The lineup for Rizin Fighting Federation’s traditional New Year’s
Eve card continues to grow, as the Japanese promotion recently
announced three new additions to the lineup.
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Two of those bouts — Tsuyoshi
Kamiyama vs. Mikio Ueda
and Shinobu Ota
vs. Ryusei
Ashizawa — will be contested under MMA rules, while the third
—Rukiya Anpo vs. Minoru
Kimura — is a kickboxing affair.
Rizin
45 takes place on Dec. 31 at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama,
Japan, and features a bantamweight title tilt pitting reigning
champ Juan
Archuleta against Kai
Asakura. The event will also see Kyoji
Horiguchi square off against Makoto Takahasi for the flyweight
crown.
Kamiyama has been victorious in eight of his 10 professional
outings — all under the Rizin banner. Most recently, “Sudario”
defeated Dong Hwan
Lim via third-round technical knockout at Rizin Landmark Vol. 6
on Oct. 1. All but one of his triumphs have come by way of KO or
TKO.
Ueda has won two straight bouts after dropping his promotional
debut to Tsuyoshi
Kosaka at Rizin 35. Since then, the 28-year-old Tokyo native
has vanquished Mu Jae Song
and Hideki
Sekine in a combined 34 seconds.
Ota had a two-fight winning streak snapped at Rizin Landmark Vol.
6, where he suffered a split-decision defeat to Shoko Sato.
The Paraestra Kashiwa product owns a 4-3 career mark while
competing exclusively under the Rizin banner.
Ashizawa will be making his MMA debut. He has compiled a 25-13
kickboxing record that includes numerous fights for the K-1
organization.