#RIZIN45 Press Conference #3📸4 more matchups for New Year’s đź‘€ pic.twitter.com/dp9dulOS2l
— RIZIN FF English (@rizin_English)
November 24, 2023
Rizin Fighting Federation’s year-end show has
gained four matches and lost one a bit over a month before it takes
place.
Per a press release provided by the organization on Friday morning,
Rizin
45 will be gaining four matches, including one involving a
pound-for-pound talent. The Dec. 31 show will take place in its
annual showcase site of the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan,
and multiple championship tilts will play out across the evening.
Four new fights have graced the lineup, while one additional match
has been scratched.
Bouts added to the billing include a major women’s super atomweight
tilt (108 pounds) between no. 1 atomweight Seika Izawa
(11-0) and aging divisional stalwart Miyuu
Yamamoto (6-7). Izawa claimed the top spot by knocking off
Ayaka
Hamasaki at Rizin 33 to end 2021, and she put a stamp on her
rankings placement by beating Hamasaki again a few months later.
Three additional victories under the Rizin banner have kept her
busy the last two years. Meanwhile, this will be Yamamoto’s first
appearance since July 2022, and the 49-year-old has dropped three
straight bouts to Hamasaki, Rena Kubota
and Saori
Oshima in 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively.
The other three fights include a welterweight scrap between
Igor
Tanabe (4-0) and Shinsho
Anzai (9-5), a featherweight contest pitting Satoshi
Yamasu (12-7) against Suguru Nii
(13-9) and a matchup of Kota Miura
(2-1) vs. kickboxer Koji Tanaka
(0-0) at a to-be-determined weight class. Finally, the fight no
longer on the card was a kickboxing match between Rukiya Anpo and
Minoru
Kimura, when the latter failed a
drug test. The promotion is currently seeking a replacement for
Kimura.