He's a guy who placed 5th at the 2017 World Games and won the U23 Worlds Gold medal in the same year at 22. He beat guys in their primes like Rei Higuchi (Olympic Silver Medalist) and Yuki Takahashi (world's Gold and Bronze medalist). I'd like to think as one of Japan's best wrestlers for years, I'm talking teching World champions good....that he brings that kind of professionalism over to MMA too. I believe he was at ATT for 5 weeks, so about half his camp this time.
No idea who he trains with in Japan or where he cross trains. But he should be working with really good No Gi guys and Sambo dudes or.something, he needs to make that wrestling lethal and be at home on the mat, he looked a little lost...like reminded me of my first amateur fight where I kept.going back to the same position and looking for the same submission over and over again lost. Standing...he actually.looked more disciplined which is good but it was a lot of empty strikes, left hands and left high kicks with zero set up. He is still learning how to strike, he needs hundreds of hours of sparring still and at this stage should be sparring like 3x a week. Get him in a boxing and j-Kickboxing gym tomorrow.
Rinya has top 10 potential, maybe even championship potential but it's too soon. How he develops over the next 2 years will most likely tell us everything. I'd like to see him get a step up in competition vs a warm body, someone game, who has legit wins. A Taylor Lapilus or Miles Johns type guy soon, if not his next fight, the one after that. I'd also like to see him stay busy, get those quick turnarounds.
