Rizin FF Releases Stacked Card for New Year’s Eve ‘Decade’ Event

💥💥💥 ANNOUNCEMENT 💥💥💥
10th Anniversary ⚡️ #RIZIN_DECADE
🥊 Announcement: Joint Public Training Session 🥊

📆 Date: Saturday, December 14th, starting at 10:00 PM CT
📍 Location: Somewhere in Tokyo

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✅ Participating Fighters:
👑 Chihiro / 👑Satoshi / Motoya / Akimoto… pic.twitter.com/b2Cyvk2uhN

— RIZIN.tv (@RIZINTV_) December 11, 2024

Rizin Fighting Federation has put together an interesting card for New Year’s Eve.

Rizin 49 “Decade” goes down at Saitama Super Arena near Tokyo on Dec. 31. The card will be headlined by lightweight champ Roberto Satoshi de Souza (17-3) putting his belt on the line against former featherweight champ Vugar Karamov (20-5).

Souza is coming off back-to-back first round knockout wins and is 3-2 in his last five with both losses coming in promotional crossovers with Bellator stars A.J. McKee and Patricky Freire. Meanwhile, Karamov lost his featherweight title via a knockout against Chihiro Suzuki at Rizin Landmark Vol. 7 in Novemeber 2023. The Azerbaijani has since bounced back with a first-round stoppage over Kazumasa Majima last month.

Meanwhile, Ultimate Fighting Championship alum Kyoji Horiguchi (33-5) will defend his flyweight strap against Nkazimulo Zulu (16-6) in the co-main event. Horiguchi is undefeated in his past five outings, which includes two finishes.

Meanwhile, Zulu is a former EFC flyweight champ and a training partner of UFC middleweight champ Dricus Du Plessis at the CIT Performance Institute in South Africa. “King Shaka” is riding a three-fight finish streak, which includes a spinning wheel kick knockout win over Jo Arai in his Rizin FF debut in September.

Bantamweight veteran Yuki Motoya (36-11) takes on undefeated prospect Kyoma Akimoto (7-0). Motoya is 3-2 in his last five and coming of consecutive submission wins. Meanwhile 18-year-old Akimoto has finished five of his seven career wins.

Rizin FF debutant Lucia Apdelgarim (2-3) will take on undefeated Japanese star Seika Izawa (14-0) in a women’s strawweight bout. The Argentinian has dropped three of her five career outings and is on a two-fight slump. Meanwhile, Izawa has finished 8 of her 14 career wins and is fresh off a unanimous decision win over Kanna Asakura in September.

Koji Takeda (16-7) and Suguru Nii (17-10) will meet in a flyweight clash. Takeda is 1-4 in his last five and coming off a submission loss against Rajabali Shaidullaev in June. Nii is coming off a submission loss against Kazumasa Majima which saw a five-fight winning streak snapped.

Former K-1 kickboxing champ Taiga Kawabe will make his MMA debut against fellow debutant Genji Umeno. Kawabe will look to establish his kickboxing against Umeno, who is one of the biggest names in Japanese muay thai.