Fight Facts: Rizin 35

Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and ring rarities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF RIZIN FIGHTS: 397
TOTAL NUMBER OF RIZIN EVENTS: 43

Rizin Fighting Federation ended a wild Tokyo doubleheader of fight cards with Rizin 35, a show with as much gold as Fort Knox. No mixed rules or kickboxing was to be had in the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza, with a clean 10 MMA fights with several of major significance. The event featured more sleeping fighters at night’s end than ever before, a new title defense record and the coronation of a 24-year-old queen.

A Sea of Gold: Over the course of the night, three championship belts went on the line. This show is just the second in company history where this many titles were up for grabs, as this first occurred at Rizin 20 in 2019.

All MMA, All the Time: Ten MMA fights went down at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza in Tokyo for this fight card, without any matches under any different rulesets taking place. It marked the first numbered Rizin event with no kickboxing, boxing or mixed rules fights since Rizin 8, which contained the second round of the 2017 bantamweight tournament.

Cageside Beds: Rizin 35 is the first event in organizational history where multiple technical submissions took place. Both Koji Takeda and Taichi Nakajima were put to sleep by chokes from Spike Carlyle and Vugar Karamov, respectively.

In Case of Emergency, Tap Out: Roberto de Souza submitted Johnny Case to win the rematch and defend his lightweight strap atop Rizin 35. “Satoshi” still celebrates a 100% finish rate as a pro after submitting Case, while never needing more than two rounds to get the job done.

He’ll Pass It: Since joining the Rizin roster in 2019, Souza has rattled off seven finishes, with four by submission and the other three by knockout. While his knockout tally is not noteworthy, he has performed the second-most subs in company history, trailing only Ayaka Hamasaki (five).

No Sign of Slowing Down: The seven-stoppage tally for the Brazilian lightweight champ clocks in as the fourth-most in company history. The only fighters with more are Kyoji Horiguchi (eight), Rena Kubota (nine) and Jiri Prochazka (10).

A Nasty Move, But Reverse: The specific submission Souza landed came as a reverse variant of a triangle armbar. His version of this move is just the second in company history, with the first landed by Victor Henry on Trent Girdham at Rizin 18 in 2019.

Doesn’t Take Much: “Satoshi” scored the lightweight strap in 2021 when he submitted Tofiq Musayev at Rizin 28. Since then, he has successfully defended it against Yusuke Yachi and now Case. As a result, Souza holds the most consecutive title defenses in Rizin history.

Say No to Saito: By decision, Juntaro Ushiku staved off previous champ Yutaka Saito as the first challenger of his featherweight belt. The win came despite Saito outlanding his opponent 124 strikes to just 19 in total – Ushiku did record two knockdowns, a takedown and two unsuccessful submission attempts throughout the fight.

Judge Lest Ye Be Judged: Win, lose or draw, Saito has reached the final scorecards now in 21 of his 29 career outings. This accounts for over 72% of his fights.

The Queen Bee at 108: Seika Izawa remained undefeated at 6-0 by taking a clear-cut decision over Ayaka Hamasaki in their rematch for super atomweight gold. The 24-year-old turned professional in October 2020, and she is already the consensus top-ranked woman in her division.

Is It Time? For just the second time in her storied career, Hamasaki lost a fight on the scorecards. The first came against Seo Hee Ham, also under the Rizin banner, in a rematch with her belt on the line.

See Ya, TK: Marching karateka Mikio Ueda down and knocking him unconscious in a little over two minutes, Tsuyoshi Kosaka went on to retire in front of friends and family. The 52-year-old took his first pro bout in 1995, earning wins over the likes of Fedor Emelianenko, Kimo Leopoldo and Pete Williams over the years.

Torch-Slamming Moment: Kosaka faced Ueda, a 26-year-old clocking in at half Kosaka’s age, and the elder statesman got his hand raised. A similar occurrence took place at Rizin Trigger 3rd the night before, when Hideki Sekine at 48 demolished a 24-year-old sumo wrestler in Satoshi Kamiyama.

Fought Before UFC 5: The official pro MMA debut for Kosaka came in January 1995, where he defeated Wataru Sakata. At that time, Rizin 35 opponent Ueda was over four months away from being born.

Sneakily Active: To headline the pre-intermission card, Kanna Asakura appeared for a record 15th time as a Rizin fighter. The former title challenger snagged a decision over Satomi Takano to earn win no. 10 since joining the league, putting her one shy of the record held by Prochazka and Kubota (11 each).

Kanna Kan Win: Her win on the judges’ scorecards was her seventh as a Rizin fighter, tying Asakura with 2021 bantamweight tourney champ Hiromasa Ougikubo for the most with the promotion.

Right at Home in Rizin: Lifting his massive finish rate to 93%, Spike Carlyle debuted with Rizin and throttled Koji Takeda with a guillotine choke to put Takeda out. He has now landed technical submissions in back-to-back fights.

Show Me You Like Me: Shoma Shibisai clobbered then-unbeaten Rihards Bigis in 96 seconds to bounce back from the first loss due to strikes in his career. A true heavyweight finisher, half of his wins have come by knockout with the other half by tapout.

Azer Aggression: In exactly two minutes, Vugar Karamov slept Taichi Nakajima with a triangle choke to lift his stoppage rate to 81%. The Azerbaijani fighter had previously earned wins on the scorecards in two of his last three appearances.

Oh Kyle: In the card opener, Kyle Aguon claimed a decision win over Takahiro Ashida. The Guam native has earned 79% of his wins by decision, while not earning a stoppage since a kimura of Troy Bantiag in 2014.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into Rizin 35, Takeda had never been finished (15 fights), Bigis had never been defeated (nine fights) and Nakajima had never been submitted (25 fights).

Gotta Be the Center of Attraction: Making a splash in his first fight in Japan, Carlyle dressed the part as he walked out to “Number One,” the theme song for the character Ichigo from popular anime series “Bleach” sung by Hazel Fernandes. The American won in a dominant performance over Takeda.