This past Sunday, RIZIN Fighting Federation returned, with a couple of its rising standout stars atop the card. Both Tenshin Nasukawa and Kai Asakura were in action at RIZIN 24, which went down Sunday in Saitama.
Both fighters picked up key victories. Tenshin took on one of his toughest challenges to date in the kickboxing realm, and maintained his perfect record by handing Kouzi (Koji Tanaka) a unanimous decision loss. Asakura (16-2), the promotion’s bantamweight champ, picked up an impressive first-round stoppage of Shoji Maruyama in a non-title affair. That came by way of a soccer kick.
Also on the card, another top prospect in Rena Kubota (11-3), who defeated Emi Tomimatsu via unanimous decision. The bout was contested at strawweight, though RENA might be best known for her atomweight contests.
Highlights of all the action, plus results, can be found below.
RIZIN 24 Results:
Tenshin Nasukawa def. Koji Tanaka by unanimous decision – Kickboxing
Kai Asakura def. Shoji Maruyama by TKO (punches and knee), Round 1, 0:37
Koji Takeda def. Yuki Kawana by split decision
Takasuke Kume def. Satoru Kitaoka by split decision
Taishi Hiratsuka def. Yuki Kitagawa by KO, Round 2, 0:27 – Kickboxing
Kenta Takizawa def. Yuto Hokamura by split decision
Rena Kubota def. Emi Tomimatsu by unanimous decision
Kyohei Hagiwara def. Takahiro Ashida by submission (triangle Kimura), Round 1, 4:25
Sudario Tsuyoshi def. Dylan James by TKO (doctor stoppage), Round 1, 5:00
Mutsuki Ebata def. Rasta by unanimous decision – Kickboxing
Juri Ohara def. Yusuke Yachi by split decision
