By:  | June 16, 2023 1:30 pm

Another title fight has been added to the Rizin x Bellator 2 card. Seika Izawa will be putting her super atomweight belt on the line when she faces Claire Lopez at the Saitama Super Arena on July 30th.

Izawa (10-0) won the Rizin super atomweight Grand Prix last year. She is coming off a submission win over Suwanan Boonsorn at Deep-Jewels 41 in a non title fight.

Lopez (8-4) submitted Rena Kubota at Rizin Landmark 5 in April. Her reward is a shot at the undefeated champion in what will be just the French fighter’s second appearance in the Rizin ring.

Two fights

Two more fights were added to the card today and both feature Japanese fighters. In the welterweight division UFC and ONE Championship veteran Daichi Abe will be looking for his fourth straight Rizin win.

Abe (12-6) lost his Deep welterweight title recently. But he remains on good form in Rizin and faces Brazilian submission specialist Igor Tanabe (2-0) in a middleweight match.

In the bantamweight division Kenta Takizawa (13-9) takes on Shinobu Ota (3-2). The former is coming off losses to Naoki Inoue and Kai Asakura and will be hoping to get back to winning ways here.

Japanese champi0n

As previously announced the main event of the show will also feature two Bellator fighters. AJ McKee and Patricky Freire will meet in the quarter finals of the lightweight Grand Prix.

McKee and Freire will meet in then a fight that looks set to headline the card. The American is the former 145lbs champion while the Brazilian previously held the 155lbs belt.

Meanwhile a Japanese fighter will be crowned as the inaugural Bellator flyweight champion. Kyoji Horiguchi faces Makoto Takahashi with the newly minted title on the line.

Former challengers

Meanwhile two more fights have been added to the Bellator x Rizin 2 card. The event is set for the Saitama Super Arena on July 30th and the American promotion announced the additional bouts yesterday.

All four fighters are contracted to Bellator. In the bantamweight division Danny Sabatello (14-2) has been matched with Magomed Magomedov (19-3).

The American is a former NCAA Division 1 wrestler who has a reputation for being a bit of a trash talker. Magomedov holds a notable win over Petr Yan from 2016.

In the welterweight division Andrey Koreshkov (26-4) faces Lorenz Larkin (25-7-0-2). Both men have come up short in Bellator title fights in the past.

 

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Japanese stars

The card will also feature a flyweight fight pitting Kana Watanabe against Veta Arteaga. The latter will be looking to bounce back from her split decision defeat to Ilima-Lei Macfarlane.

Kai Asakura will be looking to recapture the Rizin bantamweight title. He has been matched with Bellator’s Juan Archuleta in a fight that will have the vacant belt on the line.

His brother will also be on the card. Mikuru Asakura will be looking for his fourth straight win when he faces Vugar Karamov who has won three in a row.

Bellator x Rizin 2, Tokyo, July 30th
AJ McKee vs. Patricky Freire (Lightweight)
Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Makoto Takahashi (For Bellator flyweight title)
Seika Izawa (c) vs. Claire Lopez (For Rizin super atomweight title)
Kana Watanabe vs. Veta Arteaga (Flyweight)
Kai Asakura vs. Juan Archuleta (For Rizin bantamweight title)
Mikuru Asakura vs Vugar Karamov (Featherweight)
Danny Sabatello vs. Magomed Magomedov (Bantamweight)
Andrey Koreshkov vs. Lorenz Larkin (Welterweight)
Daichi Abe vs. Igor Tanabe (Middleweight)
Kenta Takizawa vs. Shinobu Ota (Bantamweight)