Nobuyuki Sakakibara tried to make Super RIZIN 3 ‘last man standing’ main event ‘endless rules until someone gives up’

It’s a big weekend for MMA across the globe.

After UFC 304 wraps up in Manchester, England on Saturday night, Super RIZIN 3 keeps the action going on Sunday (July 28, 2024) with a plethora of exciting matchups across MMA and boxing — with and without gloves. Atop the big event in Saitama, Japan will be the promotion’s version of a BMF title fight as featherweight superstars Mikuru Asakura and Ren Hiramoto collide.

The bout will be a new exploration for RIZIN in multiple ways, as the pair fight over the new Last Man Standing title. RIZIN Founder Nobuyuki Sakakibara felt this matchup was the perfect opportunity to introduce a special one-off crown.

“This is not a fight that determines the best of any division or weight class,” Sakakibara told MMA Mania on BROADENED HORIZIN. “This exceeds the sport. It’s not for a title, but these are, without a doubt, two icons of RIZIN, of our brand. When these two icons are fighting each other, and this is not for the division belt, like, it exceeds the sport. So, from my point of view, the meaning of this fight is much heavier than any title fight. That’s how I feel.”

The new title won’t be the only thing different about Super RIZIN 3’s main event. Asakura vs. Hiramoto will compete in a five-round contest judged round-by-round under the unified scoring system. Traditionally, RIZIN scores fights as a whole, giving out points based on damage (50 points), aggression (30 points), and control (20 points). In this fight, they’ll be dealing with 10-9s as if they were fighting stateside or under most jurisdictions around the world.

This specific change was more of a compromise to the original hope, reveals Sakakibara.

“In an ideal world, I didn’t want this fight to have any judges. I wanted the fighters to determine the outcome so that there’s absolutely no controversy,” Sakakibara said. “We want to make sure that there’s a clear winner and there’s a clear loser. So, my honest opinion was that we didn’t want any judges. The ideal ruleset was like the [Kazushi] Sakurba vs. Royce Gracie [fight]. Endless rules until someone gives up. Hence ‘last man standing,’ right?

“We want to determine which fighter is going to go in there and be the last man standing. That was the whole approach and idea that we wanted to put into this fight. But, you know, however, we talked to both, and both fighters agree. They understand. They don’t want this fight outcome to be determined by judges. They know that they will have to be the one that can clearly win the fight.”

The referenced Sakuraba vs. Gracie 1 bout was a classic moment in PRIDE FC history from May 2000. Gracie famously suffered his first career loss to “The Gracie Hunter” after 90 minutes of competition when his corner threw in the towel. Considering the incredible grappling talents of each legend, it’s highly unlikely a fight like that would have been replicated by Asakura and Hiramoto, but the birth of the concept is fun in theory.

Sakakibara detailed how extending the event window to potentially last a limitless period wasn’t logistically attainable with the timing of the year and things alike. Ultimately, the featherweights still get extra time to settle their differences and that’s all fans can ask for.

“That wasn’t realistic in a way. We had to come down to reality, and we felt that the concept, everybody understands the concept, but we believed that maybe we will need more than three rounds. So we’re going to do five rounds, but it comes down to when we do five rounds, it’s going to be very, very hard for the judges to determine the fight in a total-must judging system when it’s five rounds. It’s so much to cover, and it’s not realistic doing the total-must system. So, we utilize these rulesets where each round will be judged so that in case it goes to decision, we will have a clear winner.

“These rulesets were implemented strictly for this one night, for this night, for this fight. That’s how it all came together and the answer is this is this ruleset is just for one night.”

Watch the full episode in the video embedded above, or listen to it on Spotify.

BROADENED HORIZIN Ep. 41 AUDIO – 以下の日本語版: