Kleber Koike treats his RIZIN 54 main event clash against Kyoma Akimoto on Tuesday as his final chance to earn a shot and regain the RIZIN featherweight title, and watching the Japanese promotion partner with the PFL \u2014 and automatically MVP \u2014 gives him extra motivation to pursue more gold.<\/p>\n
Koike, who turns 37 in October, said the promotion has already made it official that the winner of the RIZIN 54 main event will challenge for the 145-pound belt next. RIZIN featherweight champion Razhabali Shaydullaev is currently slated to face A.J. McKee Jr. on Sept. 10, looking to defend his RIZIN gold and win the inaugural PFL belt that night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis merger can only bring good things,\u201d Koike told MMA Fighting. \u201cEven for me, as one of the title contenders, I\u2019m happy to know that this merger is happening. I live in Japan, which has embraced me. Imagine being able to fight in the United States while carrying the Japanese flag. Hopefully, it works out. It would be very interesting. Even though I\u2019m Brazilian, I built my entire career in Japan and I carry the Japanese flag. For me, as a foreigner who wants to have Japanese blood, having spent my entire career here in Japan and being able to carry the Japanese flag abroad would be very rewarding and very cool. So I\u2019m going to work to make that a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my last shot,\u201d he continued. \u201cI know I don\u2019t have many years left. I\u2019m closer to the end than I am to the beginning, so let\u2019s give it everything we have. I\u2019m here to build my story, not tell stories, so I\u2019m going to work toward that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Koike lost his title to Shaydullaev in 2025, but favors McKee at Super RIZIN 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cShaydullaev is a tough guy who\u2019s been doing really well, but he\u2019s young,\u201d Koike said. \u201cI really believe McKee is going to win. Shaydullaev\u2019s chance is in the first round. He has very heavy hands, I\u2019m living proof of that [laughs], and he has a good ground game too. But I don\u2019t think McKee is going to be intimidated by that. McKee is used to this style of fighting from the Russians with the grappling, taking you down and throwing heavy shots. If it gets past the first round, I think McKee wins. I believe Shaydullaev\u2019s best chance is in the first three minutes, which is what he\u2019s been doing in RIZIN.\u201d<\/p>\n
Koike, who re-inserted his name in the title picture with a win over Vugar Karamov in December, knows that a win for McKee in September could delay his plans for a title show on New Year\u2019s Eve. The former Bellator champion could instead face someone from the PFL roster next, but Koike said he has plenty of \u201cbeefs\u201d to settle in Japan, like a trilogy bout with Mikuru Asakura, if that\u2019s the scenario.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd since the New Year\u2019s Eve event is in my hometown, in a very large arena \u2014 which is also the city where [Asakura] used to live \u2014, it\u2019s a fight that I can bring home,\u201d Koike said. \u201cRight now, I just want to have this fight, win, and leave the belt or any other fight for later. If I can\u2019t fight for the title on New Year\u2019s Eve, I have no problem with that either. I can fight for it later. I\u2019m going to take it one step at a time. I made that mistake a lot in the past. Before, I wanted the title so badly. Today, I have to think one step at a time. I\u2019m going to beat this kid, and then I\u2019ll be the next title contender.\u201d<\/p>\n
Koike revealed he was originally offered the Akimoto fight for the last NYE card, but thought the young talent wasn\u2019t deserving of the opportunity just yet. RIZIN contacted him again in late-January for a March date, but it was too soon for the Brazilian to make weight again. Akimoto fought Patchy Mix instead, flooring the former Bellator champion with soccer kicks in the second round.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone thought Patchy Mix was going to win, and he went in there and put on a show,\u201d Koike said. \u201cBut I\u2019m biased when I say this because I believe Patchy Mix never really fit into this division. Still, credit to the kid. He wasn\u2019t intimidated by the name Patchy Mix and put on a great performance. So they came back to me with the fight again. Now we\u2019re contenders, so this is the fight to make. It\u2019s my last shot at the title. I\u2019m aware of that, so if this is my last shot, I\u2019m going to give 100 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Koike flew to Brazil with his family for the first time in nine years, \u201cresetting body and soul\u201d to resume his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo disrespect, he\u2019s on a good run, he\u2019s a tough kid, he\u2019s young, only 20 years old, but I don\u2019t think he has the MMA experience yet,\u201d Koike said. \u201cI already know what he\u2019s bringing. I\u2019ve fought several strikers, I\u2019ve fought several good guys, but he\u2019s never fought anyone at my level on the ground or at my level in MMA. That\u2019s where the difference is. He\u2019s a kid I have to respect. I can\u2019t underestimate him, but what\u2019s going to prevail in this fight is experience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kleber Koike treats his RIZIN 54 main event clash against Kyoma Akimoto on Tuesday as his final chance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,1863,8417,1859,82],"class_list":["post-853573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-pfl","tag-pfl-news","tag-rizin","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}