Final Rizin NYE Thoughts (spoilers, obviously)

[Escabar]

I actually enjoyed the card granted not stacked with talent and defiantly weaker than previous Rizin nye cards but still fun to watch. Also maybe just have to accept Japanese mma will never be as big as it once was and just enjoy the fact the some of us were here to witness Pride/Heroes and even Dream.

Was happy for Ougikubo I didn't expect him to win but sometimes guys take a longer path to gold. Souza is a beast and hopefully fights better competition soon was fun to see Gomi fight and not get battered.

 

[Bluesbreaker]

I dunno about this Sengoku talk - I'm thinking back a decade or more like the rest of you. But I remember a lot of us bigging up their roster over Dream's - especially when comparing their featherweight GPs.

 

[panem-et-circenses]

I agree with Sengoku being second. I bet if you took a poll of a 1,000 people, less than 5% will have seen a full Sengoku event, even though they had a fight of the year.

DREAM was basically seen as a continuation of Pride, whereas WVR was something different. Sengoku went out and got new talent. DREAM was still letting Sakuraba get his ass kicked.

 

[STAY GOLD]

Sengoku went out and got new talent.

Yep. That FWGP was the best. Not sure who the talent scout or match maker for them was, but RIZIN should follow suit.

Also, we need more Shinobu Ota this year, so I hope RIZIN gets him more than 2 fights.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

I think in regards of Sengoku an accurate assessment or compromise would be they had talent that was comparable to DREAM, but were less popular than DREAM (certainly to Western fans).

Sengoku had a more niche following around these parts.

 

[Yi-Sunsin]

I don't know about the popularity of Sengoku vs DREAM in Japan, but I always looked more forward to Sengoku events. There was always rumors every other month back then about DREAM being in financial trouble and Sengoku being well off and vice versa. It was always thought that Sengoku would survive for a while and was doing quite well due to the Don Quixote sponsorship, but when they all of the suddenly unexpectedly just pulled out, that was it for them, it was basically the only thing funding the events. Sengoku threw around money when they had Don Quixote onboard and you can tell. They were signing olympic/world caliber athletes left and right (i.e. Satoshi Iishi, King Mo, Pawel Natsula, Blagoi Ivanov, Nedkov, Maximo Blanco, etc).

Talent pool was imo at least as deep as DREAM, probably more so. Definitely deeper than Rizin. Again, don't know about the popularity in Japan, but the FWGP, LWGP, and MWGP were tits. Very nostalgic of old Pride tournaments. They had super entertaining stars like Hatsu Hioki, Marlon Sandro, (at the time they were big prospects for the company and even worldwide were considered some of the best FWs) and Satoru Kitaoka riding huge hype trains. The MW divison also wasn't too shabby with Mamed Khalidov, Jorge Stantiago, and Misaki (at the time all ranked in the top 10 or around there). I think there was even a couple Santiago vs Misaki fights that were fight(s) of the year. They even spotted future talent with at the time relatively unknowns like Jorge Masdival, Korean Zombie, Dan Hooker and were ahead of the times with 5 round championship bouts.

I don't know, I just seem to have relatively fond memories of watching Sengoku and didn't think it was 2nd rate at all. Maybe it didn't have the star power compared to DREAM in Japan, but definitely not 2nd rate imo. Rizin right now would be more 2nd rate than Sengoku ever was.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Just finally caught the show.

Something happens

Damien Brown 10 seconds later

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Just looking at Twitter and translating a few Japanese tweets it seems that there's a lot of controversy and people saying that the Shibatar fight was fixed?

 

[lukeuidswords]

Just looking at Twitter and translating a few Japanese tweets it seems that there's a lot of controversy and people saying that the Shibatar fight was fixed?

Kubo's brother-in-law posted DM's between Kubo and Shibatar where Shibatar appeared to offer to go easy in round 1 and then fight for real in round 2

The fight didnt play out like this obviously, and Shibatar posted a video saying he has no idea where those messages came from and doesn't recall ever having that conversation

Miyata, head of Brave Gym and Kubo's MMA coach, made a statement of embarassment at being connected to it at all, and it seems like Kubo and Shibatar's future in the promotion is in doubt, since it makes the whole event and situation look very bad, true or not.

It's been an issue of huge controversy and RIZIN are expected to make a statement soon.

 

[skylolow]

this card was sold to the Japanese audiance as "rich youtubers" fighting pro MMA fighters" but in reality it was just a bunch of c-level and b-level mma fighters, some with youtube channels..I really hate this theme/trend because it is so low effort and just plain moronic to present pro fighters as if they were just ordinary youtubers with the balls to step in the ring...why just not use real youtubers who have no idea how to fight ? it would have made for a far better card...

