Kleber Koike Erbst Defeats Chihiro Suzuki Atop Title Tripleheader at Rizin 49 'Decade'

✌️ KLEBER IS THE TWO-TIME RIZIN FEATHERWEIGHT CHAMPION

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— RIZIN.tv (@RIZINTV_) December 31, 2024

After losing his title on the scale in June 2023, Kleber Koike Erbst regained the Rizin Fighting Federation featherweight championship on Tuesday in the main event of Rizin 49 "Decade" in Saitama, Japan. Koike earned a unanimous decision victory over champion Chihiro Suzuki to reclaim the belt that he was stripped of prior to his first fight against Suzuki at Rizin 43.

Koike (34-7-1, 1 NC, 9-2, 1 NC Rizin), whose previous win over Suzuki (13-4, 1 NC, 8-2, 1 NC Rizin) was invalidated as a no contest when he failed to make weight, passed all tests, and he left no doubt in the judges’ minds after 15 minutes of combat. Suzuki had a lot of early success with calf kicks that seemed as if they might hinder Koike’s movement, but Koike pulled guard and effortlessly swept into mount as he established his ground game dominance. Suzuki fought his way back to half guard and then kicked at Koike’s face with heel strikes as Koike attempted a late-round Achilles lock.

In the second round, Koike took Suzuki down and landed punches to set up a mounted triangle choke that had Suzuki in some trouble. Suzuki escaped, and he also got out of a mounted guillotine choke, but he was playing defense as the challenger took over the fight on the mat. That continued in the final round after Koike again pulled guard, but Suzuki was able to land some damaging elbows from the top that opened a bad gash on Koike’s forehead. Despite that cut, Koike threw up his legs for a triangle choke and then an armbar, and he battered Suzuki with punches and elbows after mounting him late in the fight. The judges all sided with Koike for a unanimous decision win in what was believed to be his final shot at Rizin title gold. He made the most of the opportunity.




And STILL 👊

The Champ takes home a unanimous decision.

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 Flyweight king Kyoji Horiguchi (34-5, 1 NC, 15-1 Rizin) held on to his title with a hard-fought unanimous decision victory over challenger Nkazimulo Zulu (16-7-1, 1-1 Rizin) in the evening’s co-main event. Horiguchi slammed Zulu down in the opening round and kneed him in the head until Zulu returned to his feet. Horiguchi continued to pursue a finish by holding Zulu in a front choke, but again Zulu escaped and both fighters rocked the other with punches during an exchange on the feet. Horiguchi held Zulu down in half-guard for four minutes in the second round until the fight was brought back to the feet, where Zulu stunned Horiguchi and the champion responded with a takedown. Strong left hooks were exchanged in the final round until Horiguchi took Zulu down again, and he kept him on the mat while punching him in the face until the end of the spirited fight. All three judges scored the bout for Horiguchi, who is unbeaten in his past six fights.




SOUZA GETS THE TAP IN 1️⃣ !

👑 AND STILL!

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 Roberto Satoshi de Souza (18-3, 11-2 Rizin) easily retained his lightweight championship in the first of the card’s three title fightst. De Souza submitted former featherweight champ Vugar Karamov (20-6, 6-3 Rizin), who moved up in weight for the chance to earn his second Rizin belt. De Souza scored two takedowns in the first half of the opening round, but Karamov powered out from the bottom both times and returned to his feet. He then took de Souza down, but that proved to be a mistake when de Souza countered with a triangle choke from the bottom that forced Karamov to submit at the 4:45 mark of the opening round. De Souza’s win capped off a stellar 2024 campaign that saw him earn first-round finishes in all three of his Rizin fights.

Rizin women’s super atomweight champion Seika Izawa (15-0, 9-0 Rizin) remained unbeaten and scored a quick submission win over massive betting underdog Lucia Apdelgarim (2-4, 0-1 Rizin), who stepped into the fight on short notice in place of an injured Rena Kubota. Izawa’s Rizin title was not on the line in the bout, but she was as aggressive as always with her submission attempts and chained them together until she was able to put Apdelgarim away. Following an early takedown, the heavily-favored Izawa secured a tight triangle choke. Apdelgarim bravely fought on and refused to submit, so Izawa switched to an armbar and then back to the triangle choke. A final transition to a triangle armbar was too much for Apdelgarim, who tapped out to the combination hold at the 2:21 mark of Round 1. Izawa, who was critical of Kubota for withdrawing from the fight and accused her countrywoman of ducking her, stated after her win that she wants to compete against top international talent in 2025.


