RIZIN will crown a new flyweight champion after the departure of Kyoji Horiguchi, and 10 fighters have been announced for the 125-pound grand prix.
The first round of the tournament will take place July 27 in Japan, when Super RIZIN 4 card goes down at the Saitama Super Arena. The brackets have yet to be announced, but the field features Jose Torres, Makoto Shinryu, Yuki Ito, Hiromasa Ougikubo, Yuki Motoya, Erson Yamamoto, Alibek Gadzhammatov, Hiroya Kondo, Nkazimulo Zulu and Takaki Soya.
Super RIZIN 4 will be headlined by a rematch between former featherweight champion Kleber Koike and local star Mikuru Asakura. Naoki Inoue and Seika Izawa will defend their titles against Ryuya Fukuda and Yu Jin Shin, respectively, while Patricky Pitbull makes his return to the promotion against Shunta Nomura.
Torres (13-4-1), a UFC veteran and ex-champion in Brave CF and Titan FC, will take part in the grand prix. He fought once in RIZIN, defeating Makoto Shinryu via split decision in December 2024, and returns to Japan after losing a decision to Dias Yerengaipov under the Brave banner.
Ougikubo (27-8-2), one of the most experienced in the field at age 38, won decisions over John Dodson and Shinryu in his most recent appearances. He won a RIZIN tournament in the past, beating bantamweights Naoki Inoue and Kai Asakura on the same night in December 2021, and also holds a win over future UFC champion Alexandre Pantoja on The Ultimate Fighter back in 2016.
Shinryu (19-4-1, 1 no contest) topped Yuki Ito via decision in his most recent appearance in May, improving his RIZIN record to 5-3. He’s fought twice for the title against Horiguchi, losing via submission after a previous eye-poke no contest.
Ito (18-6) looks to get back on track after Shinryu snapped his five-fight winning streak, a run that included a win over veteran Masatoshi Ueda in 2024. The former DEEP flyweight contender won eight of 10 so far under the RIZIN banner.
Motoya (37-13, 1 no contest) entered the RIZIN ring more than 20 times already with key wins over the likes of Rogerio Bontorin, Justin Scoggins and twice against Shinobu Ota. He cuts down to flyweight after challenging Naoki Inoue for the bantamweight throne in March, a rematch he lost via split decision.
Yamamoto (5-7) is the nephew of late Japanese legend Norifumi Yamamoto and had all but one of his MMA bouts take place under the RIZIN umbrella. He has stumbled since losing his debut to Kron Gracie in 2015, including a loss to Manel Kape a couple of years later, but enters the tournament off of a second-round submission over Daichi Tomizawa.
Gadzhammatov (5-0) stopped Daichi Kitakata by knockout in his RIZIN debut in November 2024 after building a perfect record in his native Russia since 2021. The Dagestani 23-year-old has yet to go to a decision as a professional fighter.
Kondo (11-13-1) had an unstable career in the sport but enters the grand prix after collecting back-to-back wins over Yuya Shibata and Tatsuki Shinotsuka, bringing his promotional record up to 3-3.
Zulu (16-7-1), a former two-division champion at Africa’s EFC, came up short against Horiguchi on the latest New Years’ Eve card, losing a hard-fought championship decision. “Zulu Boy” scored 87 percent of his victories by way of stoppage, a perfect split between seven knockouts and seven submissions.
Soya (13-6-1) fought John Dodson twice in a row in RIZIN, scoring a MMA decision victory over the former UFC title contender after losing their previous match under bare-knuckle boxing rules.
