Rizin Fighting Federation 1: Next Event - April 17 (OFFICIAL DISCUSSION)New fight announced

Not the best fight card so far. Hope they add some good ones to this card.

They really need to put on at least two really good matches on this card to balance it out. And they should be USA fan friendly (marketable) and/or meaningfull (as far as rankings wise).

I really have high expectations for rizin and it is strange to see them not coming into fruition because pride used to always make the best matches possible. It was like they were really in tune with what fights mma needed to see. Now I'm not so sure it'll be that way. I have this romantic and demanding vision for jmma that I hope will come true. But with the announced matches tbh I'm finding it hard to get motivated. Please rizin don't let us down.

Agreed^^^^^

None of the announced matches look that great so far, but it's Japan so they will probably announce more 2 weeks from the show. Nemkov and Aukstuolis will probably be paired up in a de facto 3rd place match from the GP participants. If they can find intriguing opponents for Gabi, Baruto Kaido, Kron, and Rena, that would spice up the card a lot

Is like to see some bellator names on the card to further solidify the concept of cross promotion and help form a universal mma standard again.

Longtime Fan wrote:They really need to put on at least two really good matches on this card to balance it out. And they should be USA fan friendly (marketable) and/or meaningfull (as far as rankings wise).

I really have high expectations for rizin and it is strange to see them not coming into fruition because pride used to always make the best matches possible. It was like they were really in tune with what fights mma needed to see. Now I'm not so sure it'll be that way. I have this romantic and demanding vision for jmma that I hope will come true. But with the announced matches tbh I'm finding it hard to get motivated. Please rizin don't let us down.

Well said

I'm honestly pretty disappointed so far. I won't be staying up all night to watch this one as is. I don't like the tag team match thing either. Put Wanderlei in an MMA match for a warm up fight and have Sakuraba doing a grappling only match. That alone would have made this card WAY better.

I liked the first 2 Rizin shows but the direction they are going with this one isn't giving me much hope in them.

NYE shows in Japan are always massive. I wonder if we are expecting too much comparing this show to the previous 2-day event. That being said, I would like RIZIN to make a strong 1st impression with their first numbered show so they don't fade away like Dream and Sengoku did

I think its opposite.

NYE shows are big but usually feature freak or legend fights to draw casuals away frim other programs.

Right now it seems matchmaking is lacking they can ONLY make crazy shit...

I'm really hoping better fights are going to come.

Yeah, the fights announced so far are really disappointing

It would change things a lot for the better if wand's matchs was an mma one instead of a grappling match. I wonder what was the  reason behind that, maybe they are pre-cautious and don't want to get sued for taking the risk of giving him a regular match  . Also what worries me is no mention at all of the participation of any Bellator fighters in this card, is everything OK in the relationship between Scott and sakakibara?

The only part that is giving me peace of mind right now is the fact that there is still time for announcements, so maybe in my wishful thinking there are many negotiations going on at the moment that we don't know about, Scott is probably looking at his roster trying to find who he is able to send over to Japan for this card.

I think wand only wanted grappling cuz hes way out of shape this is just the start of his regiment.

Btw bellator is already lending hisaki kato

I don't think every rizin card will feature top bellator talent only the GPs and major events but you may still see some mid tier guys who knows.

I really hope this card picks up steam

Longtime Fan wrote:It would change things a lot for the better if wand's matchs was an mma one instead of a grappling match. I wonder what was the  reason behind that, maybe they are pre-cautious and don't want to get sued for taking the risk of giving him a regular match  . Also what worries me is no mention at all of the participation of any Bellator fighters in this card, is everything OK in the relationship between Scott and sakakibara?

The only part that is giving me peace of mind right now is the fact that there is still time for announcements, so maybe in my wishful thinking there are many negotiations going on at the moment that we don't know about, Scott is probably looking at his roster trying to find who he is able to send over to Japan for this card.

The big event is in July Stop worrying (Fedor,Gp and wand in MMA)

I'm not overly worried, I will probably stay up to watch all their events, but the zuffa zombie sheep will use a weak card as ammo to discredit rizin and even though that may just be a few sherdoggers/forum dwellers' impressions, a spark becomes fire and sometimes that small amount of negative feedback is all that is needed to sway the general perception and opinion towards rizin being a shit product and shitty mma. If they want to get as big as pride once was they will need to put on banger cards after banger cards IMO. This card so far should be designated to an inferior-quality minor leagues promotion under rizin as well (like bushido was). It would be better to maintain rizin as the premium mma promotion. Just me two cents.

First they need to be popular in Japan not in america.
Second they nedd to build up Young star.
Sherdogger haha thosse bunch of shit lol i dont care about them lol let them talk. Rome wasn't built in a day

Yeah, I hope you're right on this Kingfedor. Big show in July. Hope they do add some good fights to this card though.

I would really love to see them sign Datsik to fight either Jaideep or
Fujita.

Gabi Garcia (1-0) vs. Anna Malyukova (1-0) set for ‎RIZIN1‬ on 4/17.
Garcia's opponent is also 1-0 in her professional career and also won her fight by TKO. She is 26 years old and trains out of Gladiator Fight Team Belgorod. She also won the Russian MMA Championship and the World Cup of MMA in Russia.

RIZIN will hold a press conference to announce new fights for the April 17th RIZIN.1 event on the 24th starting at 18:00 Japanese time 5:00am E.T. The press conference will be streamed live on YouTube:

Hope they add some good fights.

Agreed man

Sakuraba and Fujita should not be fighting.

Jerry Millen posted this on twitter:

"Some surprises in the way!  Cool match ups"

He has hashtags of Wanderlei Silva and Fedor. Does this mean Fedor is on the card afterall? He has been training since the beginning of March so I assume that is for a fight. I know Fedor said he wanted to fight in April. Why tag Fedor is he is not on the card?

Sakuraba can do grappling matches or even a mma fight against a fellow legend would be ok.....just not another travesty like the aoki fight.

At least i laughed at dada and kimbo....sakuraba was tough seeing him dismantled with ease.


Fujita....not sure i dunno what shape he's in but he should be fighting james Thompson not a hot lhw prospect.....its a shame and fucking retarded.

Really hope the press conference brings some good fights.....SERIOUSLY

Dunno man...

Lets hope for anything positive bro im really hoping something good is going to be announced