Earlier this month, the CEO of Potential, one of Rizin Trigger’s key sponsors, was arrested on fraud charges. As far as bad news goes, this is just one more in a series of events that seems to be hitting the promotion. In 2022, Rizin has been accused of match-fixing, having connections to organized crime, has lost their deal with Fuji TV, and now has likely lost two key sponsors, both of whom are being accused of fraudulent behavior. Prior to 2022, Rizin still had issues, but they were less directly related. For example, while it may appear that TDT was a giant scam, they sponsored fighters and other promotions, they were never an official Rizin sponsor. Other incidents like that with Rizin Daisuki seem like they were ages ago and of such smaller significance.
We have compiled a list of some of the issues Rizin has dealt with over the years.
Potential CEO Arrested (August 2022)
Mika Yoshiba, a Neyagawa City councilor was arrested earlier this month for her alleged involvement in a COVID-relief scam. She and four others are accused of claiming to be intermediaries who “helped” struggling hospitals and care facilities apply for and receive relief loans. They would then take a percentage of the loan, calling it their commission. These activities first came to the police’s attention in 2021 when one of the five came to them to report that 150 million yen ($1.1 million) had been taken from his safety deposit box. Security footage from the bank revealed Yoshiba walking out of the bank with the money. While seemingly unrelated, this scandal impacts Rizin because of her role as a major sponsor and the possibility that the money she received through illicit means was transferred to the promotion.
Sources: Friday and the Mainichi Shinbun.
Spashan Alleged Fraud and Power Harassment (June-July 2022)
Spashan is a car coating agent produced by the Super Sports Collection. It is marketed as a premium product for luxury car owners, with their marketing materials specifically referring to cars like Rolls Royce, Ferrari, and Lamborghini. In June, it came to light that the ingredients listed on their products’ labeling are not accurate. For example, one ingredient is carnauba wax, which is preferred by car enthusiasts. Their labeling indicated that the “classic wax” product is 78% carnauba wax, that the “limited classic wax” is 79%, and the “sloan wax” is 80%. In reality, they were all 40% carnauba wax. Customers were infuriated, since they had been led to believe they were purchasing premium products for their luxury cars. Some are accusing the company of fraud. Outside of the labeling issues, there are also allegations of power harassment and coercion in the workplace, both serious issues in Japan.
Source: Blog Post
The Match (May 2022)
On May 31st, Fuji TV announced via Twitter that they were not going to be airing The Match after all. This was a giant blow to Sakakibara and Rizin. If Fuji TV was going to error on the side of caution and not air one of the biggest sporting events in Japan in the past 10 years, it seemed likely that Rizin had little chance of getting back on terrestrial broadcasting. Whatever their reason, whether it be the impending leadership change, the impending shareholder meeting, or just a refusal to accept any potential risk of anti-social involvement, by rejecting The Match and Rizin, Fuji TV essentially guaranteed that the other TV channels will not pick up the product, as Rizin now has a tarnished reputation.
Sources: E-Fight
Yakuza Allegations (May 2022)
On May 16th, the Shukan Post published an article entitled “RIZIN representative Nobuyuki Sakakibara, the man behind Tenshin vs. Takeru, in trouble over leaked ‘anti-social audio'”. This article revealed that an unnamed journalist, who they referred to as Mr. X, approached Sakakibara and told him that he was in possession of a particular audio recording. Sakakibara then allegedly offered to pay Mr. X around $37,000 to not write an article about what was contained in it. However, Sakakibara then changed his mind and went to the police saying that Mr. X was trying to extort him.
The recording was of a phone conversation between Sakakibara and someone referred to as Mr. Y, from March of 2020. In it, someone can be heard asking why Mr. Y doesn’t have a Rizin business card. Sakakibara responds that it wouldn’t be good for compliance issues if Mr. Y had a business card or if he publicly announced that he’s associated with Rizin. (It is important to note that business cards are much more important in Japan than countries like the U.S.) Later in the recording, Sakakibara is directly asked if he knows that Mr. Y is associated with the Inagawa-kai (a Yakuza group), to which he responds that he is aware.
