RIZIN FF News

Drake Riggs - July 29, 2018

In a night that had already seen some great action produced by UFC on Fox 30 in Calgary, MMA continued in Japan and only further stepped on the gas. The RIZIN Fighting Federation held their 11th numbered card just three hours or so after the conclusion of Dustin Poirier’s epic victory over Eddie Alvarez in their rematch. Right from the get-go, it was almost like the fighters were trying to top the UFC’s action. And they arguably did just that.

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 - December 19, 2016

Later this month, Japan’s Rizin Fighting Federation will close out 2016 with an epic openweight grand Prix. The quarterfinal round of this tournament will occur on December 29, while the semifinals and finals will occur on December 31. To the elation of fans everywhere, Rizin stacked this tournament with big names, as Pride legends Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Wanderlei Silva and even retired former UFC interim heavyweight champion Shane Carwin were pencilled into the brackets. Unfortunately, several of these names have been forced to withdraw from the rapidly approaching tournament.

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”.

Russell Ess - January 25, 2016

An intriguing matchup has been buzzing amongst the MMA community of a potential fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Tito Ortiz. While other rumors have been circulating of Fedor potentially fighting King Mo, Wanderlei Silva, and even Brock Lesnar, no word on an official fight has been released. Russian website World of MMA reported the following (translated with Google Translate):

bjpenndotcom - January 22, 2016

[ooyala code=”R5ZzQ4MDE6NH2U_tUDL_xSOt_Lldg5u9″ player_id=”631143aa3982447caf394a185941cb69″ width=”1280″ height=”720″ auto=”true” autoplay=”true”] When Fedor Emelianenko made his triumphant return to MMA on New Year’s Eve at Rizin FF, the MMA world went wild with possibilities as to who Fedor could fight next. It was announced that Emelianenko would be looking to take another fight in April, likely under the Rizin banner once again, however no opponent was given.

bjpenndotcom - January 21, 2016

Following the triumphant return of Fedor Emelianenko on New Year’s Eve it was announced that ‘The Last Emperor’ would be looking to fight again under the Rizin banner sometime around April. Immediately there were speculations as to who Emelianenko would fight, however since the announcement we’ve heard no further details regarding the fight.

bjpenndotcom - January 19, 2016

Heading into Fedor Emelianenko’s MMA return on New Year’s Eve at Rizin FF there was much speculation as to who Fedor Emelianenko’s opponent would be.. Ultimately, Emelianenko fought and defeated Jaideep Singh, in the very first round of their main event scrap. Following the bout it was revealed that WSOF President and kickboxing legend Ray Sefo was offered the fight, as well as former UFC champion Randy Couture.