyweight title against Cheick Kongo, Valentin Moldavsky and Emelianenko before Bellator’s purchase by the PFL.

    Bader was also the light heavyweight champion at one point, winning the title in his Bellator debut at Bellator 180. He’d defend that title against Linton Vassell before losing the title to Vadim Nemkov.

    The eight-man RIZIN Heavyweight Grand Prix began at the May 4 event, which saw Marek Samociuk defeat Daniel James, José Augusto Azevedo best Tsuyoshi Sudario and Mikio Ueda beat Shoma Shibisai. The remaining quarterfinal will take place between Islambek Baktybek Uulu and Alexander Soldatkin.

  • MMA News Today: Ryan Garcia Announces That He Will Be In Attendance At RIZIN Following Exhibition Rumors, Sean O’Malley Labels Conor McGregor A ‘Drug Addict’ In Recent Social Media Spat, & More

    MMA News Today: Ryan Garcia Announces That He Will Be In Attendance At RIZIN Following Exhibition Rumors, Sean O’Malley Labels Conor McGregor A ‘Drug Addict’ In Recent Social Media Spat, & More

    Welcome to MMA News Today, a daily feature running down the most interesting stories in the world of mixed martial arts. For July 23, 2024, we’re taking a look at:

    • Garcia sends a message to the Japanese fans
    • O’Malley fires back at McGregor and pulls no punches
    • Patchy Mix headlines Paris again on November 16

    Ryan Garcia Announces His Attendance For SuperRIZIN 3 This Weekend Amidst Exhibition Rumors

    Ryan Garcia has sent out a message via the RIZIN social media channels to announce that he will be in attendance at SuperRIZIN 3 this weekend.

    The Japanese promotion returns to Saitama Super Arena on July 28 where boxing star Manny Pacquiao will be in action against Rukiya Anpo.

    Garcia, who has been extremely controversial both before and after his recent fight with Devin Haney, has been recently rumored to have been given permission from Golden Boy to compete in an exhibition on RIZIN later this year.

    The video sees Garcia sending a message to the Japanese fans, when you can hear him over what appears to be construction work taking place in the background.

    “Hello, Ryan Garcia here. My announcement is this. I’m heading to Japan. Heading to Japan because I’m going to be at the RIZIN event and I know they’re making noise but guess what? I go louder, I go harder and I cannot wait to meet all my fans in Japan. Arigato from my heart to your heart, I love you. I’mma learn how to say I love you in Japanese. I’mma tell every Japan I love them, konnichiwa.”

    Sean O’Malley Unloads On Conor McGregor In Recent Social Media Exchange

    After they seemingly settled the beef not long ago, Conor McGregor couldn’t resist taking another slight dig at UFC bantamweight Sean O’Malley.

    He quoted a post on X with a laughing face emoji that spoke about O’Malley pointing to a recent finding regarding how Ostarine can be transferred through sweat to explain his previous positive drug test results.

    “Sugar” didn’t take long to reply and when he did, he appeared to sever any chance of rebuilding this bridge with “The Notorious”.

    A pair of back-to-back posts made reference to McGregor’s current form inside the Octagon, UFC 303 withdrawal and referred to him a “drug addict” who “needs rehab”.

    Suffice to say that the former UFC champ champ is not going to take these comments lightly.

    Bellator Champions Series Announces Patchy Mix & ‘Baki’ For Paris Event On November 16

    The Bellator Champions Series is heading back to Paris on November 16 and so is the bantamweight champion Patchy Mix.

    He was last in action this past May where he closed the show at the French capital by defending his title via a controversial split decision win over Magomed Magomedov.

    Mix is now set to return for the second time this year when he faces Brazil’s Leandro Higo who is coming off of back-to-back wins.

    The co-main has also been announced with former Cédric Doumbé opponent Baissangour “Baki” Chamsoudinov finally making his return as he looks to stay undefeated against Sweden’s Oliver Enkamp.

    Read more on the story here.

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  • Kyoji Horiguchi Calls Out UFC After Having Return Interest Dismissed: ‘They’re Not Putting Effort In The Flyweight Division’

    Since parting ways with the UFC after 2016, Kyoji Horiguchi has enjoyed continued success in MMA.

    He went on to hold the Bellator and RIZIN bantamweight championships simultaneously until getting injured, and he is now the current (and inaugural) RIZIN flyweight champion.

    With his ongoing triumphs outside of the Octagon, and given his success during his tenure with the UFC, some have wondered if Horiguchi would ever be given another shot at competing in the UFC. That question became more prominent when the fighter himself expressed interest in an Octagon comeback.

    If one were to ask Horiguchi now, however, that day will never come.

    In the latest episode of RIZIN Confessions, Horiguchi said he’s heard the UFC has no interest in signing him. He also called the promotion out for being focused on profits more than fighters, including a lack of promotion for the UFC’s flyweight division.

    Kyoji Horiguchi Says ‘Big Shot’ UFC Has No Interest In Signing Him

    “[Everyone at American Top Team is] like ‘Why can’t you get signed?’” Horiguchi said. “It’s a big mystery. ‘What? They don’t want Kyoji?’ They’re like, ‘That’s insane…if they don’t want you, I don’t know what else to do.’

    “They went public and now they’re big shots. They are prioritizing profit is what I think. Like, their fight purses are very low. There are only a limited amount of guys who can live off of it. They’re not putting in the efforts for the flyweight division.”

    The UFC and the flyweight division have had a tumultuous history since Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson was crowned the first champion at UFC 152 in September 2012. 

    After Johnson was finally dethroned by Henry Cejudo at UFC 227 in August 2018 and traded to ONE Championship, there were rumors that the UFC was looking to close the flyweight division.

    Horiguchi competed in the Octagon eight times between late 2013 and late 2016, going 7-1. His sole loss came against Johnson, challenging for the flyweight title at UFC 186 and getting submitted with just one second remaining in the fight.

    Endeavor, the UFC’s parent company since 2016, became a publicly traded company in 2021 and was merged with WWE to form TKO in 2023.

    Horiguchi will face former Bellator bantamweight champion Sergio Pettis at RIZIN 47 on June 9. This will be a rematch of their Bellator bantamweight title fight from Bellator 272, which saw Pettis pull off a comeback with a spinning-backfist knockout in the fourth round to retain the title.