30 December 2024 04:00 PM – 1 January 2025 06:59 AM
Witness the Fight Card of the Decade – RIZIN Decade Live on RIZIN.tv!
RIZIN Decade
Date: December 31, 2024
Live from Japan – Streaming Worldwide!
Celebrate 10 years of RIZIN’s spectacular martial arts legacy with the ultimate year-end event! This is more than a fight card—it’s a night of champions, legends, and rising stars.
The Championship Showdowns
Featherweight Title Fight:
Japan’s Chihiro Suzuki defends his crown against submission ace Kleber Koike Erbst. Will Suzuki’s striking prevail, or will Kleber reclaim gold with his grappling mastery?- Lightweight Title Fight:
Brazil’s Roberto de Souza takes on Azerbaijan’s dynamic finisher Vugar Karamov. A clash of elite technique and raw power you can’t afford to miss.
- Flyweight Title Fight:
Japan’s MMA icon Kyoji Horiguchi faces South African double champion Nkazimulo Zulu. A battle of speed, precision, and dominance at 57 kg.
Featured Fights
- Super Atomweight Showdown:
Undefeated superstar Seika Izawa meets Argentina’s top contender Lucia Apdelgarim.
- Bantamweight Action:
Veteran Yuki Motoya battles young phenom Kyoma Akimoto in a high-stakes matchup to determine the next challenger for Naoki Inoue’s Bantamweight title.
- Heavyweight Collision:
Japan’s rising force Mikio Ueda squares off against South Korea’s powerhouse Kim Tae-in.
Fan-Favorite Matchups
- Yusuke Yachi vs. Taisei Sakuraba in a lightweight war. The son of legendary ‘Gracie Killer’ makes his MMA debut!
- Striker showdown: YA-MAN vs. Kazakhstan’s heavy-handed Karshyga Dautbek.
- Featherweight thriller: Koji Takeda vs. Suguru Nii. Former fellow bouncers and MMA champions will clash.
- Taiga vs. Genji Umeno in an electrifying bantamweight duel between kickboxers under MMA rules.
Special Attraction
The RIZIN Koshien Final: Rising star Sanou Yokouchi faces the talented Kenshin Saito in this showcase of the future’s elite.
Ring in 2025 with RIZIN.tv
- Free for Premium Subscribers
- Available as a PPV for non-subscribers
Celebrate the end of the year in spectacular style! This is the must-see event of 2024. Reserve your stream now at RIZIN.tv and witness martial arts history in the making!
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RIZIN Fighting Federation will close the year with a highly anticipated featherweight title rematch between champion Chihiro Suzuki and former titleholder Kleber Koike, the company announced Tuesday.
RIZIN DECADE will take place at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, on Dec. 31, and air live through its own pay-per-view platform. Suzuki vs. Koike will serve as the main event.
Koike (33-7-1, 1 no contest) was the 145-pound champion when he first scheduled to face Suzuki inside the ring in June of 2023, but lost the title on the scale after missing weight. Per RIZIN rules, an overweight fighter can’t win a bout, so his first-round submission victory over Suzuki was automatically overturned to a no-contest.
The Brazilian veteran, a former KSW champion as well, won his past two with first-round finishes over Yutaka Saito and Juan Archuleta to earn a crack at the belt that now belongs to Suzuki.
Suzuki (13-3, 1 no contest) won three in a row since his match with Koike, scoring a huge upset against Bellator champion Patricio Pitbull before claiming RIZIN gold with a quick knockout over Vugar Karamov. Suzuki last defended his belt with a first-round knockout against veteran Masanori Kanehara.
The 25-year-old Japanese was expected to face Manny Pacquiao in a three-round boxing exhibition, but was later replaced by kickboxing veteran Rukiya Anpo. The bout ended in a draw.
RIZIN has yet to announce other match-ups for the card, but MMA Fighting has learned that undefeated welterweight Igor Tanabe is expected to be part of the card. The 5-0 grappler was scheduled to face Marcos Yoshio de Souza at RIZIN Landmark 10 on Nov. 17, but Souza was forced of the match due to an injury.
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Chihiro is a heavy puncher but raw as fuck. I see Kleber dominating him on the ground.
