Juntaro Ushiku to Defend 145-Pound Title Against Kleber Koike Erbst Atop Rizin 39

By Martial Arts Videos October 6, 2022
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Several competitors from the July 31 Rizin Fighting Federation showcase are ready to
fight again less than three months later.

Rizin held a press conference
on Wednesday to announce its next numbered event, Rizin 39, that
will be staged at the Marine Messe Fukuoka in Fukuoka, Japan, on
Oct. 23. The main event had been rumored to be a featherweight
championship battle between Juntaro
Ushiku (20-6) and Kleber
Koike Erbst (30-5-1), and it was confirmed at this presser.
Additionally, the entire lineup was announced, coupled with the
news that Rizin will return internationally to Fite.tv as its
pay-per-view broadcaster.

Ushiku has quietly put together a solid run as a Rizin fighter,
unbeaten in both of his appearances since wresting the title from
Yutaka
Saito in his Rizin debut in 2021. The concurrent Deep champion has jumped back and forth between the
leagues for title defenses, staving off Kouya Kanda
in Deep in December 2021, and bouncing back to Rizin in April. In
that April Rizin return, Ushiku proved the doctor stoppage victory
was not a fluke by taking a decision over Saito to defend his
strap. “Fighting Bull” does not post a high finish rate, with just
30% of his victories coming inside the distance, but they have all
been by knockout.

While Ushiku’s stoppage rate is low, the challenger Erbst has
earned 28 of his 30 victories inside the distance. Erbst surged
through his opposition following a championship run in KSW by submitting all five of his Rizin
opponents to get a crack at this throne. A whopping 26 of his
stoppages have come by submission, and he has not needed the judges
to get his hand raised since he overcame Marcin
Wrzosek at KSW 39 in 2017. Over the last decade, Erbst has only
fallen short to Artur
Sowinski – a loss he avenged two years later by tapout – and
two-division KSW king Mateusz
Gamrot.

Rizin 39 Lineup:

Juntaro
Ushiku vs. Kleber
Koike Erbst – featherweight title
Koji
Takeda vs. Zach Zane –
lightweight
Motonobu
Tezuka vs. Mehman
Mamedov – bantamweight
Vugar
Karamov vs. Yoshiki
Nakahara – featherweight
Daichi
Abe vs. Yukinari
Tamura – welterweight
Tsuyoshi
Kamiyama vs. Janos
Csukas – heavyweight
Yusuke
Yachi vs. Boyd Allen –
lightweight
Takahiro
Ashida vs. Hirotaka
Nakada – featherweight
Shinji
Sasaki vs. Sho Usami –
165-pound catchweight
Genji Umeno vs. Trent
Girdham – bantamweight kickboxing with elbows
Reito Bravely vs. Koichiro Seki – 139-pound catchweight
kickboxing
Shogo Kuriaki vs. Kakeru Miura – flyweight kickboxing

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