On Saturday, Feb. 11, ROAD Fighting Championship returned to the Jangchung Arena in Seoul, South Korea for
Xiaomi presents ROAD FC 036.
In the main event of the evening, former ROAD FC middleweight champion Riki Fukuda took on Nae Chul Kim for an opportunity to fight current middleweight champion Jung Hwan Cha. Fukuda made his return to the cage after more than a year away following his loss to Cha at Road FC 028. The second-round knockout loss halted Fukuda’s four-fight winning streak following his departure from the UFC. Kim entered the title eliminator having won all six of his bouts under the ROAD FC banner.
RIZIN 26 primer: Best pre-fight quotes, weigh-in results
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Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
The final major MMA show of the year is just hours away, and the fighters are locked in.
RIZIN 26 bantamweight championship headliners Kai Asakura and Kyoji Horiguchi successfully made weight Wednesday, with Asakura at 60.75 kg. and Horiguchi at 60.8 kg. This is Asakura’s first defense after winning a vacant title at RIZIN 23 in August, while Horiguchi seeks to reclaim the belt that he relinquished due to injury in 2019.
All the prominent RIZIN 26 names were on point including kickboxing star Tenshin Nasukawa, vacant atomweight title contenders Ayaka Hamasaki and Miyuu Yamamoto, 24-year veteran Ikuhisa Minowa a.k.a. “Minowaman,” and MMA legend Takanori Gomi.
RIZIN 26 gets Four Additional Fights Including Kickboxing Match
RIZIN 26, has added four more fights to it’s New Year’s Eve card. The
Saitama Super Arena show as of this writing has a total of 11 MMA fights and one kickboxing match. RIZIN held a press conference on Thursday to announce the new fights. Check out our previous coverage of the first round of announced fights here and here.
Mikuru Asakura vs. Satoshi “Dominator” Yamasu
Popular fighter Mikuru Asakura returns to the RIZIN ring at RIZIN 26. Photo courtesy of RIZIN FF.
The most popular fighter in RIZIN makes a quick turn around to rebound from his championship opportunity loss at