RIZIN 26 Primer: Get up to Speed on The NYE Card

The UFC doesn’t have a card scheduled until January 16th, but RIZIN 26 is going down on New Year’s Eve, and it will feature several big names from the promotion.

Kai Asakura versus Kyoji Horiguchi

In the headliner for RIZIN 26, Kyoji Horiguchi (28-3) will try to reclaim the bantamweight title from Kai Asakura (16-2). The latter snapped the former UFC contender’s 13 fight winning streak in 2019, by stopping him in the first round.

Horiguchi has been sidelined due to a knee injury since, while Asakura has gone 1-1, which includes winning the bantamweight crown this past August by knocking out Hiromasa Ougikubo.

Asakura’s brother, Mikuru, is set to battle Satoshi Yamasu and veteran fighters like Takanori Gomi and Hideo Tokoro are both scheduled to compete.

In addition, RIZIN 26 will also feature striking sensation Tenshin Nasukawa taking on Kumandoi Phetjaroenvit in a kickboxing match.

RIZIN 26 line-up

Here is the complete line-up for RIZIN 26, which will be hosted by the Saitama Super Arena. Broadcast and pay-per-view details can be accessed here.

Kai Asakura vs. Kyoji Horiguchi – for bantamweight title
Tenshin Nasukawa vs. Kumandoi Phetjaroenvit – kickboxing bout
Shinobu Ota vs. Hideo Tokoro
Ayaka Hamasaki vs. Miyuu Yamamoto – for vacant women’s super atomweight title
Takanori Gomi vs. Koji Tanaka – special stand-up rules bout
Kanna Asakura vs. Ai Shimizu
Naoki Inoue vs. Yuki Motoya
Kyohei Hagiwara vs. Ren Hiramoto
Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Tsuyoshi Sudario
Ulka Sasaki vs. Kenta Takizawa
Mikuru Asakura vs. Satoshi Yamasu
Kyle Aguon vs. Kleber Koike Erbst
Kazuma Kuramoto vs. Taiyo Nakahara
Phetmalai Phetjaroenvit vs. Nadaka Yoshinari – kickboxing bout