The Rizin New Year’s Eve card has featured a noticeable restructuring of their 155-pound title clash as reigning champion Roberto Satoshi de Souza will now be facing new opposition. Shunta Nomura was initially set to contend for the Rizin Fighting Federation strap but had to withdraw from the bout. The scrapped contest against de Souza created a vacancy that saw Ilhom Nazimov maneuver up from featherweight to vie for gold in the weight category above.
Five championship affairs will bolster an enticing offering at Saitama Super Arena as Japan captivates the attention of the collective combat sports world as we transition into the next calendar year. The global broadcast options will come through accessing Rizin.tv,, and this year’s tentpole event features the tagline, “Shiwasu No Cho” Tsuwamono Matsuri”.
Rizin NYE ‘s new lightweight championship bout broken down
Roberto Satoshi de Souza has built up a massive legacy within the 155-pound landscape within Rizin Fighting Federation and has the distinction of being the inaugural title holder in that weight class under their promotional banner. The 36-year-old is riding a five fight winning streak heading into this bout with all of those victories coming in the first round and seeing ‘Satoshi’ secure multiple defenses of his 155 pound RFF crown all throughout that stretch.
The prolific jiu jitsu champion continues to carve out quite a path for himself under mixed martial arts rules as de Souza looks for another standout performance on. De Souza must halt the momentum of Nazimov ho has strung together three wins across his first three appearances within Rizin.
The native of Uzbekistan has displayed some dazzling knockouts in recent years and while submission centric in manty of his finishes, the reigning and defending Rizin titleholder at lightweight has also authored some striking-based wins in recent times. This affair ending inside the distance seems to be a statistcal probabilty and it encompasses but 20 percent of Rizin’s championship fight offerings with the remaining RFF title bouts reads follows,
- RFF featherweight championship: Rajabali Shaidullaev vs. Mikuru Asakura
- RFF super atomweight championship: Seika Izawa vs. RENA
- RFF bantamweight championship: Naoki Inoue vs. Danny Sabatello
- RFF flyweight championship / 2025 grand prix finals: Hiromasa Ougikubo vs. Yuki Motoya