 The main card opened with a dominant win for Yuki Motoya (37-11, 1 NC; 12-7, 1 NC Rizin), who handed highly-touted 18-year-old prospect Kyoma Akimoto (7-1, 2-1 Rizin) his first defeat via unanimous decision. Akimoto had brief success with punching combinations early in the fight before Motoya took him down, and that became a familiar theme for the rest of the bout. Motoya kept Akimoto in place with body triangles as he tried to finish his young foe with rear-naked chokes. Akimoto’s defense was solid, but he was unable to mount much offense of his own aside from three knees early in the final round. Motoya got him down again and he held Akimoto in a body triangle as time ticked down. All three judges sided with the veteran Motoya, who earned himself a rematch against Rizin bantamweight champion Naoki Inoue with the victory.


 In the featured featherweight bout before intermission, Rajabali Shaidullaev (13-0, 3-0 Rizin) kept his unblemished record intact with a dominant TKO win over Yuta Kubo (5-2, 5-2 Rizin) at the 2:30 mark of the second stanza; Karshyga Dautbek (17-3, 3-1 Rizin) used his superior grappling to seal a unanimous decision win over striker Ren Sugiyama (2-2, 2-2 Rizin) in another featherweight matchup; rising contender Ryuya Fukuda (24-8-1, 3-0 Rizin) won his bantamweight fight against Ryusei Ashizawa (2-2, 2-2 Rizin) by knocking him out with punches in just 54 seconds; Mikio Ueda (4-2, 3-2 Rizin) weathered early strikes from fellow heavyweight Tae In Kim (5-1, 0-1 Rizin) and ultimately knocked the Road FC champion out with a blistering knee at the 2:31 mark of Round 2; and Jose Torres (13-3-1, 1-0 Rizin) took advantage of late-fight tactical mistakes from Makoto Takahashi (18-4-1, 1 NC; 4-3 Rizin) to win a close but deserved split decision at 130 pounds.

Taisei Sakuraba (1-0, 1-0 Rizin) won his MMA debut by stopping veteran Yusuke Yachi (27-15, 11-8 Rizin) with punches just 26 seconds into their lightweight duel; Koji Takeda (17-7, 7-7 Rizin) survived early submission scares against Suguru Nii (17-11, 2-4 Rizin) and rallied to win a unanimous technical decision at the 4:09 mark of Round 3 in a lightweight bout that ended prematurely when Takeda was kneed in the groin; King Edokpolo (2-0, 1-0 Rizin) made a successful Rizin debut by knocking out heavyweight Satoshi Kamiyama (1-4, 1-4 Rizin) with a knee and punches at the 3:22 mark of Round 1; in a bantamweight bout between kickboxers making their MMA debuts, Genji Umeno (1-0, 1-0 Rizin) prevailed via unanimous decision against Taiga Kawabe (0-1, 0-1 Rizin); and Sanou Yokouchi opened the Rizin 49 card by submitting Kenshin Saito via rear-naked choke at the 3:02 mark of Round 1 in the final of the Rizin Koshien MMA amateur bantamweight tournament.

During the Rizin Bangaichi portion of the event, Team Mikuru Asakura narrowly defeated Team Ren Hiramoto by a score of four to three in a best-of-seven series of fights. The competition concluded with Rukiya Anpo winning a lopsided unanimous decision over Sina Karimian in a six-round heavyweight boxing match. Karimian landed very few punches throughout the fight, aside from two to the face of referee Tatsuro Nagase in the sixth round. Nagase allowed the fight to continue as it devolved into a brawl in the final minute and Anpo ultimately won easily on the scorecards.


 In other fights during the Bangaichi competition, Sho Patrick Usami stopped Issa Hosokawa with punches to the body at the 2:59 mark of Round 2 in a welterweight kickboxing match using open-finger MMA gloves; Tatsuki Shinotsuka won his 128-pound open-finger gloves kickboxing match against Aoi Noda via TKO at the 2:07 mark of Round 1 after scoring three quick knockdowns; Daichi Tomizawa (1-0, 1-0 Rizin) won his MMA debut in vicious fashion by brutally knocking out Kota Miura (2-3, 2-3 Rizin) with a knee at the 1:53 mark of Round 1 at a catchweight of 139 pounds; Taio Asahisa won a unanimous decision against the previously undefeated Yura Kono in a featherweight kickboxing bout; Hyuma Yasui (3-0, 1-0 Rizin) outworked Hiroaki Suzuki (4-6, 4-6 Rizin) to take a unanimous decision win in featherweight MMA action; and Hiroto Gomyo (7-4, 1-0 Rizin) survived a third-round knockdown to win his featherweight MMA fight against Koki Akada (0-1, 0-1 Rizin) via split decision.