Additional fights featuring CB Dollaway, Satoshi Ishii, Rena Kubota and more have been announced for both Bellator Japan and RIZIN 20.
Announced for Bellator Japan on Wednesday, Kanna Asakura (15-4) will face King of the Cage atomweight champ Jayme Hinshaw (4-3). In heavyweight action, Shoma Shibisai (5-2) will face Sergei Shemetov (9-6). And in a bit of a twist, a kickboxing bout set to take place in the cage will see ex-K-1 athlete Ren Hiramoto (10-4 KB) take on a former DEEP champ in Takahiro Ashida (23-1-2 MMA).
All three fights will be featured on the “post-lim” portion of the Bellator Japan card, meaning they will air after the main event, via the Bellator App.
Six fights were also announced for RIZIN 20. Among them, Kai Asakura (14-1) gets his replacement for Kyoji Horiguchi. Horiguchi was forced to give up both his RIZIN and Bellator bantamweight titles due to an ACL injury earlier this year. Now, Asakura will face Manel Kape (14-4) for the vacant RIZIN bantamweight title. The pair have met before, with Asakura picking up the win in a close split decision.
A second title fight will see light heavyweight champion Jiri Prochazka (25-3-1) take on promotional newcomer and UFC veteran CB Dollaway (17-9). Dollaway was last seen in a loss to Khalid Murtazaliev at UFC Moscow in September 2018.
In non-title action, RIZIN’s Rena Kubota (9-3) will square off against Lindsey Vanzandt (7-2) in a rematch of their Bellator bout, which saw Vanzandt pick up a submission win. A bantamweight number one contender’s bout, meanwhile, will feature Shintaro Ishiwatari (26-7-4) taking on Hiromasa Ogikubo (19-4-2), a TUF veteran. Heavyweight standout and PFL athlete Satoshi Ishii (22-10-1), who was eliminated from the PFL playoffs in October, returns to face Jake Heun (14-9).
Finally, Vitaly Shemetov (23-10) – brother of Sergei, fighting on the Bellator Japan event – will face EFC Light heavyweight Champion Simon Biyong (6-1). Biyong will be making his promotional debut.
Bellator Japan takes place December 29, 2019 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The main card will air live on Paramount Network on December 28 at 10PM ET.
RIZIN 20, meanwhile, will take place at the very same venue on December 31, 2019, and will air live on FITE.tv
