Kyoji Horiguchi (20-2), Takafumi Otsuka (23-13-2) and Shintaro Ishiwatari (23-6-4) showed up for the workout. The top 3 Japanese Bantamweights will all be aiming to follow the footsteps of King Mo, Mirko Crocop and become the 3rd fighter to win the RIZIN World GP. Horiguchi faces an unbeaten Brazilian prospect Gabriel Oliveira (10-0) who made an impressive RIZIN debut by knocking out veteran Tatsuya Kawajiri, while Otsuka faces another unbeaten prospect Khalid Taha (11-0) from Germany, coming off of a brutal knee and ground and pound against Shooto Pacific rim Chapion Keita Ishibashi, and Ishiwatari faces the top ranked Western European Bantamweight Kevin Petshi (12-3) who out grappled the Korean standout Jae Hoon Moon in the Quarter Finals. Former #1 ranked Feather weight Ian McCall (13-5-1) will be coming back to the sport after a 3 year hiatus facing Manel Kape (8-1) who made a shocking RIZIN debut in the opening round of the GP by knocking out Erson Yamamoto in 91 seconds.

While the former UFC title challenger seeks to dominate the tournament, current King of Pancrase and DEEP champion have some other thoughts in mind. Ishiwatari faced Horiguchi back in 2013 under the VTJ banner which many say was the brawl of the year, where Horiguchi eventually got the TKO win after 20 minutes and 41 seconds of a highly entertaining back and forth fight. Getting revenge at the finals, will mean that Ishiwatari will be crowned the winner of the tournament for 2017. Otsuka, looks to revenge Ishiwatari in the Semi Finals, who he has lost to on NYE of 2014 by TKO. Otsuka has not lost since this defeat and is currently on a 5 fight win streak.

The Bantamweight Quarter Finals will take place on December 29^th, and the winners will advance to the Semi Finals and Finals will be held 2 days later on New Year’s Eve. The Grand prize money for this tournament is 15,000,000 Japanese Yen, 2nd place 3,000,000 Japanese Yen, and 3rd place 1,000,000 Japanese Yen.

Confirmed fights:

[December 29^th]

< Bantamweight GP Quarter Finals >

Ian McCall vs Manel Kape

Kyoji Horiguchi vs Gabriel Oliveira

Khalid Taha vs Takafumi Otsuka

Kevin Petshi vs Shintaro Ishiwatari

< Bantamweight GP reserve bout >

Anthony Birchak vs Jae Hoon Moon

< Super Fight >

Jiri Prochazka vs Karl Albrektsson

KING Reina vs Cindy Dandois

Seiichiro Ito vs Kai Asakura

Gabi Garcia vs Shinobu Kandori

Satoru Kitaoka vs Kiichi Kunimoto

Hiroyuki Takaya vs Baataryn Azjavkhaln

Shizuka Sugiyama vs Kana Watanabe

[December 31^st]

< Bantamweight GP Semi Finals >

TBD vs TBD

TBD vs TBD

< Bantamweight GP Finals >

TBD vs TBD

< Women’s Super-Atom Weight GP Semi Finals >

RENA vs Irene Rivera

Maria Oliveira vs Kanna Asakura

< Women’s Super-Atom Weight GP Finals >

TBD vs TBD

< RIZIN Kick boxing tournament Semi Finals >

Yamato Fujita vs Mitsuhisa Sunabe

Tenshin Nasukawa vs Yuta Hamamoto

< RIZIN Kick boxing tournament Finals >

TBD vs TBD

< Super fight >

Mirko Crocop vs Tsuyoshi Kosaka

Shinju Auclair vs Chelsea Lagrasse

Takanori Gomi vs Yusuke Yachi

Name:

RIZIN.14

Date:

Dec 31, 2018

Venue:

Saitama Super Arena

Access:

Saitama Super Arena

Twitter:

@rizin_PR

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/rizinfightingfederation

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/rizin_pr/?hl=ja

---

Ticket

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