Tenshin's boxing has always been basic and fundamental, move backwards for defence etc, he had a real chance of being emabarassed by gomi, he collected a paycheck, avoided embarasement and added some variety to the card, so good performance by him...his next opponent will be far smaller.

Shrek fight reminded me of "the soul of the fight" in Sengoku VWR, the highlight of the night...by the way, speaking of sengoku, remember the NYE show by Sengoku (back then considered a second tier Japanese promotion) which had 27 fights? Yeah....I remember when JMMA shows actually went into the new year..

the entire card was on youtube minutes after finishing,...those who just watched on youtube and spent their money and TIME elsewhere were the real winners of the night

a C grade suggests a passing mark, the + suggests effort, I would score this as a D-, Technically not a fail as the event progressed smoothly and there were a few fun fights, but overall very low effort..

RIZIN has been in business now for 7 years (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021). How RIZIN went from an A+ student in it's first year to a D- student 7 years later is a mystery and requires the expertise of a shrink or perphaps an esoteric...

A lot of truth right here.

I feel like they almost kind just mailed this event in/reaching at straws to make an event. I'm not sure as fan how someone could walk away from the event feeling like Rizin is in good place moving forward. I hate to say it but it seems like Rizin maybe on life support.

Anybody have any idea how it did on ratings????

 

[manboy<3]

A lot of truth right here.

I feel like they almost king just mailed this event in/reaching at straws to make an event. I'm not sure as fan how someone could walk away from the event feeling like Rizin is in good place moving forward. I hate to say it put it seems like Rizin maybe on life support.

Anybody have any idea how it did on ratings????

peak was 7.4%

(6-7) 6.0%
(7-8) 5.5%
(8-11) 7.4%
(11 and later) 4.3%

RIZIN 2020 had a peak of 7.3%

Same ratings as last year, but RIZIN also does local PPV which may have increased...

It should be noted that the NHK program was down from last year

you can read a very detailed report here

https://www.boutreview.com/3/news/item_65909.html

 

[lukeuidswords]

A lot of truth right here.

I feel like they almost king just mailed this event in/reaching at straws to make an event. I'm not sure as fan how someone could walk away from the event feeling like Rizin is in good place moving forward. I hate to say it put it seems like Rizin maybe on life support.

Anybody have any idea how it did on ratings????

Japanese fans are extremely happy with how things are going, western fans who dont know anything about the scene or industry and feel that they are no longer being served think things are going downhill. meanwhile, not a single actual metric suggests thats the case.

Kyohei Hagiwara sold RIZIN around 80,000 pay-per-views last year. you don't even know who he is. he's someone they literally found out of nowhere and made a star in around 4 fights. no one else in MMA can do that.

If you're old and out of touch with the product, just admit it. That doesnt mean its dying. Dying products lack an audience, they don't lack you.

 

[JacJeanFinger]

- Kai Asakura losing to ogikubo (good fighter but not on asakura's level) didn't make sense to me and without any surprise I found Kai had a fractured hand bone going into the finals.

Kai broke his hand for 2 fights in a row. For someone with karate background, this is not looking good.

- RIZIN should set up a rematch between retard#1 and retard#2. That would be the only way to save the situation. And I do predict that kubo will chicken out forcing the other retard to get punished by Ologun or sudario.

 

[EndlessCritic]

My thoughts:

Overall a good card. Seika Izawa was the clear breakout star.

Ougikubo winning the GP felt bittersweet. It's a great way to cap off his career, but I just don't see him having the potential to win gold in bellator or the UFC.

Ota continues to grow and showed serious potential.

Satoshi is an absolute wizard. He and Musaev need to get out of Rizin ASAP.

I would have had Shibisai as a -1000 favorite here. Can understand why people think it was fixed, but he was clearly exhausted.

Inoue vs Ougkubo was clear FOTN.

Asakura/Takizawa and Asakura/Saito were both disappointing. Neither had nearly enough activity. Takizawa never pulled the trigger, and was just largely throwing spinning kicks. Saito never pulled the trigger.

Thought Hokamura and Rena both could have won their respective decisions. Both were very close fights.

Hagiwara had a decent performance but Suzuki had nothing for him on the ground.

Miura vs Yushi was a very fun 1 rd scrap.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

As someone who chose not to watch most Rizin events this year, and often case find myself indifferent I thought the card was good.

I don't mean like, I saw the card and it was entertaining (it was), but I mean even on paper, it looks like they put together a good show. They had most of their big names on there.

Rizin is just more home grown now, and some of their bigger names are in the Japanese bubble, not international. It's just more regional, I don't think Rizin is in any more trouble than it was before.

Most of the fighters I wanted to see on the card were on the card, no complaints, really.

 

[sodomanaz]