Former Bantamweight King Horiguchi will
rematch Asakura for the title on NYE. Bout order announced for
Yogibo presents
#RIZIN25 in Osaka.Yogibo presents
#RIZIN26
Dec 31, 2020 2:00PM（JST）
Saitama Super Arenahttps://t.co/1n7u7eXI7y— RIZIN FF English (@rizin_English)
November 13, 2020
There will be a major New Year’s Eve MMA event in 2020 after all,
courtesy of Rizin Fighting Federation. The promotion revealed via press release on Thursday night that
Rizin
26 will take place on Dec. 31. There will be a limited audience
inside the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, of 5,000 people,
with the option for more depending on potential loosening
government restrictions. Although the promotion has put on
three-day festivals in past years, the COVID-19 protocols only
allow for a single fight card on NYE.
Headlining Rizin 26 is a bantamweight championship rematch between
former divisional kings, as Kai Asakura
(16-2) takes on the returning Kyoji
Horiguchi (28-3). The two met in August 2019, and Asakura
flattened the reigning but not defending champ in 67 seconds.
Although they competed at 135 pounds, the belt was inexplicably not
on the line. Horiguchi later vacated his throne, along with the
Bellator MMA bantamweight crown he took from
Darrion
Caldwell, when tearing his ACL. The Rizin belt then went to the
winner of Manel Kape
vs. Asakura at the 2019 New Year’s Eve card, and Kape won by
knockout only to also surrender his title to go to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Asakura has lost once in nine trips to the Rizin ring, and he
finally won the title he sought after by dispatching Hiromasa
Ougikubo with a vicious knee and soccer kicks in August. Since
then, Asakura stepped up in a non-title affair to lay waste to
Shoji
Maruyama in under three minutes. Asakura is one of the
winningest fighters in promotional history since first joining the
organization in 2017, but he trails Horiguchi by one victory.
Horiguchi departed the UFC on a three-fight win streak to take
Rizin by storm, winning his first nine MMA bouts and the 2017
bantamweight grand prix along the way. In a cross-promotional bout,
Horiguchi tapped out Caldwell to earn the inaugural Rizin 135-pound
belt, and then chased Caldwell to Bellator to take Caldwell’s belt
there as well. His last bout is a loss, however, that snapped
13-fight win streak – not counting his jaunt to kickboxing to take
on Tenshin
Nasukawa – and he has been inactive ever since.
In addition to this bout, Rizin also made official its lineup for
Rizin
25, which will take place on Nov. 21 at the Osaka-Jo Hall in
Osaka, Japan. Sitting atop that card is a clash for the inaugural
Rizin featherweight strap as Asakura’s brother, Mikuru
Asakura (13-1), vies for gold against Yutaka
Saito (18-4-2). Six MMA bouts will be interspersed between four
kickboxing matches, with a “grappling demonstration” including
Roberto de
Souza and Kleber
Koike Erbst splitting the prelims from the all-MMA main
card.
Rizin 25 Lineup:
Mikuru
Asakura vs. Yutaka
Saito – featherweight title
Hiromasa
Ougikubo vs. Kenta
Takizawa – bantamweight
Ryuichiro
Sumimura vs. Gota
Yamashita – welterweight
Tatsuki
Saomoto vs. Daichi
Kitakata – flyweight
Roberto de
Souza, Kleber
Koike Erbst, Hari Sakamoto, Misaki Akita – grappling
demonstration
Yojiro
Uchimura vs. Kyohei
Hagiwara – featherweight
Taiga Kawabe vs. Yuma Yamahata – bantamweight kickboxing
Hidenori Ebata vs. Isami Sano – middleweight kickboxing
Kotetsu
Boku vs. Rikuto
Shirakawa – featherweight
Jin Mandokoro vs. Syuto Sato – strawweight kickboxing
Yuma
Yamaguchi vs. Shohei Asahara – featherweight kickboxing