Additional fight announcement for
RIZIN.31Yutaka Saito vs. Juntaro Ushiku#RIZIN
#RIZIN31 pic.twitter.com/iUPvFVzPoM— RIZIN FF English (@rizin_English)
October 4, 2021
Featherweight champion Yutaka
Saito will defend his crown against Deep title holder Juntaro
Ushiku in the Rizin Fighting Federation 31 main event on Oct.
24.
The Japanese promotion announced the booking on Monday. Rizin 31
takes place in Yokohama, Japan, and will also see recent atomweight
title challenger Kanna
Asakura square off against Saori
Oshima in the co-main event.
The rest of the Rizin 31 card was also confirmed: Tsuyoshi
Sudario vs Saint
Saint; Yusaku
Nakamura vs. Yuki Ito;
Daisuke
Nakamura vs Suguru Nii;
Masanori
Kanehara vs. Takahiro
Ashida; Daichi Abe
vs Akira
Okada; Rikuto
Shirakawa vs Takuya
Yamamoto; and Seiichiro
Ito vs Kunta
Hashimoto.
A former Shooto featherweight champion, Saito has won eight of his
last nine professional outings. That stretch includes triumphs over
Kazumasa
Majima, Mikuru
Asakura and Vugar
Karamov under the Rizin banner. He claimed the Rizin belt with
a three-round verdict over Asakura this past November.
Ushiku, meanwhile, has been victorious in seven of his last eight
appearances. Most recently, the Tokyo native avenged knockout loss
to Daisuke
Nakamura when he won a split decision in the rematch at Deep
“102 Impact” on July 4.