Bellator Vs. Rizin Coming To Japan On New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve will feature a special Bellator MMA vs. Rizin event in Japan.

Set from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, the card will air live on December 31.

Bellator athletes will step outside of the cage and compete inside the four-sided ring against their Rizin counterparts in a five-fight main card.

Bellator and Rizin have led the way for the entire MMA landscape on collaborative co-promotion dating back to 2015, however, this will be the first time two promotions have had their top fighters challenge one another over the course of an entire event. Additional information, including the rules set will be revealed soon.

Representing Bellator in Tokyo at this star-studded spectacle will be current featherweight world champion and No. 1-ranked pound-for-pound athlete Patricio Pitbull (34-5), his prior foe and No. 3-ranked pound-for-pound talent AJ “Mercenary” McKee (19-1), as well as a pair of former champions in Juan “The Spaniard” Archuleta (26-4) and Kyoji Horiguchi (30-5). A fifth main card fighter, along with an entire preliminary card offering will be announced in the near future.

The main card will air live on Showtime with prelims streaming. Rizin fighters are expected to be announced shortly.