Japan has a tradition of hosing big combat sports events for New Year’s eve, and this year we’ll be getting a special co-promotion between RIZIN and Bellator. Instead of MMA promoters just posturing and talking about how their fighters are supposedly better, these two organizations actually took the risk and stepped up to put some of their best athletes in very fun match ups.
Five stars from each promotion will go head to head, and we’ll be getting current and former champions facing off in a pretty fun RIZIN vs Bellator card.
A.J. McKee will face RIZIN lightweight champion Roberto Satoshi in the main event, with the co-headliner being a featherweight champion vs champion super-fight as Bellator’s Patricio Pitbull takes on RIZIN’s Kleber Koike Erbst. Former Bellator and RIZIN champ Kyoji Horiguchi, and two-division ROAD FC champ Soo Chul Kim will also be in separate match ups on the card.
Prior to the five Bellator vs RIZIN bouts, RIZIN.40 will kick things off with more fun match ups including an atomweight tournament final, and bouts involving UFC vets John Dodson, Naoki Inoue, and Johnny Case.
Join us live, with RIZIN.40 starting at 12 a.m. ET and the Bellator vs RIZIN card to follow soon after, likely around 5 a.m. ET on December 31st.
Full fight card can be seen below, along with a live stream of the event. Unfortunately, for those in the US, the Bellator vs RIZIN portion will only be available on tape delay on Showtime. More details on how to watch here.
Fight Card and Results
Bellator MMA vs. RIZIN FF
AJ Mckee Jr. def. Roberto de Souza by Decision (Unanimous)
Patricio Freire def. Kleber Koike Erbst by Decision (Unanimous)
Kyoji Horiguchi def. Hiromasa Ougikubo by Decision (Unanimous)
Juan Archuleta def. Soo Chul Kim by Decision (Split)
Gadzhi Rabadanov def. Koji Takeda by Decision (Unanimous)
RIZIN.40
Seika Izawa def. Si Woo Park by Decision (Split) [super-atomweight grand prix final]
Naoki Inoue def. Kenta Takizawa by Submission (arm lock), R2
Junior Tafa def. Tsuyoshi Sudario by TKO (Punches), R1
John Dodson def. Hideo Tokoro by KO (Punches), R1
Ren Hiramoto def. Genji Umeno KO (Left hook), R2 [Boxing Rules]
Yuki Motoya def. Rogerio Bontorin by KO (knee), R2
Johnny Case def. Nobumitsu Tyson by TKO (Punches), R1
Chihiro Suzuki def. Yoshiki Nakahara by KO (Punches), R1
Sho Patrick Usami def. Noah Bey by KO (Left hook), R1
Yushi def. Tatsuya Nakazawa by decision (Unanimous)
Live Stream: (Fite TV or the embed below)
