UFC Veteran Rogerio Bontorin to Make Rizin Debut on New Year’s Eve

Editor’s note: The article has been updated at 12:45 p.m. ET on
Nov. 17 to reflect additional booked matchups.

Several bouts have been added to the Rizin
40 card scheduled for New Year’s Eve, including UFC veteran
Rogerio
Bontorin vs. Yuki
Motoya.

Three other contests were also recently confirmed for the card:
Seika
Izawa vs. Si Woo Park
in a non-title affair at super atomweight; Tsuyoshi
Kamiyama vs. Junior Tafa
at heavyweight and Naoki Inoue
vs. Kenta
Takizawa at bantamweight.

Rizin 40 takes place on Dec. 31 at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama,
Japan and will feature five Bellator vs. Rizin matchups on the
evening’s main card. The headliner will see former Bellator
featherweight king A.J. McKee
face Rizin lightweight champion Roberto de
Souza in a 155-pound clash.

Bontorin enters his Rizin debut on a four-bout winless streak in
UFC competition. The Gile Ribeiro Team representative last appeared
at UFC on ESPN 32, where he dropped a split decision to Brandon
Royval. The Dana White’s Contender Series alum began his
Octagon tenure with back-to-back wins over Magomed
Bibulatov and Raulian
Paiva. He owns a 16-4 career mark.

Motoya, meanwhile, has won four consecutive fights under the Rizin
banner. In his last outing, the 33-year-old Japan native outpointed
Kazuma
Kuramoto at Rizin Landmark Vol. 4 on Nov. 6. He is 32-9 with
one no contest since beginning his pro career in May 2011.

Additional fight announcement for
RIZIN.40

Hideo Tokoro vs. John Dodson#RIZIN

#RIZIN40 pic.twitter.com/BMvsWr0hiP

— RIZIN FF English (@rizin_English)
November 17, 2022

On Wednesday night, the organization released a few additional
pairings on the growing Rizin 40 lineup. Fresh off a resounding
victory in the bare-knuckle ranks, former Ultimate Fighting Championship mainstay
John
Dodson (22-13) will throw down with 45-year-old Japanese vet
Hideo
Tokoro (35-31-1) at 125 pounds. In a lightweight contest,
fan-favorite Noah Bey
(1-2) will tangle with youngster Sho Usami
(5-1) as well. Finally, lightweights collide as
Luiz Gustavo Felix dos Santos (12-2) brings his 100% finish
rate to the table against ex-title challenger Johnny Case
(27-9-1), who himself posts 85% of his victories by stoppage.