RIZIN FF News

Tom Taylor - August 24, 2018

Early on Friday morning, Rizin Fighting Federation announced the lineup for Rizin 13, which goes down on September 30 inside the hallowed Saitama Super Arena outside Tokyo, Japan. To call the card stacked would be an understatement. In the main event, former UFC flyweight title challenger and current Rizin superstar Kyoji Horiguchi will meet striking ace Tenshin Nasukawa in an absolutely riveting kickboxing bout.

Drake Riggs - August 16, 2018

Crossing through the end of July to the beginning of August, the RIZIN Fighting Federation put on two successful shows in two weeks. After a huge and wildly entertaining show with RIZIN 11 on July 29th at the famous Saitama Super Arena, RIZIN 12 followed on August 12th but was in a much smaller venue.

Drake Riggs - August 12, 2018

Once again the RIZIN Fighting Federation has delivered another great night of action. We saw a little bit of everything, including comebacks and upsets. As far as spectacles go, it’s hard to beat a RIZIN event. This time though, everything was straight to the point as the show took place in a smaller arena than usual, the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium in Nagoya.

Drake Riggs - August 12, 2018

“The Axe Murderer” Wanderlei Silva is arguably Japan’s biggest star when it comes to fighters who made their name in the country. The legendary Brazilian now is hoping to fight in front of a Japanese crowd once again before everything is all said and done. Silva was present at RIZIN 12 today to corner one half of the main event, Luiz Gustavo. But midway through the card, Silva found some time to head to the ring and address the crowd.

Drake Riggs - May 9, 2018

It’s hard to argue that there is a fighter that has been more impressive than Kyoji Horiguchi in their post-UFC career. Since losing for only the second time in his career to UFC flyweight king, Demetrious Johnson, Horiguchi has rattled off nine straight victories with five finishes in a row(4 KO/TKO, 1 submission). More impressively, those recent five have been at bantamweight rather than his UFC divisional home of 125 pounds. And now it looks like Horiguchi plans on impressing in even more ways as BJPenn.com’s own Jason Kindschy is reporting that Rizin is planning for Horiguchi to enter their kickboxing Grand Prix with the hopes of him and Tensin Nasukawa facing off.

Tom Taylor - December 31, 2017

While UFC 219 dominated the MMA spotlight on Saturday night, it was not the only major event going down. Across the Pacific, Rizin Fighting Federation hosted its stacked, year-end card, which was highlighted by the finals of its action-packed bantamweight Grand Prix. The quarterfinals of this Grand Prix went down two nights ago, when Manel Kape defeated UFC veteran Ian McCall with a bizarre, ring-rope induced stoppage, Takafumi Otsuka tapped formerly undefeated prospect Khalid Taha, Shintaro Ishiwatari brutally KO’d Kevin Petshi, and UFC veteran Kyoji Horiguchi snuffed Gabriel Oliveira. 

Tom Taylor - October 19, 2017

Ian McCall was recently released from his UFC contract, ending a long stint in the promotion’s flyweight division. Just days later, the flyweight star found a new home in Japan’s Rizin Fighting Federation, and was quickly plunked into the promotion’s exciting bantamweight Grand Prix. On the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio, McCall explained how he wound up in Rizin’s Grand Prix. Apparently, the first offers he received came from Russia. Rizin, however, simply came to the table with the best offer.

Tom Taylor - April 16, 2017

Though UFC on Fox 24, which was highlighted by emphatic wins from Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, Rose Namajunas and Robert Whittaker, dominated the attention of MMA fans on Saturday night, it was not the only major MMA show on the calendar. Shortly after the UFC on Fox action wore down in Kansas City, Missouri, Nobuyuki Sakakibara helmed Pride-revival Rizin Fighting Federation touched down in beautiful Yokohama, Japan with its latest show – and it was pure brutality.

Tom Taylor - December 4, 2016

Until just days ago, Pride legends Wanderlei Silva and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic were scheduled to go at it for a third time under the Rizin banner this December. Regrettably, Silva was forced to bow out of this planned trilogy fight with an injury. This news did not go over well with Cro Cop. After learning of Silva’s injury, the Croatian kickboxer took to social media to burn Silva with a fiery tirade, calling him a ‘scared b*tch,’ among other things.

Tom Taylor - November 9, 2016

Japan’s Rizin Fighting Federation will close out 2016 in the biggest way possible, with the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals of their hyped Openweight Grand Prix. The tournament quarterfinals will occur on December 29, while the semifinals and finals will occur two nights later on the 31. Late on Tuesday night, the Japanese organization revealed the brackets for these final tournament rounds.

Chris Taylor - September 25, 2016

“Krazy Horse” Charles Bennett scored a seven-second knockout victory over Minoru Kimura earlier today at RIZIN 2 in Japan. The fight started and Minoru charged across the ring where he was met by a leaping right punch from “Krazy Horse”.

bjpenndotcom - May 7, 2016

Throughout the history of MMA, several fighters have worn MMA shorts that have become iconic such as Mirko Cro Cop, Chuck Liddell, and our namesake BJ Penn to name just a few. With the UFC’s new apparel deal with Reebok, fighters now all wear uniforms, which takes away a fighters ability to be an individual according to Rizin FF CEO, and former PRIDE FC CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara.