It seems like bad luck just follows some guys and it seems to have bit Rizin heavyweight Todd Duffee again as he’s been pulled from Rizin Landmark 6 this weekend due to visa issues.
Rizin announced the change on Thursday.
In a statement Rizin announced Duffee’s withdrawal from the event, and his replacement.
“Tsuyoshi Sudario’s original opponent, Todd Duffee, was replaced due to travel complications. Sudario will now face Dong Hwan Lim.”
This is the second consecutive event that Duffee has had to withdraw from due to visa issues. The fight was originally supposed to take place at Rizin 44, but problems getting a visa pushed the fight to Rizin Landmark 6.
This would have been Duffee’s second fight of 2023 following a four year absence from competition after his last fight in the UFC which ended in a “No Contest” due to an eye poke. His first fight back was at KSW 79 which he lost via TKO to Phillip De Fries in February.
Duffee had made the media round recently promoting his fight, and spoke to Cageside Press about how he felt about some MMA managers and promotions joining fellow professional MMA fighter and current UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley.
“Promoters don’t necessarily want what fans want. That’s what I would say. It’s a dirty game in that aspect especially. There’s a bad MMA manager mafia that kind of controls the majority of these promotions, and if you’re not in one of those, you’re not getting in a lot of times. It’s not for lack of trying.”
He also told Cageside Press about visa issues he was facing.
“It’s a serious hassle to pull it off, I’ll be honest. I’m knee deep in visa paperwork now as we speak.”
No word on if Duffee will be booked in a future Rizin event as of this posting.
Rizin Landmark 6 will be held on Oct 1 at the Dolphins Arena in Nagoya, Japan. The event is headlined by a bantamweight bout between Hideo Tokoro and Alan Yoshihiro Yamaniha.
