Ren Hiramoto and Mikuru Asakura are set to rematch in the primary occasion of RIZIN: The Match 2 on Might 4th, 2025.
Rizin Combating Federation has been steadily rising since its inception in 2015. The promotion is a decade previous and a real successor to Satisfaction Combating Championship. It has freakshow matches, permits soccer kicks, and has bred profitable MMA stars. Resembling Jiri Prochazka, Manel Kape, and even Vadim Nemkov.
Nevertheless, new homegrown expertise has just lately taken middle stage in Rizin. Former kickboxer Ren Hiramoto and former Rizin featherweight title challenger Mikuru Asakura, who’re extraordinarily standard in Japan, are the largest stars in Rizin immediately.
Regardless of being essentially the most outstanding stars for the promotion, they share a remarkably heated rivalry. The 2 fighters have very totally different personalities and public personas, which have led to them changing into, at the least, pure rivals. Mikuru Asakura views Ren Hiramoto as an MMA newbie. Hiramoto had a file of 3-3 once they first confronted off and struggled with the grappling division.
Nevertheless, Hiramoto wasn’t a standard kickboxer, difficult for a Ok-1 KRUSH belt and Ok-1 world title towards Wei Rui, who misplaced in a cut up determination. Regardless of the defeat, it was nonetheless an amazing present of hanging acumen that’s remarkably uncommon in MMA, with solely fighters like Israel Adesanya and the good Alex Pereira reaching these feats.
Nevertheless, Hiramoto would show his doubters flawed in the primary occasion, as at Tremendous RIZIN 3. Hiramoto would end Mikuru Asakura within the first spherical, dropping him and ending him off with some vicious floor and pound. It was a shocker, as many believed this combat can be a protracted battle between two strikers.
Hiramoto rapidly dismissed that concept and proved that his hanging, regardless of its ferocity and violent look, remains to be world-class and a menace to anybody on the toes—even a fighter like Mikuru Asakura, who’s fought for the featherweight world title twice in Rizin.
Ren Hiramoto and Mikuru Asakura’s rematch is a basic Japanese match-making.
As thrilling as this matchup could also be, it does share a symptom of Japanese matchmaking in MMA. The matchups seldom make sense, however at the least this time they’re in the identical weight class. Nevertheless, the cardboard and even the subtitle for it being The Match 2 meddles with the cardboard’s validity as combat playing cards with large stars in the primary are likely to have weaker undercards. Nevertheless, that’s but to be seen because the undercard nonetheless has not been introduced.
The Match subtitle was utilized by the ultra-high profile Tenshin Nasukawa vs. Takeru Segawa cross-promotional card, the place the 2 generational greats fought to see who was actually one of the best of this era in kickboxing. So to see this subtitle be used thrice now to hype a rivalry appears to be overplayed.
Nevertheless, the matchup remains to be fairly thrilling. Each fighters are by no means in a boring combat, have an amazing rivalry, and are at all times a striker’s delight. The 2 have aggressive energy and hanging kinds that make each Hiramoto and Asakura must-see TV. Particularly with their reinvigorated rivalry with everybody in Japan and right here within the West clamoring for an thrilling and dramatic rematch.
Whether or not warranted or not, no matter is on the road when these two face off once more, we’re going to see one of the best of Japanese MMA in talent, manufacturing worth, and pure leisure.
