RIZIN 45 official with Kyoji Horiguchi, John Dodson, Juan Archuelta and more

RIZIN 45: American Fighters Announced for Highly-Anticipated Event

The much-anticipated RIZIN 45 event has been officially scheduled and is set to feature a lineup of talented fighters that will captivate American viewers.

This thrilling event will take place on December 31 at the prestigious Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, as announced during a news conference held on Thursday. The card will be headlined by two title fights, offering an evening of intense competition.

One of the highly-anticipated matchups includes an inaugural RIZIN flyweight championship bout between former Bellator bantamweight champion Kyoji Horiguchi (31-5) and Makoto Shinryu (16-1-1). The co-main event will feature RIZIN bantamweight champion Juan Archuleta (29-4) defending his title against Japanese star Kai Asakura (20-4).

Adding to the excitement of the card, former UFC title challenger and current BKFC flyweight champion John Dodson (24-13) will take on Hiromasa Ougikubo (25-8-2) in a highly-anticipated matchup.

With Bellator’s future uncertain, Kyoji Horiguchi makes his return to RIZIN, a promotion where he previously held the bantamweight title. This will be Horiguchi’s first fight since the no-contest Bellator flyweight title bout in July, where he was accidentally poked in the eye by Shinryu. The rematch between Horiguchi and Shinryu will now be contested for the RIZIN gold.

Meanwhile, Juan Archuleta, a product of Bellator, finally gets his long-awaited crossover fight in RIZIN after defeating Soo Chul Kim at Bellator x RIZIN 1 in December. Archuleta extended his RIZIN run in May with a victory over Naoki Inoue. In July, Archuleta secured the RIZIN championship by defeating former title holder Ougikubo. His opponent, Asakura, is a renowned combat sports star in the region, with notable victories over Horiguchi, Ougikubo, and others.

John Dodson, who has been actively competing in both RIZIN and BKFC, will make his second appearance in RIZIN after a successful debut with wins over Hideo Tokoro and Tatsuki Saomoto.

The current lineup for RIZIN 45 includes:

• Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Hiromasa Ougikubo

• Juan Arhculeta vs. Kai Asakura

• Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Makoto Shinryu

• Kleber Koike vs. Yutaka Saito

For more details, check out the full story on MMA Junkie.