Happy New Year. Looking forward to another year with you.
As usual I went to RIZIN on New Year's Eve, so here's a fight night report.
(※ Normally I write thoughts fight by fight — but as I'll get to, this card wasn't very satisfying for me personally, so I didn't feel like going into detail. It turned into mostly complaining.)
So — I went to RIZIN again this year, and the first thing I felt was how many more women there were.
Maybe 20–30% of the venue was women?
Used to be mostly tough-looking guys' girlfriends or companion-style nightlife crowds; this time there were groups of women who'd come on their own too.
BreakingDown and influencers obviously play a part, but women's interest in combat sports itself seems to be rising.
This year at merch I bought a cool T-shirt with Ren Hiramoto in his ring-announce pose.
There was nothing for Saito, who I'm a fan of, so I gave up on that.
Same with Hiramoto's brand "Amanojaku" — when fighters run their own brands, I wish they'd sell them at the venue too.
Anyway, the main point: RIZIN 45 was by far the least satisfying New Year's Eve RIZIN card in recent years.
Same as last year — no Nasukawa, no Mikuru Asakura. The so-called name-brand star fighters were basically just Horiguchi and Kai.
That said, Kai aside, Horiguchi was against Shinryu — a fight he'd win if he just fought normally — so there wasn't much story there.
No matter how much trash Shinryu talked to hype it, the gap in résumés was just too obvious. It doesn't become a story.
No Bellator crossover like late 2022 either, so the pure fight interest dropped too — a card that somehow lacked New Year's Eve energy.
From here I'll write various things, but a few incidents left a bad taste, so this turns into a complaint column.
I've had nowhere to vent and it's been sitting with me, so let me write a bit.
First, the opening two fights: Ren Hiramoto's younger brother Jo Hiramoto vs YUSHI, then Ryushin Nasukawa vs Shin Jeong-min. The fight quality was as expected — not much.
Why do I have to pay money to watch MMA between people who barely have amateur MMA experience? That disappointment hit hard.
In 2023 there was a lot of talk questioning fighters turning into influencers.
Personally I was like, whatever, fine — but when YUSHI shows up three New Year's Eves in a row, or when you're shown amateur-level fights whose only draw is a famous sibling with little record of their own, I held my head: "Ah — so this is where the downside shows up."
I fully get that you need fighters who can draw a crowd — but bringing in near-zero-experience athletes and making fans wait while they develop is personally too painful. Do RIZIN fight fans actually enjoy that story too?
This time again, the early card was mostly importing rivalry stories between fighters from other orgs like K-1, Krush, and BreakingDown straight into RIZIN.
YAMAN vs Hiramoto, Anbo vs Kubo, Ashizawa vs Ota, Koji vs Miura — fighters with records and name recognition, so they were fun to watch, but every fight was one where one side was obviously supposed to win.
I know running a promotion is hard for Sakakibara too — but if it ends up just surfing the fame fighters built on social media, or depending only on the communities around fighters, what's the combat sports organization even for?
When the current stars graduate from RIZIN in maybe three years, will RIZIN be okay?
Competitively, it's already losing to the UFC — or Bellator — and I worry that in three years that gap just widens into something not even worth discussing.
(As a business, RIZIN actually runs pretty solidly — so if you say "it's business, it's entertainment," I have no comeback.)
If someone says "If you care about sport, watch the UFC," fair enough. (I think I'm still one of the story-first fans.)
Even so, this New Year's Eve RIZIN overall left me feeling I'd watched something bad.
Sakakibara may be drifting bit by bit from what fans want to see.
For example — does everyone really want to see the announced Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather? Even if it's held in Japan?
Mayweather basically looks down on Japan anyway — if an overseas org or broadcaster ran it, maybe; but do I want it under RIZIN?
Whoever wins, who cares? And if the fight gets delayed and we wait around, do we still want to watch?
Pacquiao–Mayweather had value because it happened once in that era — the more time passes, the less value it has.
I don't even want to see a Mayweather fight in Japan. Would post-retirement Mayweather take a risky fight with Pacquiao? Honestly I'd rather he just declines.
Overseas promotions have surely tried to negotiate round two with them — and the fact it hasn't happened suggests it just won't.
Back to fighting: Hiroya vs Arai was good.
I like Arai's momentum so I was rooting for him, but Hiroya scraped out the win.
Hiroya's experience of somehow hanging on even in losses clearly paid off this time. That made me feel even more strongly that Arai can't afford to lose here.
Next, Saito — who I'm a fan of — lost.
Overall Saito was ahead, then in round three he shot a takedown and got finished in a choke.
Saito was clearly gassed, so whether he wanted to clinch and kill time, I don't know.
But in round one he took two low blows (groin shots) and there were time stops.
