In the Rizin press conference on Tuesday, it was announced that “Panchan” Rina will be making her debut in Rizin. This will be the first female kickboxing match in the promotion’s history. At the same press-conference, when asked if Rizin was going to launch a women’s division, Rizin CEO Sakakibara didn’t commit but did reference the kickboxing promotion Rise and all they have been doing with women recently. Just two days later, Rise held a press conference to finalize the bouts for their all women’s event this September, Rise Girls Power 5.
Rise has a long history of women in the promotion and one of their former champions, Erika Kamimura has been working to further develop the divisions. Near the end of 2019, the promotion held the first Girls Power event and in 2020, the promotion held a women’s tournament, where they invited women from all promotions to come fight for a grand prize of $30,000 plus knockout bonuses. Through these events, Rise has developed now popular fighters like Tenshin Nasukawa’s teammate and Rise champion, Hinata Terayama, the mysterious Sasori, who only speaks via her manager, and Erika Kamimura’s protege, the high school student Akari.
On September 12th, Rise will be holding their 5th Girls Power event and it will feature a number of the women they are developing into stars. In the main event, there is going to be a super fight between the Mini-Flyweight champion Hinata Terayama and the Flyweight champion, Manazo Kobayashi. This will be the first fight between the two and Hianta is riding a 10-fight winning streak. In the co-main event, the Atomweight champion Koyuki Miyazaki will be taking on the championship winning Muay Thai fighter, Saya Ito. Despite not being a kickboxer, Ito is a big name on the combat scene, having fought Tenshin Nasukawa as a child, so her name brings attention to the event. The event will also feature Akari, who last lost to the champion, Terayama, in a closely contested title match.
The event will air on Abema TV and Fite TV.
Full Card
- 49kg Champion Hinata Terayama vs 52kg Champion Manazo Kobayashi (49.5kg, 109lbs)
- Koyuki Miyazaki vs Saya Ito (46.5kg, 102.5lbs)
- Koto Hiraoka vs Nana Okuwaki (46kg, 101.5lbs)
- Yaya Weerasakreck vs Akari (52kg, 115lbs)
- Haruka Asai vs Yuka Murakami (57.5kg, 127lbs)
- Misaki Shimada vs Ayaka Nishihara (43kg, 95lbs)
- Tomomi Yamamoto vs Wakana Tsuji (52kg, 115lbs)
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