This news ended up being devastating for Rizin, as it resurfaced all the issues Pride went through before its collapse and the allegations made against Sakakibara at that time. It may also be single-handedly responsibly for Rizin no longer appearing on Fuji TV. Prior to their decision to not air the match, Fuji TV released the following statement: “We always thoroughly adhere to broadcasting standards, laws, and rules, and we will make an appropriate judgment and respond to this matter after confirming the facts of the matter. At this point, there is no change to the broadcasting schedule of “THE MATCH 2022″. There are currently no plans for RIZIN-related broadcasts beyond that.” While the message appeared positive in general, the closing line of “There are currently no plans for RIZIN-related broadcasts” seemed like a potentially bad sign, considering up till that point, Rizin had always been on Fuji TV for New Year’s Eve.
Sources: Shukan Post; News Post Seven
Kubo vs Shibatar (January 2022)
In what quickly led to allegations of match-fixing, Yuta Kubo revealed after his New Years’ Eve loss to Shibatar that the two had agreed to take it easy in the opening round and then start fighting for real in the second. This plan started when Shibatar texted him that he wasn’t feeling good and that while he didn’t want to cancel the match, he also didn’t want to get injured. Kubo agreed to the idea and allowed Shibatar to play around in the opening round, but Shibatar went for a jumping armbar and got a referee stoppage later in the round. Shibatar later explained that this had all been part of his plan to catch the kickboxer off guard and get the win. Both Kubo and Shibatar are active Youtubers and as a result, the story was picked up by other popular Youtubers. A recording of Kubo describing what happened was eventually released and played live and screenshots of the actual discussion between Kubo and Shibatar were also released.
Unlike the TDT and RD incidents, this directly and negatively impacted Rizin. Some thought that Rizin might have known about the planning, questions were raised about the integrity of the matches in general for the promotion, and this was already a sensitive issue, since Japanese promotions have somewhat unfairly been accused of match-fixing in the past.
Sources: Number and Sports Times
The Dice Team (July 2021)
While TDT did not appear to have a direct formal relationship with Rizin, it did have relationships with high profile fighters, other promotions, and had a CEO who was highly visible at MMA events around Japan. They even promoted their own MMA event in Ukraine, that was covered by Japanese media. Sponsored fighters included Kyoji Horiguchi, Manel Kape, Cris Cyborg, Jiri Prochazka, Ayaka Hamasaki, and Tofiq Musayev. The CEO, Takuya Hashiyada, was arrested for his alleged connection to the Oz Project. It appears to have been a cryptocurrency scam, where they claimed to have access to AI that would allow them to trade cryptocurrencies and yield high returns. Allegations against the project first arose in 2019 and by the time those involved were arrested, they were accused of defrauding 15,000 people of 6.5 billion yen ($54.3 million).
While Rizin was not directly involved with TDT, the perception was that MMA in general was. People wondered why background checks were not done, considering allegations of wrong doing began in 2019. The allegations were even featured on TV in 2020, meaning a reasonable background check would have likely revealed this information. In fact, MMA manager Shu Hirata told MMA Fighting that when he was approached by the company, he did his own research and found the allegations, so they were not hidden. This led to questions. Did the fighters and promotions know about the allegations and ignore them or were they not doing their due diligence?
While this story did make international news, it was never too closely associated with Rizin, likely due to them not having a direct relationship. Also, fighters like Roberto Souza and Kleber Koike were able to create some positive news, when they donated all the money they received from TDT to charity.
Source: Sogo-Kaku; Nasdaq; MMA Fighting
Rizin Daisuki (July 2019 – Present?)
Rizin Daisuki (which means “I love Rizin”), or RD as he is known on Japanese Twitter, was a scam artist who claimed to have a terminal illness. He then used social media to pressure fighters into giving him fight-worn gear and other merchandise. He also created 20-30 other social media accounts to support the RD one and further pressure and intimidate fighters. Initially he was received warmly and Rizin even sold T-shirts to raise money for cancer research centered around him. However, as he received more attention, holes in his story started to appear. People realized he was using stock photos of doctors and hospitals, that despite going through chemo he still had all of his hair, and that he had been seen recently walking around and healthy. It also came to light that he messaged an undisclosed fighter asking for fight-worn goods. The fighter blocked him, so RD messaged them from his other accounts, where he wrote that unless the fighter gave him some stuff he would spread stories that the fighter treats people with cancer poorly. As a result of all this, Rizin had to work behind the scenes in an attempt to get various goods back to the fighters. They also had to release a statement confirming that he did not in fact have cancer. Never too serious of an issue, RD was a scam artist that attempted to get free valuable merchandize, but in the end, he was likely little more than a nuisance.
Sources: Sogo-Kaku
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