Low blows hurt like hell, wreck your fight mental state (your tension), and the guy who threw them gets to recover during the stop.
I know "what if" talk is lame in combat sports — but twice in round one? Isn't that reward for the foul?
Anyone who can just go "yeah, Kleber's strong" after that seems off to me.
Age-wise and given other fighters' situations, Saito probably can't chase the top anymore.
I'll still want to watch his fights — but I feel like the story is mostly gone.
A third fight with Mikuru Asakura is something I personally don't need.
One happy thing from the Kleber fight: the venue was packed with Saito support.
In Saito vs Mikuru II, almost everything was Mikuru cheers and I remember being pretty thrown.
Mikuru has a huge fanbase, sure — but Saito's fanbase is definitely growing.
Next, what I really had to write about: Juan Archuleta.
Bottom line: I felt awful.
First — about 3 kg over. You shouldn't fight.
Even boxing's bad boy Luis Nery got hammered for about 2 kg over and permanently banned by Japan's boxing association. (Yamanaka losing made the backlash even worse.)
This topped that. Boxing has clear penalties; RIZIN has basically none. Boxing, partly because of its higher sport seriousness, is strict about this.
Archuleta also entered running around the stage hyping himself.
Obviously completely disrespectful. Not just RIZIN — Japanese fight fans were being looked down on.
They decided to proceed by locking in the weight after recovery.
Kai would want to fight on New Year's Eve too, so "not fighting" wasn't really an option — and sure enough.
But Sakakibara's grandiose "Kai accepted the conditions, so we're doing the fight!" framing, and the venue announcement before the fight that Archuleta had made weight — it was obviously theater, and it was disappointing.
On top of that, when Archuleta entered, he ran end to end of the stage, and even after getting in the ring he was egging on applause and cheers from the fans — and that irritated me.
Right before the start, when he was shown a red card as a penalty for missing weight, he didn't even look at it.
Then after the fight started, even when the round was stopped, he kept swinging at Kai — outrageous.
Already on a red card — at that point you could argue for a no-contest / DQ-level situation.
Once the fight happened and Asakura won in a satisfying way, of course I screamed and was happy.
Overwhelming strength. The fight style was even moving.
The joy of the win didn't last. Another incident.
In the winner's interview Kai talked about the frustration of not winning on New Year's Eve before, about finally winning, about his feelings toward his older brother Mikuru who's been on a losing streak lately — the kind of comments that really hit fight fans.
Then Archuleta grabbed the mic and started talking.
Normally the loser has no right to mic performances. A fighter who missed weight is even more out of the question, I'd say.
But he took the mic, made excuses about missing weight, started yelling Happy New Year, and egged on cheers and handshakes from the crowd.
That last performance looked like: "Missed weight, and I lost. Oh well. Might as well suck up to the fans — they'll book me again."
Clear shamelessness. If President Sakakibara treats this as a minor Archuleta slip, doesn't see a real problem, and keeps inviting him with no hard feelings — I'd hate that.
Being treated so clearly as a cash-cow promotion feels terrible.
Kai Asakura put in a warm follow-up — "I think I'm the only one who gets to complain about Archuleta, so please stop the criticism" — but my small-minded self thought: that's not right.
As a fight fan whose highly anticipated year-end event got soured this badly, "you have no right to complain" is wrong.
Sending critical DMs or threats to the fighter is of course completely out of bounds — but I think we at least have the right to complain, which is why I'm writing this on a blog nobody reads, snorting through my nose.
I've written nothing but insults — but I felt awful for a while after New Year's Eve ended, so I had to get it out.
Juan Archuleta, I came to hate you so much!! Personally I never want to see you in RIZIN again!
And after feeling that mocked, Horiguchi's fight.
The moment it started, the level gap between Horiguchi and Shinryu was obvious.
I'd expected Horiguchi to win beforehand, but the gap was clear.
The venue was almost all Horiguchi chants.
It looked like a game of how long Shinryu could last — and he was incredibly tough. A really good fighter. Glad this was the final fight.
After the fight Horiguchi proposed and announced his engagement to former RIZIN Girl Kawamura.
I had no idea they were dating — I was surprised Horiguchi was the type to date a RIZIN Girl!
But if she understands combat sports and is respected even as a fighter, they're a ridiculous match.
A wonderful couple. Watching the interview they looked so happy it made me smile.
Kyoji Horiguchi really is the protagonist. Completely different from a small fry like me snorting "Archuleta is unforgivable" while writing a blog.
After RIZIN, New Year's toast at the usual spot in Ueno.
Normally we go to Senso-ji, but last year it was way too crowded so we postponed the first shrine visit. We split up there.
Looking forward to another year — please take care of me.
Tweet© 2024 ZUUHE