RIZIN FF News

Drake Riggs - March 16, 2021

Prodigy kickboxing sensation Tenshin Nasukawa is already one of the best ever in his sport despite his age. Apparently, there was a point where the world’s premier MMA promotion wanted to get their hands on the Chiba Prefecture native. 41-0 at just age 22, Nasukawa first stepped foot inside the RIZIN FF ring at RIZIN 9 in 2017. He’s fought under the banner 13 times overall and looked virtually flawless in all outings – excluding an exhibition boxing match vs. Floyd Mayweather.

Tom Taylor - March 4, 2021

RIZIN CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara is interested in working with heavyweight mixed martial arts legend Alistair Overeem. Overeem, the former DREAM, Strikeforce and K-1 heavyweight champion, has spent the recent years of his illustrious career fighting for the UFC, but was released by the promotion earlier this week.

Tom Taylor - February 9, 2021

RIZIN CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara has responded to some recent comments from Spike Carlyle, and laid out plans for a Featherweight Grand Prix. Carlyle was recently released by the UFC after going 1-2 in the promotion’s featherweight division. After his release, he expressed interest in migrating to RIZIN because he’s always wanted to fight in Japan, where the promotion is based.

Tom Taylor - December 31, 2020

On New Years Eve in Japan (Thursday morning in North America), RIZIN Fighting Federation wrapped up the year with the stacked RIZIN 26 event. The card was headlined by a bantamweight title fight between reigning champion Kai Asakura and former champion Kyoji Horiguchi. The bout was a rematch of a non-title fight that Asakura won by knockout. This time around, Horiguchi evened the score with a first-round TKO, reclaiming the title and reasserting himself as one of the best bantamweights on earth.

Drake Riggs - December 21, 2020

As per usual, RIZIN is closing out the year with a bang. For 2020, it’s RIZIN 26, and to fully complete the lineup, “The Fireball Kid” Takanori Gomi is back. The promotion held a press conference on Monday to announce the finishing touches on the card. Which included the lightweight legend being booked for a “special standing bout” exhibition with Koji “Kouzi” Tanaka.

Tom Taylor - November 27, 2020

Rizin Fighting Federation boss Nobuyuki Sakakibara is interested in signing former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva to his promotion. Silva last fought on Halloween night, when he was stopped by Uriah Hall. Shortly after this setback, he was released from the UFC roster, but he emphasized that he intends to continue fighting nonetheless.

Harry Kettle - January 3, 2020

RIZIN 20 was viewed as an objectively fun show by many of the fans that tuned in to watch, and with reports suggesting that all 26,000 available seats were sold out at the Saitama Super Arena for the New Year’s Eve spectacular. Alas, while it may have been a spectacular set of fights for the fans to enjoy, it doesn’t appear as if they were able to translate that into a successful night in terms of viewership ratings.

Tom Taylor - January 3, 2020

UFC veteran Seo Hee Ham, who is currently the RIZIN atomweight champion, claims she’s the victim of embezzlement. Ham put forth this allegation on her Instagram account, claiming that manager Hidekatsu Morooka and with his wife have been embezzling money from her since the early days of her career. In that time, she alleges they’ve stolen more than $26,000 from her.

Harry Kettle - December 31, 2019

Patricky Freire secured his place in the final of the Lightweight Grand Prix wit a superb soccer kick knockout over Luiz Gustavo at RIZIN 20. Coming into the event the expectation was that Freire would be viewed as one of the favorites, especially after his dominant quarter-final win over Tatsuya Kawajiri back at RIZIN 19 in October. In the semis earlier this evening he was able to live up to the hype in a big way as he finished Gustavo off in less than half a minute.

Tom Taylor - December 31, 2019

Early on Tuesday morning, RIZIN Fighting Federation promoted its final MMA card of the decade in RIZIN 20, and it was an absolute thriller. Topped by a bantamweight title fight between Kai Asakura, who recently stunned Kyoji Horiguchi, and Manel Kape, it also featured appearances from names like Tenshin Nasukawa, Seo Hee Ham, Rena Kubota, Patricky Freire, Jiri Prochazka, and CB Dollaway.

Thomas Taylor - December 29, 2019

Former UFC fighter Daron Cruickshank has found himself under fire after racist comments he made during an April visit to Japan have come to light. Cruickshank, who previously competed in the UFC lightweight division, has spent the last few years of his career fighting for Japan’s RIZIN Fighting Federation. During an April visit to Japan, the former UFC fighter made some controversial comments, suggesting that Japanese people eat dogs.

Alfredo Zullino - December 23, 2019

African mixed martial arts is definitely on the rise. Nigerian-born Kamaru Usman just defended his UFC welterweight title against Colby Covington, and fellow countryman Israel Adesanya unified the middleweight title by defeating Robert Whittaker just two months ago. Now, Italian-Cameroonian Simon Biyong (6-1 MMA) will look to continue that trend of success in his Rizin Fighting Federation debut on New Year’s eve in Tokyo, Japan.