RIZIN Fighting Federation

The PRIDE revival

RIZIN Fighting Federation was founded in 2015 by Nobuyuki Sakakibara — the former Dream Stage Entertainment executive who had been the public face of PRIDE FC during its 1997-2007 peak. The promotion was structured to revive the PRIDE-era format and aesthetic in the post-2007 Japanese MMA market, after years of lower-profile promotions (Sengoku, Dream, Pancrase) had failed to recapture the PRIDE-era prominence.

The first RIZIN event, RIZIN 1, took place at the Saitama Super Arena on December 29, 2015. The annual New Year's Eve card has continued through 2024, making RIZIN's NYE event the largest annual combat sports event in Japan.

The PRIDE-style rules

RIZIN's ruleset preserves elements of the PRIDE-era rules that the UFC's Unified Rules abandoned:

• PRIDE-style ring (not cage): combatants compete in a square boxing-style ring with ropes rather than a cage.
• Knees to a grounded opponent: legal.
• Soccer kicks to a grounded opponent: legal in some bouts (announced to the fighters pre-fight).
• 10-minute first round, 5-minute second and third rounds: the PRIDE round structure.
• Open scoring: scorecards revealed between rounds.

The result is a fighting style distinct from UFC bouts — more permissive striking, more strategic-depth from the longer first round, and the visual aesthetic of the ring (rather than the cage) that PRIDE-era fans associate with championship-level Japanese MMA.

The women's bracket

RIZIN has invested significantly in women's MMA, particularly at the lower weight classes that the UFC has under-promoted. The Atomweight (49 kg / 108 lbs) bracket — featuring Ayaka Hamasaki, Kanna Asakura, Seika Izawa, and others — is the largest women's atomweight division in major MMA.

The Strawweight bracket includes Manel Kape's competition era and the Korean-and-Brazilian women's bracket that has produced multiple international contenders.

The annual New Year's Eve event

The annual NYE card — broadcast in Japan as the leading combat-sports television event of the year — is the structural feature of RIZIN's calendar. The 2024 NYE event (December 31, 2024) drew over 30,000 in-person attendees and the largest Japanese combat-sports TV audience of the year.

The NYE format typically includes a championship main event, multiple cross-promotion or invitational bouts, and the "Year-End Show" framing that combines combat sports with broader entertainment programming.

Notable fighters

RIZIN's roster has included:

• Kyoji Horiguchi: the bantamweight Japanese MMA star, former Bellator champion, multiple-time RIZIN bantamweight champion.
• Mikuru Asakura: the bantamweight star with the largest social-media presence in Japanese combat sports.
• Manel Kape: the flyweight Portuguese fighter who later moved to the UFC.
• Yuki Motoya, Tofiq Musayev, Roberto Souza: the rotating bracket of championship-level RIZIN fighters.

The promotion has also featured cross-promotion bouts with PRIDE-era veterans returning to MMA — Mirko Cro Cop (RIZIN Open-Weight Grand Prix 2016 winner), Mark Hunt, and others.

The technical case

RIZIN operates at a tier below the UFC and combined PFL-Bellator in terms of athlete depth and global reach. But the cultural and aesthetic significance in the Japanese market makes it a distinct major promotion — most Japanese MMA fans consider RIZIN their primary MMA brand, similar to how Asian MMA fans relate to ONE Championship.

The recent partnerships with ONE Championship (cross-promotion events at scale), Saudi Arabia (PRIDE-era event hosting through 2024-2025), and major Japanese broadcasters have positioned RIZIN as the consequential Asia-Pacific MMA brand alongside ONE.

The legacy

RIZIN's legacy in MMA history is the demonstration that the PRIDE-era format can survive in the post-UFC era. The promotion preserves the rules, the visual aesthetic, and the cultural-figure roster that the PRIDE era established, while operating at competitive technical standards. The annual NYE event alone makes RIZIN the most-significant non-UFC MMA promotion in Asia.