A big bantamweight fight has been added to the Rizin Landmark 6 card. Naoki Inoue will be taking on Shinobu Ota at the Dolphins Arena in Nagoya on October 1st.
Inoue (16-4) reached the semi final of the Rizin bantamweight Grand Prix in 2021 and it was seen as a major upset when he was submitted by Hiromasa Ougikubo. He only fought once in 2022 but scored a second round submission win over Kenta Takizawa.
At Rizin 42 he dropped a decision to Juan Archuleta. The former Bellator bantamweight champion would go on to claim the Rizin belt by beating Ougikubo.
Ota (4-2) is far less experienced in MMA terms but has already been in with some of Rizinโs top bantamweights. He was a world champion in wrestling which might explain why he got matched with the highly experienced Hideo Tokoro on his debut.
He was submitted by the 65 fight veteran on that occasion. But Ota is coming off back to back first round stoppage wins over Kenta Takizawa and Kazuma Kuramoto.
๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐ก๐จ๐ฌ๐๐ง ๐๐ฒ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ง๐ฌ | ๐๐๐๐/๐๐ฉ๐ซ๐ข๐ฅ~๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ฒ
Number 3โฃ
Juan Archuleta ๐ Naoki Inoue pic.twitter.com/n9QjAcqQCa
โ RIZIN FF English (@rizin_English) August 27, 2023
Bantamweight veteran
The event looks set to be headlined by a bantamweight fight between seasoned veteran Hideo Tokoro and BJJ black belt Alan Yamaniha.ย The latter fights out of Bonsai Jiu Jitsu alongside fellow Brazilians Roberto de Souza and Koike Kleber.
Tokoro (35-32-2) turned 46 this month. He has been a professional for 23 years but is coming off back to back losses on Rizin cards and was last seen getting knocked out by John Dodson.
Yamaniha (20-10-4) is nine years his junior and is coming off a win over Yasuhiro Kawamura at Rizin Landmark 4. He has won six out of his last eight fights.
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Best of the rest
A strawweight fight is also on the card. Ayaka Watanabe (3-0) has been matched with Machi Fukuda (3-1). Fights in this division are few and far between, this will be just the second to take place this year.
In the featherweight division Viktor Kolesnik (24-6-1)ย will be going in search of his second Rizin win. The Russian has been matched with Ryo Tagaki (6-1) who has spent his entire career competing for Pancrase.
Topnoi Kiwram will be back in action at Rizin Landmark 6. It will be the charismatic Thai bantamweightโs first fight in Japan since 2019 and he has been matched with Yuki Ito.
Topnoi (9-5) fights out of Bang Tao Muay Thai and went the distance with Kai Asakura at Rizin 13. He is coming off a split decision loss to Nyamjargal Tumendemberel at a Road to UFC event.
Ito (14-5) is a former Deep flyweight title challenger who made his amateur debut in 2016 and won six fights out of six before turning pro. He is coming off a split decision win over Hiroya Kondo at Super Rizin .
Rizin Landmark 6, Nagoya, October 1st
Hideo Tokoro vs. Alan Yamaniha (Bantamweight)
Yuki Ito vs. Topnoi Kiwram (Flyweight)
Yusaku Nakamura vs. Hiroya Kondo (Catchweight)
Takakenshin vs. Hidetaka Arato (Heavyweight)
Viktor Kolesnik vs. Ryo Takagi (Featherweight)
Ayaka Watanabe vs. Machi Fukuda (Strawweight)
Kohei Tokeshi vs. Yusaku Inoue (Lightweight)
Yutaro Muramoto vs. Rogรฉrio Bontorin (Flyweight)
Joji Goto vs. Junya Hibino (Bantamweight)
Kickboxing: Genki Takeno vs. Ryota Naito (Flyweight)
Ginji Hara vs. Shogo Ota (Catchweight)
Ryuki Kirishima vs. Masanari Yamada (Bantamweight)
Naoki Inoue vs. Shinobu Ota (Bantamweight)
