A clash between bantamweight grand prix semifinalists Naoki Inoue
and Kenta
Takizawa is among several fights that were recently announced
for Rizin Fighting Federation 37.
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Rizin
37 takes place on July 31 at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama,
Japan and will also see Hideo Tokoro
take on Makoto Takahasi in a flyweight feature. It is the Japanese
promotion’s eighth event of 2022.
Inoue had a six-bout winning streak snapped in the grand prix
semifinals, where he fell to eventual winner Hiromasa
Ougikubo via unanimous decision at Rizin 33 on Dec. 31. The
25-year-old Inoue’s 15-3 career mark includes stints in the UFC and
Deep.
A former Pancrase title challenger, Takizawa dropped a three-round
verdict to Kai Askaura in the other half of the bantamweight
bracket at Rizin 33. Prior to that, the 27-year-old Tokyo native
earned back-to-back triumphs over Yuki Motoya
and Masakazu
Imanari under the Rizin banner.
Other confirmed bouts for Rizin 37 are as follows: Hideki
Sekine vs. Tsuyoshi
Kamiyama at heavyweight; Yuta Sasaki
vs. Yoshiki
Nakahara at featherweight; Vugar
Karamov vs. Rikuto Shirakwa at featherweight; Kota Miura
vs. Felipe
Masoni at featherweight and Yushi
Sakura vs. Takeru Sudo
at a 137-pound catchweight.