Rizin 27 was an excellent show with a lot of good fights. In this article, I will discuss what in my opinion were the biggest moments of the card, namely the Takeda / Kume fight, Shooto Watanabe, Koike, Souza, Sudario, and the main event. At the end of the article I have also included some statistics to show which fights and fighters generated the most public interest in Japan.
In arguably the best fight on the card, Pancrase champion Kume engaged in a back and forth war with Deep Champion Takeda. The younger Takeda rightfully got the decision after taking over late in the fight. At just 25 years old and with just 1 loss on his record, Takeda fought a fight that has to make Rizin consider him a potential break out star. Not only did he defeat the tough Pancrase champion, he’s also beaten Juri Ohara 3 times and fought a fan friendly fight. If they are healthy, expect to see Kume and Takeda both back in Rizin.
Here is a comment from a Japanese fan about the fight:
“In this photo, you don’t know who will win. Mr. Kume and Mr. Takeda were both amazing. The broadcast comments were all high praise. It was a wonderful match the like of which I have rarely seen in recent years. Thank you very much.”
Over 30 fights into his pro career and Shooto scored his biggest win at Rizin 27. After a rough first round, it looked like Shooto either got his magical choke or a neck crank in the 2nd. With the win, he has pretty much guaranteed himself a spot in the upcoming tournament. In addition, absent his loss to Naoki Inoue, Shooto hasn’t lost since 2017. Unlike Naoki, who is admittedly not the best mic performer, Shooto got praise for his post fight speech where he talked about his girlfriend’s upcoming fight in Deep Jewels and his teammate’s upcoming fight in Bellator. Rizin seemed especially interested in promoting Shooto with his girlfriend, Hikaru Aono, having a camera on her for most of the fight.
Rena had the following to say:
“It may be rude to say since he’s older, but Shooto Watanabe’s speech on the mic was too cute. I want to hear it again lol.”
Kleber Koike and Roberto Souza
Kleber and Roberto fought very similar fights, finished their fights with the same submission, and both continued their rise through the promotion. Some may criticize their opponents for so willingly going to the ground with them so early int he fights, but it does not matter. They both got emphatic finishes and endeared themselves to the Rizin fanbase with their love for the promotion and the fans. The event took place near where the live and it looked like a number of their students were in the audience.
Sekine was at the event, tweeting throughout and had this funny comment:
“When Satoshi spoke on the mic, he introduced each of his friends that helped him prepare for the fight. Impressive (T . T)…Takumi, Uchiyama, Suzuki,…..wait, what? That’s it?! What about my name? Don’t forget me!!”
Rizin 27 was a success. What may have looked underwhelming on paper delivered exciting fights and established new rising stars within the promotion. The only blemish of the night involved Sudario. Sudario is frustrated. He made it clear after the fight that he doesn’t want to be fighting pro-wrestlers with no MMA experience. This frustration is understandable. However, Sudario did damage to his reputation when he continued to punch his opponent after the fight was over, and when he dived back on his opponent after the referee had already pulled him off, causing Enson to have to help push him off.
Sudario already has some negative baggage with the assault and bullying allegations from his Sumo days. Fans are aware of this and these actions serve to reinforce Sudario having negative qualities, which leads to a negative reaction from fans. While he was fined 25%, one has to wonder if there will be indirect consequences of these actions. If Fujii TV still doesn’t want to show fighter with tattoos on their broadcast, they may be hesitant to book a fighter who can’t control himself.
However, despite the fine and possible negative consequences, Sudario has successfully gotten his message across to Sakakibara. Sakakibara stated that they will search for a complete MMA fighter from abroad to serve as Sudario’s next opponent. The days of fighting pro-wrestlers may be behind him. Also on a positive note, the controversy in the fight has led to the video on Rizin’s Youtube channel to soar, making it the most watched fight from the event, already surpassing the views of his last fight by several hundred thousand.
Prominent figures in the fight community to talking about the fight, including former K-1 champion Masato and prominent sponsor Hori. Both seemed fairly critical. As famous fighters from K-1 and regulars on Japanese TV, Masato and Musashi’s video response was in the top 10 trending videos in Japan. While less known to the general public, Hori is prominent figure of the Japanese MMA scene. As a former fighter, he is the main sponsor of the Asakura brothers, they actually work at his office, and he owns a MMA gym.
“Today’s Rizin had a series of great matches but there was one unfortunate fighter. Sudario, you can’t keep punching after the referee stops the match. It’s also bad to insult for the winner to insult the loser. Those who can’t control their emotions can’t succeed, that’s why he had to retire from Sumo because of two violent incidents.”
Sudario did clear the air and make peace with his opponent afterwards.
Ayaka Hamasaki edges out Kanna Asakura
In the main event, it looked like Ayaka might end things early with punches but a tough Kanna fought through adversity and took Ayaka all the way to a split decision. This fight was interesting for several reasons. First, it was the first time we have ever really seen Ayaka get taken down and controlled on the mat before. Second, it showed that Kanna has improved quit a bit since their last fight. As one of Rizin’s more popular fighters, Kanna looks capable of taking over the reigns once Ayaka retires. Ayaka did mention that she has a couple of fights left in her so a rematch could even be possible in the future. While the controversy surrounding Sudario’s fight helped skyrocket its view count, the Ayaka / Kanna fight is 2nd highest, reaching close to a half million views in 2 days.
Rizin has been promoting Ayaka a lot recently. She was recently in some fishing videos with Horiguchi and now seems to have caught the attention of Tenchim, a popular Youtuber who made her Rizin debut walking out to the ring with Shibatar on NYE.
She had the following to say:
“This was the best…most impressive…Thank you everyone for your hard work. I’m numb. When I return to Tokyo I will have a celebration for Hamasaki. She is so cool.”
Numbers:
Youtube views:
- Sudario vs Miyamoto 615,000 views
- Hamasaki vs Asakura 433,000 views
- Takeda vs Kume 200,000 views
- Souza vs Tokudome 185,000 views
- Taiga vs Motoyama 165,000 views
- Koike vs Majima 140,000 views
- Sugiyama vs Ito 70,000 views
- Sakurai vs Yoshida 62,000 views
- Horie vs Seki 53,000 views
- Watanabe vs Tamaru 51,000 views
- Sone vs Shian 45,000 views
- Muramoto vs Yamamoto 43,000 views
- Sugiyama vs Hiroki 17,000 views
- Sato vs Kunimoto 12,000 views
Google Trends:
Over the past 7 days, the trends on Google’s web search.
- Blue = Sudario
- Green = Mikuru Asakura
- Yellow = Kanna Asakura
- Red = Ayaka Hamasaki
- Purple = Enson Inoue
As you can see, interest in Sudario was relatively low on Google before the fight but during and afterwards, searches spiked. Since the, as people like Masato have continued to talk about the match, interest has remained relatively high. During the event he even surged over Mikuru briefly but that has since changed. Searches related to Enson also peaked briefly but appear to have gone back down. Interest in Kanna also appears to be higher than most as well.
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