A drawing to determine the tournament bracket and matches for RIZIN FIGHTING GRAND-PRIX 2015 was held today in Tokyo. All participants including Olympic Gold medalist Satoshi Ishii gathered for the draw.

RIZIN FIGHTING WORLD GRAND-PRIX 2015 SAITAMA 3 days will be held at the Saitama Super Arena on December 29th and 31st. On November 30th a drawing to determine the matchups and bracket for the highly anticipated GRAND-PRIX was held at a hotel in Tokyo with 7 out of 8 fighters on site.
*Note: BAMMA Heavyweight Champion Mark Godbeer who was scheduled to attend the draw, injured his neck during practice and was forced to withdraw. BAMMA will announce a replacement fighter in a few days.

Before the draw, Chairman Nobuyuki Sakakibara stated, “This tournament will be the highlight of RIZIN. Fighters from around the world who are proud to represent their promotion and country, and are eager to use this platform to boost their career to make a name of themselves have gathered in the tournament. Majority of the media who gathered today may not know much about these athletes, but when K-1 first kicked off in 1993, nobody knew about Branko Cikatić or Mike Bernardo. The fighters who open up the new doors are those who exceed their expectations.”

All 7 contestants besides Godbeer appeared in front of the media, and directions for the drawing was explained. Fighters will be called by their name in Japanese alphabetical order will draw an envelope with each envelope containing a number from 1 through 7. Fighters who have the younger number get to choose which slot they want to fight at.
*Note: BAMMA representative soon to be announced will take the last slot.

—1st Pick = King Mo
“I am honored to fight for RIZIN. I am excited to showcase my skills in front of the Japanese fans and get the job done. I’m happy to be able to pick number 1. I’m always number 1. I’m in a position where others will pick me, my job is to crush whoever stands next to me.”
*** Picks Slot A

—2nd Pick = Teodoras Aukstuolis (BUSHIDO Europe Champion)
“I am grateful to be given such an opportunity. At this level of competition, you have to be ready to fight anybody so I don’t care who my opponent will be. I believe in myself and am ready to fight anybody.”
*** Picks Slot C

—3rd Pick = Goran Reljic (Former KSW Light Heavyweight Champion)
“I don’t care who fights me. My dream since I was a kid was to fight in Japan, and I am living the dream right now, my goal is to show my best performance on New Years Eve.”
*** Picks Slot G

—4th Pick = Satoshi Ishii (Beijing Olympics Judo Gold medalist)
“Preparation is good. I will not feel that a fight is a fight, the battle on NYE has just begun.”
*** Picks Slot E

—5th Pick = Bruno Cappelozza (Jungle Fight 100kg Champion)
“I really don’t know any of the fighters here today, so I will choose my opponent and hope I’m lucky.”
*** Picks Slot D

—6th Pick = Vadim Nemkov (MMA Union Heavyweight Champion)
“I feel great, thank you for having me here today.”
*** Picks Slot H

—7th Pick = Jiri Prochazka (GCF Czech Light Heavyweight Champion)
“I am very excited to be able to show my skills in a country where the SAMURAI was born. I will not disappoint you.”
*** Picks Slot F

As the results of each picks, the first round of the tournament was set as following:1st fight – King Mo vs BAMMA representative, 2nd fight – Teodoras Aukstuolis vs Bruno Cappelozza, 3rd fight – Satoshi Ishii vs Jiri Prochazka, 4th fight – Goran Reljic vs Vadim Nemkov.

General Manager Nobuhiko Takada took the microphone after the drawing, “I am feeling a familiar, comfortable yet tense atmosphere right now. I am just excited to witness the birth of future stars. I hope Ishii can perform in a way where he will make us Japanese fans proud. Ishii’s first accomplishment was winning the gold medal, but we have not seen any outstanding results from him in MMA. I really hope he can use this opportunity to achieve the biggest accomplishment of his career.

An alternate fight was also announced after the draw, Valentine Moldovsky (Russi) who has high expectations from Fedor Emelianenko, will be facing Karate Elite Yuta Uchida (Japan). Uchida appeared at the conference and made a comment.

“I would like to thank everybody involved with RIZIN for this opportunity. I am a newcomer in this sport, but I would like to show the strength of Karate and myself to everybody.” (Uchida)

Each fighter from the tournament followed by their thoughts about their opponents, and the bracket.

“I currently don’t have an opponent, but I’m sure that BAMMA will send a good fighter for me. But unfortunately whoever comes will get smashed so he better be prepared. I think Ishii made a smart choice by avoiding me and my bracket. Good for him.” (King Mo)
“The reason why I am here is because I believe in myself. I will fight to represent my small country. My opponent has wild striking but there is no reason why I would lose. I will put on a show and come out victorious.” (Teodoras Aukstuolis)
“It has been my dream to fight in Japan. I do not know too much about my opponent, but I’m sure we will both be prepared for an exciting fight. I think this will be an excellent fight.” (Bruno Cappelozza)
“I would like represent Japan and IGF. I will study my opponent and come up with a game plan.” (Satoshi Ishii)
“Everybody here is tough. Since I will be fighting the hometown favorite, my fight will be gathering attention. I would like to use this opportunity and this challenge to become the next big thing.” (Jiri Prochazka)
“I like the matchup. I’ve been training with Sambo world champion Blagoi Ivanov and am familiar with the Sambo fight style. I know he comes from a great team, but I will be ready to take anything he has to offer so it will be a good fight.”(Goran Reljic)
“I will be representing Sambo. I would like to show the beauty of Sambo and the art of Sambo.”(Vadim Nemkov)

During the Q&A, majority of the questions were towards hometown favorite Satoshi Ishii. Ishii responded to a question by saying “This was a good offer that I could not turn down. An MMA tournament, Good opponents, good prize money. I don’t want to focus too much on winning the tournament because that will affect my mental game, so I will focus on one fight at a time.”

The grand total of the prize money for the tournament is roughly $500,000.00. When asked what would they do with the grand prize $300,000.00, each fighter responded;

“That’s a lot of money! I’d buy a bunch of ice cream, some nice clothes, and go to Disney world and see a bunch of movies. I’d go to Vegas and party, and buy tons of gold accessories.” (King Mo)
“For me, becoming the Champion in more important than the money. Money will follow as a result of being a true champion. My mind is set to win the tournament.” (Teodoras Aukstuolis)
“That type of big money will change my life and my family’s life. And also becoming a champion. Those 2 aspects will be huge accomplishments for me.”(Bruno Cappelozza)
“My plan is to invest half of the prize money in gambling and will donate the rest.” (Satoshi Ishii)
“It is so much money I do not know where to start. I believe that the money will come later. So as of now, my focus is to give it all I have to make RIZIN proud that they chose me for a participant.” (Jiri Prochazka)
“I am living a childhood dream. I am more focused on continuing my journey on my dream to become a Champion in Japan. I will think of what to do with the money once I achieve my goal.” (Goran Reljic)
“It is hard for me to decide what I have not earned yet. I would like to focus and winning to receive the money. But it would be nice to build a house for the family.” (Vadim Nemkov)
“I need to win in order to earn my spot for the prize, but I have a baby on the way, so by April, it would be great to have a new house to live in.”(Yuta Uchida)

Less than a month left, the matchups for the tournament have finally been revealed. How will the global competition decorate the rebirth of Japanese MMA?