{"id":405558,"date":"2026-07-20T19:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T19:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/405558\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T19:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T19:02:11","slug":"pfl-teams-up-with-rizin-for-historic-dual-promotion-featherweight-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/405558\/","title":{"rendered":"PFL teams up with RIZIN for historic dual-promotion featherweight title fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">One champion. Two promotions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">RIZIN Fighting Federation and Professional Fighters League (PFL) today announced a historic cross-promotional championship fight for SUPER RIZIN 5, as reigning RIZIN Featherweight Champion Razhabali Shaidulloev faces former Bellator MMA Featherweight Champion AJ McKee. Both the RIZIN featherweight title and the vacant PFL featherweight strap will be up for grabs in the same fight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The bout will be contested under RIZIN MMA rules across three, five-minute rounds at 66.0 kilograms (145.5 lbs).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cWe are truly delighted to join forces with PFL on an epoch-making initiative that will leave its mark on the history of combat sports worldwide,\u201d said RIZIN CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara. \u201cRIZIN and PFL have different rules, regulations and approaches to presenting combat sports. By coming together and embracing those differences, we are opening the door to an entirely new world. I firmly believe this represents a historic and revolutionary step forward. With the utmost respect for one another, let us fight with everything we have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Here is the current SUPER RIZIN 5 lineup:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">RIZIN &amp; PFL Featherweight Double Title Fight<br \/>Razhabali Shaidulloev vs. AJ McKee<br \/>RIZIN MMA Rules: Three five-minute rounds \u2014 66.0 kg (145.5 lbs)<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Lightweight Super Fight<br \/>Mikuru Asakura vs. Shinya Aoki<br \/>RIZIN MMA Rules: Three five-minute rounds \u2014 71.0 kg<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Featherweight Bout<br \/>Ren Hiramoto vs. Karshyga Dautbek<br \/>RIZIN MMA Rules: Three five-minute rounds \u2014 66.0 kg<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Featherweight Bout<br \/>Yutaka Saito vs. YA-MAN<br \/>RIZIN MMA Rules: Three five-minute rounds \u2014 66.0 kg<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Featherweight Bout<br \/>Vugar Karamov vs. Ryo Takagi<br \/>RIZIN MMA Rules: Three five-minute rounds \u2014 66.0 kg<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Lightweight Bout<br \/>Roberto Satoshi Souza vs. Shunta Nomura<br \/>RIZIN MMA Rules: Three five-minute rounds \u2014 71.0 kg<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">59.0 kg Bout<br \/>Daichi Tomizawa vs. Donmai Kawabata<br \/>RIZIN MMA Rules: Three five-minute rounds \u2014 59.0 kg<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">RIZIN also announced that Chihiro Suzuki will be unable to compete at SUPER RIZIN.5.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cWhen I became CEO at PFL, I made it my mission to bring together the best fighters and deliver the fights that the fans want to see,\u201d said PFL CEO John Martin. \u201cNow, with this extraordinary partnership, I can\u2019t wait to honor that promise and bring a truly unique and fresh opportunity for the MMA community to enjoy. For me, it will be a special experience as I get to throw my full support behind one fighter, and I\u2019m looking forward to being cage side to watch the \u2018Mercenary\u2019 bring the titles to PFL.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">For more PFL news and notes click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/professional-fighters-league-pfl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One champion. Two promotions. RIZIN Fighting Federation and Professional Fighters League (PFL) today announced a historic cross-promotional championship&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[162594,162595,152120,131,133,132,152946],"class_list":["post-405558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-bellator-mma-news-results","tag-international-mma-news-results","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-professional-fighters-league-pfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}