With RIZIN 45 closing out the year, Japan’s RIZIN Fighting Federation has given fans a glimpse of its 2024 schedule.
Among several events announced for the new year, RIZIN 46, on March 23, will take place at the Kobe World Memorial Hall in Kobe, Japan.
Three fights have been announced for the event, including a super atomweight match-up featuring promotional darling RENA, and the return of UFC vet Naoki Inoue.
Inoue (16-4) will take on veteran Shoko Sato (35-15-2) in a bantamweight bout. After a two-fight stint that saw him go 1-1 in the UFC in 2017/18, Inoue has posted a 7-3 record, competing mainly for RIZIN after one-offs with CFFC and DEEP.
Most recently, Naoki Inoue dropped a unanimous decision to Juan Archuleta at RIZIN 42 back in May. Archuleta would go on to win RIZIN’s bantamweight title (and was stripped of the belt after missing weight for the promotion’s annual New Year’s Eve card), making the loss perhaps sting a little less.
Sato, who had been competing for ONE Championship prior to his last bout, has won his two most recent fights.
RENA (13-5), properly Rena Kubota, has been trading wins and losses across her past four fights. She’ll enter her fight with ROAD FC vet Yu Ri Shim (6-3) off a setback against Claire Lopez.
At featherweight, meanwhile, Koji Takeda (15-6) will take on Kyohei Hagiwara (7-8).
Expect more RIZIN 46 fights to be announced soon.
