Tenshin Nasukawa and Takanori Gomi return to
action. Pay-Per-View to be featured on LIVENow platform, Frank
Trigg and Joe Ferraro provide with English commentary.Yogibo presents
#RIZIN26
Dec 31, 2020 2:00PM（JST）
Saitama Super Arenahttps://t.co/J8mFeQ0UKC— RIZIN FF English (@rizin_English)
December 21, 2020
Former Pride Fighting Championships superstar Takanori
Gomi and kickboxing sensation Tenshin
Nasukawa will compete at Rizin Fighting Federation’s New Year’s
Eve event.
The Japanese promotion announced the late additions to Rizin 26 on
Monday. Rizin 26 takes place on Dec. 31 at Saitama Super Arena in
Saitama Japan and is headlined by a bantamweight championship clash
between Kai Asakura
and Kyoji
Horiguchi. Additionally, Ayaka
Hamasaki and Miyuu
Yamamoto will square off for the atomweight belt.
Gomi will square off against kickboxer Koji Tanaka in a special
standing bout in which both fighters “will only be allowed to punch
with the exception of back fist blows,” according to a release. The
fight will consist of three, three-minute rounds with no decision
announced.
Gomi returns for the first time since July 2018, when “The Fireball
Kid” knocked out Melvin
Guillard to snap a six-bout losing streak at Rizin 11. New
Year’s Eve will mark Gomi’s third appearance under the Rizin
banner. According to the promotion, “Kouzi” Tanaka owns a 28-14-2
kickboxing mark.
“I’d like to show the best I could do as a fighter in my 40s. I’ll
try not to get in the way of the young kids trying to do their
thing but I think it’ll be a good workout,” Gomi said in a release.
“I don’t even know who this kid is, I don’t follow such a terrible
sport.”
Said Tanaka: “Gomi was a great fighter. He used to be the Fireball
Kid, but now he’s just a Saggyball pops.”
An opponent for Nasukawa has yet to be announced. He is 39-0 with
30 knockouts as a kickboxer and has secured nine of those triumphs
with Rizin.