Tatsuki Shinotsuka finished Justyn Martinez just over ninety seconds into round number one at RIZIN 46 on April 29. The fight was the first-ever bare knuckle boxing match in RIZIN history, though the promotion has frequently featured kickboxing, and even traditional boxing, in the past.
When giving his thoughts after the win and the historic nature of being in the first bare knuckle rules bout in RIZIN, Tatsuki Shinotsuka told us recently that “I feel fantastic. I always feel great… Yeah, it means everything, you know. I like new things and I constantly like trying, pushing myself and trying new things. So this makes perfect sense.”
On his path pre-bare-knuckle debut, Shintosuka went to a BKFC event in Florida. He attended with Nobuyuki Sakakibara, the RIZIN figurehead and former force behind PRIDE. It hit him right there and it resonated to Shinotsuka as something he needed to do.
The approach was more karate-centric for ‘Rude Bwoy’ leading into this fight. The decorated kickboxing champion focused on karate, mainly because of the gloveless nature of that sport which transferred well into a BKFC ruleset for him.
His opponent Justyn Martinez had four bare-knuckle boxing fights as well as MMA experience before fighting Shinotsuka. The Japanese combatant anticipated a chaotic and hectic pace from Martinez. Shinotsuka’s composure as well as shot selection paying dividends towards securing the finish in the opening frame of their bout.
RIZIN went with a mysterious angle on Justyn Martinez by not revealing him to the public prior to the fight. The promotion simply had a blacked-out outline of a fighter adorned with an X. Shinotsuka obviously knew his opponent though, that was all that mattered, and the two showed mutual respect after the fight by taking a photo together which was posted on social media thereafter.
Shinotsuka to BKFC
This is far from a one-off, curiosity thing for the 26-year-old going forward and he has his next step in mind within the sport of bare-knuckle boxing.
