Juntaro Ushiku vs. Mikuru Asakura Tops Rizin Landmark Vol. 5 Lineup

Juntaro Ushiku def. Yutaka Saito R2 4:26 via TKO (Doctor Stoppage)

Credit:
Photo Credit: Rizin FF

Credit: Photo Credit: Rizin FF

Credit: Lee Li

Juntaro Ushiku (black and red gloves) vs. Yutaka Shimamura

Credit:
Lee Li

A featherweight showdown pitting ex-champ Juntaro
Ushiku against Mikuru
Asakura will serve as the headlining bout at Rizin
Landmark Vol. 5.

The promotion recently announced the event at a press conference.
Rizin Landmark Vol. 5 takes place on April 29 at Yoyogi National
Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan, and also features a 145-pound clash
between Yutaka
Saito and Ren
Hiramoto — which is billed as a second main event by the
Japanese organization.

Several other bouts were also confirmed for the card: Koji Takeda
vs. Luiz
Gustavo at lightweight; Kazuma
Kuramoto vs. Shinobu Ota
at bantamweight; Rena Kubota
vs. Claire
Lopez at a 113-pound catchweight; Tsuyoshi
Kamiyama vs. Roque
Martinez at heavyweight; Kanna
Asakura vs. Mei
Yamaguchi at super atomweight; Masanori
Kanehara vs. Sora
Yamamoto at featherweight;
Callyugibrainn Marinho Borges vs. Mikio Ueda
at heavyweight; and Johnny Case
vs. Ali
Abdulkhalikov at lightweight.

Ushiku relinquished the featherweight belt in his last outing, when
he suffered a second-round submission loss to Kleber
Koike Erbst at Rizin 39 last October. That ended a four-bout
winning streak for the Tokyo native, who owns a 20-7 career mark as
a pro.

Asakura, who didn’t compete at all in 2022, has won three of his
last four appearances under the Rizin banner. Most recently, he
outpointed Yutaka
Saito at Rizin 33 on Dec. 31.

By Martial Arts Videos