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Ryan Garcia may be suspended from fighting in North America after failing a drug test for Ostarine, but that won’t keep the troubled boxer from competing in an exhibition match in Japan.
MMAMania.com reported months ago that Garcia was in talks with RIZIN boss Nobuyuki Sakakibara to appear on the promotion’s big New Years Eve celebration card. Garcia went so far as to travel to Tokyo to appear in the ring after Manny Pacquiao boxed to a ‘draw’ against former K-1 champion Rukiya Anpo.
We had Anpo soundly beating Pacquiao in their wild brawl (watch the highlights here).
While Garcia challenged both Pacquiao and Anpo, it’s Anpo who got a contract to box “King Ryan,” and the two will face off at Rizin 49: Decade on December 31st (actually the 30th for those of us in North America). The fight will be held at the 36,000 seat Saitama Super Dome, one of the most famous venues in Japanese combat sports.
Garcia was contracted to fight at 140 pounds for his past two pro fights but missed weight by three pounds for his last bout against Devin Haney. He’ll have no issues in Japan where the contracted weight is 153 pounds. Anpo held the K-1 super lightweight title and fought at 147 pounds. The bout will be eight two-minute rounds.
“I’m looking forward to knocking Anpo out for trying to knock out the legend Manny Pacquiao,” Garcia said in an official statement on the fight. “Manny is past his prime and for him to try to knock him out rubbed me the wrong way. I will knock him out and teach him a lesson of respect.”
Will this be a tepid exhibition bout or a full on slobberknocker? RIZIN exhibitions featuring big boxing names have gone both ways, but Anpo’s fight with Pacquiao leads us to think this could be real, with the ‘exhibition’ label being a bit of kabuki to keep North American commissions from asking too many questions when Garcia applies to get his license back in April 2025.
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30 December 2024 04:00 PM – 1 January 2025 06:59 AM
Witness the Fight Card of the Decade – RIZIN Decade Live on RIZIN.tv!
RIZIN Decade
Date: December 31, 2024
Live from Japan – Streaming Worldwide!
Celebrate 10 years of RIZIN’s spectacular martial arts legacy with the ultimate year-end event! This is more than a fight card—it’s a night of champions, legends, and rising stars.
The Championship Showdowns
-
Featherweight Title Fight:
Japan’s Chihiro Suzuki defends his crown against submission ace Kleber Koike Erbst. Will Suzuki’s striking prevail, or will Kleber reclaim gold with his grappling mastery?
-
Lightweight Title Fight:
Brazil’s Roberto de Souza takes on Azerbaijan’s dynamic finisher Vugar Karamov. A clash of elite technique and raw power you can’t afford to miss.
-
Flyweight Title Fight:
Japan’s MMA icon Kyoji Horiguchi faces South African double champion Nkazimulo Zulu. A battle of speed, precision, and dominance at 57 kg.
Featured Fights
-
Super Atomweight Showdown:
Undefeated superstar Seika Izawa meets Argentina’s top contender Lucia Apdelgarim.
-
Bantamweight Action:
Veteran Yuki Motoya battles young phenom Kyoma Akimoto in a high-stakes matchup to determine the next challenger for Naoki Inoue’s Bantamweight title.
-
Heavyweight Collision:
Japan’s rising force Mikio Ueda squares off against South Korea’s powerhouse Kim Tae-in.
Fan-Favorite Matchups
- Yusuke Yachi vs. Taisei Sakuraba in a lightweight war. The son of legendary ‘Gracie Killer’ makes his MMA debut!
- Striker showdown: YA-MAN vs. Kazakhstan’s heavy-handed Karshyga Dautbek.
- Featherweight thriller: Koji Takeda vs. Suguru Nii. Former fellow bouncers and MMA champions will clash.
- Taiga vs. Genji Umeno in an electrifying bantamweight duel between kickboxers under MMA rules.
Special Attraction
The RIZIN Koshien Final: Rising star Sanou Yokouchi faces the talented Kenshin Saito in this showcase of the future’s elite.
Ring in 2025 with RIZIN.tv
- Free for Premium Subscribers
- Available as a PPV for non-subscribers
Celebrate the end of the year in spectacular style! This is the must-see event of 2024. Reserve your stream now at RIZIN.tv and witness martial arts history in the making!
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