2022 in Rizin Fighting Federation

The year 2022 was the eighth year in the history of the Rizin Fighting Federation, a mixed martial arts promotion based in Japan.

Rizin events were broadcast through a television agreement with Fuji Television. However, due to several controversies, the promotion would be dropped by the network by May of that year. Rizin would since begin broadcasting on events via PPV on their new streaming service, RIZIN STREAM PASS, and various other streaming platforms in Japan.

In North America and Europe, Rizin events were available via PPV on LIVENow. Starting with Super Rizin & Rizin 38 in 2022, Integrated Sports would produce English-language PPVs of Rizin events for FITE.

Background
Nobuyuki Sakakibara announced that Rizin is planning to work in co-promotion with K-1 and RISE to hold an event headlined by between Tenshin Nasukawa and Takeru Segawa. Known as THE MATCH 2022, the event would be held on June 19, 2022.

Rizin Women's Super Atomweight Grand Prix 2022 bracket
1 Anastasiya Svetkivska replaced an injured Rena Kubota.

Rizin Trigger 2
Rizin Trigger 2 was a Combat sport event held by Rizin Fighting Federation on February 23, 2022, at the Ecopa Arena in Fukuroi, Japan.

Background
A featherweight bout between Kleber Koike Erbst and Ulka Sasaki was scheduled as the event headliner.

Rizin Landmark 2
Rizin Landmark 2 was a Combat sport event held by Rizin Fighting Federation on March 6, 2022, in Japan.

Background
A featherweight bout between Chihiro Suziki and the Ren Hiramoto is scheduled as the event headliner.

Rizin 34 – Osaka
Rizin 34 – Osaka was a Combat sport event held by Rizin Fighting Federation on March 20, 2022, at the Maruzen Intec Arena in Osaka, Japan.

With this event, Rizin reaches the same total of numbered events as PRIDE FC did at the time of its final show.

Background
A featherweight bout between Satoshi Yamasu and Kyohei Hagiwara was scheduled as the event headliner.

A bantamweight kickboxing bout between Taiga Kawabe and Ryo Takahashi was scheduled for the event.

Rizin Trigger 3
Rizin Trigger 3 will be a Combat sport event held by Rizin Fighting Federation on April 16, 2022, at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza in Chōfu, Japan.

Rizin 35
Rizin 35 was a Combat sport event held by Rizin Fighting Federation on April 17, 2022, at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza in Chōfu, Japan.

Background
A Rizin Super Atomweight Championship bout between the reigning champion Ayaka Hamasaki and Seika Izawa was scheduled for the event.

A Rizin Featherweight Championship rematch between the reigning champion Juntaro Ushiku and the former champion Yutaka Saito was scheduled for the event.

A Rizin Lightweight Championship rematch between the reigning champion Roberto de Souza and Johnny Case was scheduled for the event.

Rizin Landmark 3
Rizin Landmark 3 was a Combat sport event held by Rizin Fighting Federation on May 5, 2022, in Japan.

The Match 2022
THE MATCH 2022 was a Kickboxing event held by Rizin Fighting Federation in partnership with K-1 and RISE on June 19, 2022, in Tokyo, Japan.

Background
The main event will feature the megafight between the RISE Featherweight champion Tenshin Nasukawa and the K-1 Super Featherweight champion Takeru Segawa.

Rizin 36 – Okinawa
Rizin 36 was a Combat sport event held by Rizin Fighting Federation on July 2, 2022, in Okinawa, Japan.

Background
A bantamweight bout between the former Rizin bantamweight champion Kai Asakura and the unbeaten Ji Yong Yang was scheduled as the event headliner. Asakura withdrew from the fight on June 30, as he had re-injured his right hand. Suzuki vs. Hiramoto was made the new main event.

A featherweight bout between two former kickboxers, Hiroaki Suzuki and Ren Hiramoto, was booked as the co-main event.

Rizin 37 - Saitama
Rizin 37 - Saitama will be a Combat sport event held by Rizin Fighting Federation on July 2, 2022, in Okinawa, Japan.

Background
The quarerfinal bouts of the 2022 Rizin Super Atomweight Grand Prix were held at the event.

A flyweight bout between Makoto Takahashi and the 44-year old veteran Hideo Tokoro and booked for the event.

The 2016 Olympic Games wrestling silver medalist Shinobu Ota was scheduled to face Yuki Motoya in his fourth professional bout.

Yoshiki Nakahara was initially scheduled to face Ulka Sasaki at the event, but Sasaki tested positive for COVID-19 and was replaced by Tetsuya Seki.

Super Rizin & Rizin 38
Super Rizin & Rizin 38 was a combat sport event held by Rizin Fighting Federation in partnership with The Money Team on September 25, 2022, at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan. The event was split into two parts: Super Rizin, which catered to foreign audiences, and Rizin 38, which began five hours later. Both cards were broadcast by Rizin Stream Pass and Abema in Japan.

Outside of Japan, Integrated Sports produced English-language PPVs of both cards for FITE. They were the first RIZIN events to be distributed on FITE since Rizin 23 & Rizin 22 in 2020.

Background
The event was headlined by an exhibition boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Japanese mixed martial artist and YouTuber Mikuru Asakura.

The 2021 Rizin Bantamweight Grand Prix winner Hiromasa Ougikubo faced current Road FC Featherweight champion (also former ONE Bantamweight World Champion) Soo Chul Kim in a bantamweight non-title bout.

The Rizin Super Atomweight Grand Prix Semifinals bouts took place during the event, which saw Si Woo Park face Ayaka Hamasaki and Seika Izawa face Anastasiya Svetkivska. Izawa was originally expected to face Rena Kubota, who was forced to withdraw due to injury.

Rizin 39
Rizin 39 was a Combat sport event held by Rizin Fighting Federation on October 23, 2022, at the Marine Messe Fukuoka in Japan.

Background
A Rizin Featherweight Championship bout between current champion Juntarou Ushiku and former KSW Featherweight Champion Kleber Koike Erbst was scheduled as the main event.

A bantamweight kickboxing bout between Trent Girdham and the former Rajadamnern Stadium bantamweight champion Genji Umeno was announced for the event.

Rizin Landmark Vol.4
Rizin Landmark Vol.4 was a Combat sport event held by Rizin Fighting Federation on November 6, 2022, at the Dolphins Arena in Japan.

Background
A bantamweight bout between Satoshi Yamasu and Ren Hiramoto was booked as the main event.

Rizin 40 & Rizin vs Bellator
Rizin 40 & Rizin vs Bellator was a Combat sport event co-promoted with Bellator MMA that took place on December 31, 2022, at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. As with Super Rizin & Rizin 38, the event was split between two cards; the Bellator card would follow the Rizin 40 card after an intermission.

In the United States, Rizin 40 would air live on FITE, while the Bellator card aired via tape delay on Showtime. Outside of Japan, both cards aired live on FITE.