Over the weekend, Rizin welcomed foreign fighters back and held back-to-back events for only the second time in the promotion’s history, outside of their NYE events. Six fighters traveled from abroad to take part, two championships were defended, a new champion was crowned, and a legend retired. All in all, there were 17 MMA bouts and a sole kickboxing bout, with 9 KO/TKOS and 3 submissions. The events, Trigger 3rd and Rizin 35, both took place at the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza, a facility that was built for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. While it is smaller than the Super Arena, it can hold up to 10,000 people and allows for a closer view of the action. In the end, 8,935 people came to Rizin 35 and 6,515 came to the Trigger 3rd show, leading to a successful weekend for the promotion.
Izawa wins the championship
On Sunday, the Deep Jewels Strawweight Champion Seika Izawa defeated Ayaka Hamasaki for the second time in 4 months and became the Rizin Super Atomweight Champion in the process. At just 24 years old, the new champion has made incredible strides in a career that only began less than two years ago, when she made the transition to MMA as a result of the pandemic making it difficult for her to compete in Judo.
Going into the match, Hamasaki and Izawa were at very different points in their careers. Hamasaki, the only Japanese fighter to win a major North American title, turned 40 this year, whereas Izawa will turn 25. Hamasaki has been competing since 2009 when Izawa made her debut near the end of 2020. It is also worth noting that this loss marks the first time in Hamasaki’s career that she has lost twice in a row and Izawa is only the second Atomweight to ever defeat the legendary student of Megumi Fujii and is the only fighter to ever defeat her twice.
Ushiku retains title over Saito
In the less spoken about of the three title fights, Ushiku defeated Saito again, winning a close decision. Throughout most of the fight, Saito was the aggressor and appeared to be landing more strikes, but this was all undone by two knockdowns, one from a high kick that he never saw coming and another from a punch. As a result, Saito would have likely needed a finish to win.
It is worth noting that Rizin’s efforts to turn Saito into a star appear to have worked to some degree. He is now a popular fighter. Despite previously losing two in a row, he had a lot of supporters at the event. In addition, with a day left, his gloves are going for 551,000 Yen ($4,289 USD), 3.5 times higher than the pair with the next highest bid, and his post-fight interview, with 256,000 views, has 85,000 more views than the second most-watched interview. The question now is what will Rizin do with him. He is on a three-fight losing streak, so the fighter is in need of a win. Due to his popularity, he is a likely candidate to headline a trigger or landmark show in the future.
TK retires with TKO win
Tsuyoshi Kosaka defeated the 24 year old former Kyokushin karate world champion Mikio Ueda in his retirement bout. Early on, it looked like he might have some problems with his tall opponent, but TK caught him with a punch that dropped him and finished him with strikes on the ground. To say the crowd went nuts would be an understatement. At 52 years old, TK has been fighting nearly as long as the UFC has been around. He competed in Rings, the UFC, Deep, Pancrase, Pride, Heat, and Rizin over a career that saw him fight 77 times. Perhaps best known in the West for his fights with Fedor and Bas Rutten, he got to go out on top, with a 1st round TKO victory, in front of his family and close to 10,000 adoring fans, which included friends Kiyoshi Tamura and Wataru Sakata. Afterwards, there was the customary 10 count, signifying the end of his career in the ring.
Shrek spoils Takakenshin’s debut
Takakenshin, the twin brother of Sudario, made his much anticipated Rizin debut against Hideki “Shrek” Sekine, a staple of the Japanese MMA scene, who finished the former sumo wrestler on the ground with strikes that included soccer kicks. Before hitting the ground, Takekenshin looked fairly comfortable in the ring and moved well for a fighter making his pro-debut. However, once the fight hit the mat, he was clearly out of his comfort zone.
Unliked his brother, Takakenshin fought an experienced MMA fighter in his first fight, so it will be interesting to see how Rizin uses him in the future. It is also interesting that Takakenshin is not training with his brother. While Sudario trains with Enson Inoue, Takakenshin trains at Alive, with fighters like TK and Hatsu Hioki.
Roberto de Souza taps Case in rematch
In his third fight under the Riziin banner, Johnny Case hit de Souza with a punch that looked like it damaged his orbital and led to him getting the TKO victory shortly after. 5 fights and a little over 2 years later, Roberto faced Case again, this time as the champion. Unlike Roberto, Case was not able to remain active, not competing in MMA in 2020 or 2021. Whether or not this played a factor is impossible to tell, but Case looked good on his feet and seemed very confident ahead of the match. However, the champion was able to get the fight to the ground by taking Case’s back, jumping for a triangle. This led to a joint triangle/armbar that caused the challenger to tap in the first round.
Afterwards, Roberto said he wants to fight some Bellator fighters, something that seems very possible. Sakakibara is going to the Bellator show in Hawaii this weekend and has a good working relationship with Scott Coker. If Rizin is able to bring over Bellator fighters, it will be interesting to see how good de Souza really is. Currently, it looks like he might be one of the best BJJ crossovers in recent memory.
The Numbers
Rizin 35 Post-Fight Interviews
- #1 Saito (256K)
- #2 Hamasaki (175K)
- #3 Ushiku (138K)
- #4 Izawa (111K)
- #5 de Souza (98K)
Rizin Trigger 3rd Post-Fight Interviews
- #1 Yachi (164K)
- #2 Takakenshin (107K)
- #3 Shrek (93K)
- #4 Kanehara (90K)
- #5 Gustavo (67K)
Rizin 35 Related Topics this Week
via Google Trends (Japan)
- #1 Auction (Rizin gloves etc.)
- #2 Vugar Karamov
- #3 Interviews
- #4 Featherweight
- #5 Seika Izawa
- #6 Ring girl
- #7 Takeru
- #8 Ushiku
- #9 Kleber Koike
- #10 TK
Google Trends: Kanna Asakura, Seika Izawa, and Ayaka Hamasaki
Google Trends: Saito, Yachi, Takakenshin, and de Souza
Results
Rizin 35
- Roberto de Souza defeated Johnny Case via Armbar at 3:32 of RD 1
- Juntaro Ushiku defeated Yutaka Saito via UD
- Seika Izawa defeated Ayaka Hamasaki via UD
- Tsuyoshi Kosaka defeated Mikio Ueda via TKO at 2:05 of RD 1
- Kanna Asakura defeated Satomi Takano via UD
- Spike Carlyle defeated Koji Takeda via Guillotine Choke at 1:35 of RD 2
- Shoma Shibisai defeated Rihards Bigis via TKO at 1:36 of RD 1
- Yuki Motoya defeated Alan Yamaniha via UD
- Vugar Karamov defeated Tachi Nakajima via Triangle Choke at 2:00 of RD 1
- Kyle Aguon defeated Takahiro Ashida via UD
Rizin Trigger 3rd
- Luiz Gustavo defeated Yusuke Yachi via TKO at 3:14 of RD 2
- Hideki Sekine defeated Takakenshin via TKO at 3:49 of RD 2
- Masanori Kanehara defeated Kazumasa Majima via TKO at 3:37 of RD 3
- Takaki Soya defeated Nouyoshi Nakatsuka via TKO at 3:29 of RD 2
- Takuma Sudo defeated Shooto Watanabe via SD
- Kimihiro Eto defeated Tatsuya Saika via TKO at 4:12 of RD 3
- Grant Bogdanove defeated Takeshi Izumi via TKO at 3:16 of RD 3
- Shoji Otani defeated Rikiya via TKO (3 knockdown) at 2:52 of RD 1
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