RIZIN’s New Year’s Eve card now has two belts on it, and one of them could end up around the waist of a guy nobody has figured out how to beat.
“New Year’s Eve title doubleheader,” Sherdog wrote on X, adding: “Shaidullaev faces Akimoto, and Saori Oshima defends her belt against Natasha Kuziutina.”
The matchups came out of an emergency press conference RIZIN held for the Nagoya show. The promotion billed Rajabali Shaidullaev vs. Kyoma Akimoto as a featherweight title match. Shaidullaev is 20-0, fights out of Kyrgyzstan with team Ihlas and sits at No. 9 in the Knockout Daily featherweight rankings. His last fight was Sept. 10. Twenty wins without a loss buys you a lot of things in this sport, and on Dec. 31 it buys him a shot at a belt.
View post on X
The other half of the doubleheader has a little more flavor. Sherdog framed Oshima vs. Kuziutina as a title defense for Oshima. RIZIN’s own announcement listed it as the final of what it calls its “invisible” women’s tournament. That is a strange name for a bracket, but I’ll take a women’s title fight on the biggest night of the RIZIN calendar over a mystery any day.
The Rest of the Presser
RIZIN never does a quiet press conference, and this one stayed on brand. The promotion also confirmed a rematch between Gustavo and Mikuru Asakura, seven years and eight months after their first meeting. Asakura on New Year’s Eve is a ticket-seller all by himself, so don’t be surprised if his fight gets more attention than either title bout.
Then Seika Izawa crashed the presser holding her baby and asked RIZIN to put her on the Dec. 31 card. Nobody booked anything on the spot, according to the announcement, but that is the kind of press conference chaos I live for. You can keep your scripted face-offs.
What Comes Next
The official event name is Super RIZIN 6: Shiwasu no Owarinagoya Gekokujo Matsuri. Gekokujo is the old Japanese idea of the underdog toppling the ones above him, which is a fun theme to stamp on a card headlined by a 20-0 fighter. If Akimoto is supposed to play the upstart here, he’s got a tall order.
The show goes down Thursday, Dec. 31, at Vantelin Dome Nagoya. Doors are scheduled for 11 a.m. local time and the first fight for 1 p.m. RIZIN’s fan club presale is already open.
