RIZIN Fighting Federation is staying busy, with two events set for back-to-back nights in April.
RIZIN TRIGGER 3rd will take place April 16, 2022 at the Musashino Mori Sports Plaza in Tokyo, Japan on April 16, while RIZIN 35 will go down at the same venue the following night. Both cards were previously reported by Cageside Press.
On Tuesday, RIZIN officials announced additional bouts for both events, with former UFC featherweight Spike Carlyle achieving his dream of fighting in Japan.
Carlyle (13-3), winner of four straight for promotions including LFA and Bellator MMA, will face Koji Takeda (13-2) in a lightweight bout at RIZIN 35. The American known as “The Alpha Ginger” has long expressed his interest in fighting for RIZIN in Japan, even prior to signing with the UFC in 2020.
The addition of Carlyle to the Tokyo-based event is the result of the country opening up to foreign athletes, after a lengthy lockdown intended to curb the coronavirus pandemic prevented visits to the nation.
RIZIN CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara was quoted in Tuesday’s press release as saying “Starting April, we hope to bring in more international fighters to boost the roster. Still many restrictions but slowly want to add more international fighters.”
The promotion also announced that public weigh-ins for RIZIN 35 will take place at RIZIN TRIGGER 3rd. The two cards currently break down as follows:
RIZIN TRIGGER 3rd
- Hideki “Shrek” Sekine vs Takakenshin – Openweight
- Yusuke Yachi vs Luiz Gustavo
- Tatsuya “Yanbo” Saika vs Kimihiro Eto
- Kazumasa Majima vs Masanori Kanehara
- Shoji Otani vs Rikiya – Kickboxing
- Kintaro vs Kazuma Kuramoto
- Shooto Watanabe vs Takuma Sudo
- Takaki Soya vs Nobuyoshi Nakatsukasa
RIZIN 35
- Shoma Shibisai vs Rihards Bigis
- Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs Mikio Ueda
- Roberto Satoshi Souza (c) vs Johnny Case – for the RIZIN lightweight championship
- Koji Takeda vs Spike Carlyle
- Juntaro Ushiku (c) vs Yutaka Saito – for the RIZIN featherweight championship
- Takahiro Ashida vs Kyle Aguon
- Vugar Karamov vs Taichi Nakajima
- Ayaka Hamasaki (c) vs Seika Izawa – for the RIZIN women’s super atomweight championship
- Kanna Asakura vs SARAMI
