A featherweight fight has been added to the Rizin 26 card. Mikuru Asakura faces Satoshi Yamasu at Saitama Super Arena on New Year’s Eve.
Asakura (13-2-0-1) is coming off of an unsuccessful featherweight title shot at Rizin 25. His surprise loss at the hands of Yutaka Saito snapped an eight fight winning streak.
Coincidentally Yamasu (11-5) is also coming off a loss that snapped an eight fight winning streak. The promotional newcomer dropped a majority decision to Juntaro Ushiku at Deep 97.
Another featherweight matchup sees Kleber Koike Erst (25-5-1) taking on Kyle Aguon (13-9). Both men will be making their promotional debuts at Rizin 26.
Meanwhile Kazuma Kuramoto (7-1) clashes with Taiyo Nakahara (15-8) in a 63kgs catchweight bout. The card will also feature a catchweight kickboxing bout between Nakada Yoshinari and Phetmalai Phetjaroenvit which is set for 50kgs.
As previously announced the event will be headlined by a bantamweight title rematch between current champion Kai Asakura and former champion Kyoji Horiguchi.
Meanwhile Rizin 26 will also feature a super atomweight title fight between Ayaka Hamasaki and Miyuu Yamamoto. In bantamweight action Ulka Sasaki has been matched with Kenta Takizawa while Yuki Motoya takes on Naoki Inoue.
The card is not complete and more fights will be added in the coming weeks. Fighters like Tenshin Nasukawa and Rena Kubota could all be in action on December 31st.
Rizin 26, Tokyo, December 31st
Kyoji Horiguchi (c) vs. Kai Asakura (For bantamweight title)
Ayaka Hamasaki vs. Miyuu Yamamoto (For super atomweight title)
Kanna Asakura vs. Ai Shimizu (Super Atomweight)
Ulka Sasaki vs. Kenta Takizawa (Bantamweight)
Yuki Motoya vs. Naoki Inoue (Bantamweight)
Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Tsuyoshi Sudario (Heavyweight)
Kyohei Hagiwara vs. Ren Hiramoto (Catchweight)
Hideo Tokoro vs. Shinobu Ota (Bantamweight)
Mikuru Asakura vs. Satoshi Yamasu (Featherweight)
Kleber Koike Erbst vs. Kyle Aguon (Featherweight)
Kazuma Kuramoto vs. Taiyo Nakahara (Catchweight)
Kickboxing: Nakada Yoshinari vs. Phetmalai Phetjaroenvit (Catchweight)
