RIZIN will crown a brand new flyweight champion after the departure of Kyoji Horiguchi, and 10 fighters have been introduced for the 125-pound grand prix.
The primary spherical of the event will happen July 27 in Japan, when Tremendous RIZIN 4 card goes down on the Saitama Tremendous Area. The brackets have but to be introduced, however the area options Jose Torres, Makoto Shinryu, Yuki Ito, Hiromasa Ougikubo, Yuki Motoya, Erson Yamamoto, Alibek Gadzhammatov, Hiroya Kondo, Nkazimulo Zulu and Takaki Soya.
Tremendous RIZIN 4 will likely be headlined by a rematch between former featherweight champion Kleber Koike and native star Mikuru Asakura. Naoki Inoue and Seika Izawa will defend their titles towards Ryuya Fukuda and Yu Jin Shin, respectively, whereas Patricky Pitbull makes his return to the promotion towards Shunta Nomura.
Torres (13-4-1), a UFC veteran and ex-champion in Courageous CF and Titan FC, will participate within the grand prix. He fought as soon as in RIZIN, defeating Makoto Shinryu by way of break up choice in December 2024, and returns to Japan after dropping a call to Dias Yerengaipov below the Courageous banner.
Ougikubo (27-8-2), one of the skilled within the area at age 38, received selections over John Dodson and Shinryu in his most up-to-date appearances. He received a RIZIN event previously, beating bantamweights Naoki Inoue and Kai Asakura on the identical evening in December 2021, and likewise holds a win over future UFC champion Alexandre Pantoja on The Final Fighter again in 2016.
Shinryu (19-4-1, 1 no contest) topped Yuki Ito by way of choice in his most up-to-date look in Could, enhancing his RIZIN report to 5-3. He’s fought twice for the title towards Horiguchi, dropping by way of submission after a earlier eye-poke no contest.
Ito (18-6) appears to get again on monitor after Shinryu snapped his five-fight successful streak, a run that included a win over veteran Masatoshi Ueda in 2024. The previous DEEP flyweight contender received eight of 10 thus far below the RIZIN banner.
Motoya (37-13, 1 no contest) entered the RIZIN ring greater than 20 occasions already with key wins over the likes of Rogerio Bontorin, Justin Scoggins and twice towards Shinobu Ota. He cuts right down to flyweight after difficult Naoki Inoue for the bantamweight throne in March, a rematch he misplaced by way of break up choice.
Yamamoto (5-7) is the nephew of late Japanese legend Norifumi Yamamoto and had all however one in every of his MMA bouts happen below the RIZIN umbrella. He has stumbled since dropping his debut to Kron Gracie in 2015, together with a loss to Manel Kape a few years later, however enters the event off of a second-round submission over Daichi Tomizawa.
Gadzhammatov (5-0) stopped Daichi Kitakata by knockout in his RIZIN debut in November 2024 after constructing an ideal report in his native Russia since 2021. The Dagestani 23-year-old has but to go to a call as knowledgeable fighter.
Kondo (11-13-1) had an unstable profession within the sport however enters the grand prix after amassing back-to-back wins over Yuya Shibata and Tatsuki Shinotsuka, bringing his promotional report as much as 3-3.
Zulu (16-7-1), a former two-division champion at Africa’s EFC, got here up brief towards Horiguchi on the most recent New Years’ Eve card, dropping a hard-fought championship choice. “Zulu Boy” scored 87 p.c of his victories by the use of stoppage, an ideal break up between seven knockouts and 7 submissions.
Soya (13-6-1) fought John Dodson twice in a row in RIZIN, scoring a MMA choice victory over the previous UFC title contender after dropping their earlier match below bare-knuckle boxing guidelines.
