RIZIN TRIGGER 2 has been announced for Shizuoka in February.
On Friday, promotion officials confirmed that the second event in the TRIGGER series would take place February 23, 2022 at the Ecopa Arena in Shizuoka, Honshu in Japan. The main event will feature featherweight action, as Kleber Koike (28-5-1) takes on former UFC fighter Ulka Sasaki (23-9-2).
RIZIN’s TRIGGER series is unique in offering the fighters participating the chance to compete in a cage, rather than in the traditional RIZIN ring.
Kleber Koike, a former KSW featherweight champion who has also competed under the ONE Championship banner, joined RIZIN in 2020, and has been perfect since. He’s racked up three wins in the promotion, most recently submitting Mikuru Asakura at RIZIN 28 in June. Overall, the Brazilian-born Japanese fighter is riding a four-fight win streak.
In the past decade, Koike’s only losses have come to Artur Sowinski and Mateusz Gamrot, two of KSW’s top 145lb stars, the latter of whom is now making waves in the UFC.
Sasaki will enter the bout looking to bounce back from a loss to Yoshinori Horie suffered in September. The former UFC flyweight is 2-3 since joining RIZIN in 2018. He returned to the featherweight division for his fight against Horie, and will give it another go in February.
RIZIN TRIGGER 2 will air via SkyperfectTV, and be streamed on RIZIN LIVE PPV, as well as on LIVE-NOW for English viewers. The card currently consists of the following match-ups:
Kleber Koike vs Ulka Sasaki
Kenji Kato vs Kazuma Kuramoto
Suguru Nii vs Sora Yamamoto
