Combate Global will head to Japan later this year to take on RIZIN.
The promotions announced a planned event on Saturday, April 29 from Tokyo with Claire Lopez battling Rena Kubota. The action will take place inside the cage rather than RIZIN’s customary square ring.
“This is a phenomenal matchup for both fighters as well as for MMA fans around the world, so I am excited for Combate Global to partner with RIZIN for it,” said Mike Afromowitz, Sr. VP of Operations and Communications for Combate Global.
Fighting out of London, England, the 34-year-old Lopez, a native of Beziers, France, is a member of Great Britain Top Team headed by Brad Pickett.
Lopez, the runner-up in Combate Global’s first-ever, one-night, eight-woman tournament in August 2021, is a dangerous finisher who has earned six of her seven career victories by way of (T)KO or submission.
The 31-year-old Kubota, a native of Osaka, Japan, is a famed champion of Shootboxing, and a record six-time winner of the promotion’s ‘S-Cup’ tournament.
Kubota made her MMA debut with RIZIN on December 31, 2015, defeating Jleana Valentino by way of a flying armbar submission in the second round of action, and proceeded to reel off victories in each of her next five bouts, two of which came at the RIZIN World Grand Prix 2017 women’s atomweight (108 pounds) tournament.
In her last start on July 31, 2022, Kubota defeated Anastasiya Svetkivska via unanimous decision at RIZIN 37 in Saitama, Japan.