Rizin Fighting Federation enjoyed its caged
event so much that it decided to stage another.
On Nov. 28, 2021, Rizin put on its first of a new series of fight
cards called the “Trigger” series, in which fights would be
contested inside of a cage instead of a ring. The rules were
otherwise the same, permitting soccer kicks and stomps, just
changing the enclosure to a more western setting. Rizin
“Trigger 1st” went down with 10 MMA matches, and multiple bouts
ended via spectacular soccer kicks, but one fighter was
disqualified for grabbing the fence. The end result at the World
Memorial Hall in Kobe, Japan, appeared to be a success, so much so
that Rizin will be putting on its second Trigger show on Feb.
23.
The organization sent out a press release on Friday to officially
announced that Rizin
“Trigger 2nd” will be going down inside the Ecopa Arena in
Fukuroi, Shizuoka, Japan, towards the end of February. Rizin plans
on unveiling its own cage for this fight card, as it was not ready
for the first Trigger fight card and it had to borrow a cage from
another league. It is expected that in addition to the MMA bouts
scheduled, kickboxing matches will take place that night as well.
Three fights have been officially added to the billing, and more
will come in the near future.
“We will be kicking off the new year with the Trigger event on
February 23 at the Ecopa Arena in Shizuoka” Rizin chief Nobuyuki
Sakakibara said in the release. “We are looking to run the event
with full capacity which is about 10,000 [in attendance]. Our first
caged event was not held in our own cage due to construction
purposes, but now our original cage is ready and we will reveal it
for this event.”
Rizin “Trigger 2nd” will be capped off by a featherweight scrap
between the surging grappler Kleber
Koike Erbst (28-5-1) and ex-Ultimate Fighting Championship talent Yuta Sasaki
(23-9-2). Erbst will try to make it four wins in four appearances
under the Rizin banner, as his first three could not have gone
better, with finishes in each including two technical submissions.
His foe Sasaki has gone through a rough patch as of late, with only
two wins in five Rizin outings. While “Ulka” did prevail over
future UFC signee Manel Kape,
he fell short to Shintaro
Ishiwatari by a rare north-south choke and then had his jaw
shattered by Kai Asakura
a few months later.
Rizin Trigger 2nd Card Lineup
Kleber
Koike Erbst vs. Yuta Sasaki
– featherweight
Kenji
Kato vs. Kazuma
Kuramoto – bantamweight
Suguru
Nii vs. Sora
Yamamoto – featherweight