The RIZIN flyweight Grand Prix semifinals have been set, as well as an alternate bout for the tournament, for Rizin 51 in the Fall. On September 28th, Yuki Motoya will be taking on Makoto Shinryu in one of the semi final clashes.
Motoya is a veteran of over fifty professional MMA bouts and the 35-year-old has tested skills with several notable names during his tenure in the sport. Motoya has battled the likes of Tatsumitsu Wada, Masakazu Imanari, Kyoji Horiguchi, Patchy Mix, Hiromasa Ougikubo, Victor Henry, Justin Scoggins, Kai Asakura, and Rogério Bontorin to name but a few.
For Shinryu, he is entering with around half the professional MMA experience of Motoya who is ten years Shinryu’s senior. After Shinryu lost a narrow split decision to Jose ‘Shorty’ Torres, the 25-year-old combatant would secure bounce back wins over Yuki Ito and Erson Yamamoto. Shinryu has also fought in mixed martial arts with individuals who have big combative cache like Hiromasa Ougikubo, Tatsumitsu Wada, Diego Paiva, Hideo Tokoro, and Kyoji Horiguchi.
Loading tweet...
The other side of the grand prix bracket will see Hiromasa Ougikubo versus Alibek Gazhammatov transpire.
Ougikubo notably has a win over current UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja and the tenured veteran is on a three fight win streak that is comprised of victories against John Dodson, Makoto Shinryu, and Jose ‘Shorty’ Torres. The 38-year-old has tested skills with fighters like Kai Asakura and Kyoji Horiguchi with Ougikubo previously capturing the 2021 Rizin bantamweight Grand Prix championship with a focus on also adding a RFF flyweight GP title to his mantle.
For Gazhammatov, while he only boasts a 6-0 pro MMA record, the Dagestan native has a one hundred percent finishing rate. Gazhammatov is 2-0 specifically under the Rizin banner after a four fight run with ACA Young Eagles and most recently finished the well regarded Takaki Soya with strikes at Super Rizin 4 in July.
Loading tweet...
Rizin 51 semi finals set and the reserved bout has been announced
The reserve bout is only fifty percent filled out at this juncture as Yuki Ito will test skills with the dreaded TBA with a more firmed up bout cofnirmation expected in the coming weeks.
Loading tweet...
Rizin 51 emanates from IG Arena in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan with a headliner set between Razhabali Shaydullaev and Viktor Kolesnik for the RFF featherweight championship.
