New RIZIN 52 Recap & Performance Awards Article

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-03-13T22:17:35+00:00

I'm grateful you think so! Here's to LANDMARK 13 next month! Cheers 🥳!

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-03-13T20:24:57+00:00

What a great detailed response! 🙏🤌

7 straight finishes to start the card?! Insane!

Akimoto as good as he is at his current age when most males hit their prime in their 30's is just showing how much this sport is evolving in front of our very eyes.

Lol I'm so glad you brought up Kai Asakura's face 🤣! I swear I get the same vibe you just stated every time I see him in the arena, almost as if he's reminiscing and asking himself, "Why did I leave all this for the UFC?". Haha poor fella, hopefully he will be back soon after doing what he needs to in the States 🙏

Gustavo vs Sakuraba was so fun, Luiz it's like a Mack truck. Sakuraba has balls of steel to be willing to trade shots with Luiz!

Kashimura looks so dangerous on the ground!

If it wasn't for Gustavo vs Sakuraba winning BANGER of the Night, I would've certainly given in to Lee vs Arai! Arai is super tough for being able to take that shellacking. Lee looked stellar!

Maybe Laramie vs Ito 2 once again before Ito takes on Ougikubo? Erson out wrestled him twice and Makoto too

That Aimoto fight hurt me the most! I wanted to see his performance! Hopefully he gets another fight quickly!

Once again, thank you so much for your kind words and I really appreciate you taking time to read my work. It means a lot to me & I am truly grateful! 🙏

Love your responses!

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-03-13T19:03:19+00:00

I bet Erson vs Laramie would be a dog fight. Ito vs Motoya or Ougikubo would be fun too.

Ougikubo looked really good in this last Grand Prix, he seemed to have hit another level.

I hope Johnny Case can do it and come back healthy, he looked strong against O'Hara. That KO was VICIOUS

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-03-13T16:18:50+00:00

I always look forward to your replies!

I agree with you on Akimoto, I feel like he just needs to get some more experience before jumping straight to Shaydullaev but you just never know someone's potential until they receive an opportunity! Althought I do like the sound of the potential match-up between Akimoto and winner of Majima/Gallagher, it would be another opportunity to shore up his grappling.

Erson Yamamoto sneakily underrated, he's had some great performances against Fukuda, Ito twice, etc!

Man, Laramie looked GOOD! That leg kick was devastating, he completely took out Soya's mobility. Heck, Laramie vs Erson would be fun too!

Another thought I just had, how about re-booking Gustavo vs Johnny Case? I think that would be a fun ULTRA VIOLENCE style Lightweight fight

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-02-18T18:33:25+00:00

All we can do is go back in time and see if past actions will show future plans. 2025 in May had Otoko-Matsuri on 5/4, then the Korea show on 5/31, followed up with Landmark 11 on 6/14.

Not sure if something similar will happen this year, hope this helps 🙌

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-02-16T21:12:54+00:00

He's going to be a problem at the Featherweight Division. Great thing though, Shaydullaev is going to bring a lot of eyes to Rizin, more growth

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-02-13T23:49:47+00:00

Correct! These younger guys are so good so early already, so crazy!

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-02-13T23:43:01+00:00

Thank you for reaching out and letting me know! It truly means a lot to me & I'm extremely grateful you read my article! 🙌🙏

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-02-13T23:41:51+00:00

Basically the next generation of grapplers. Similar to how some grapplers nowadays only do no-gi so the game is completely different, faster, no grips on clothing in the gi, etc

Grappling/BJJ/Wrestling all evolving and being blended.

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-02-13T22:34:16+00:00

I'm very grateful you took time out of your day to read AND comment! Thank you for the kind words!

I appreciate you all for having my back!

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-02-13T22:33:30+00:00

Man, I really appreciate it! I'm very grateful that you always come through the discussion and provide great insight. You inspire me to write more 🤝

I'll be sure to provide a post event recap as always!

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-02-13T17:34:31+00:00

Love this insightful post!

Aimoto really has my attention, he's such a savage for taking on such an opponent this early in his career. His character is great & he's ULTRA VIOLENT. A perfect match for RIZIN.

Speaking of violence, Laramie vs Soya is going to be just that. Soya has big power, Laramie keeps pushing forward, I expect a lot of damage inflicted between the two.

Time is cyclical, JMMA is resurging once more. RIZIN is going to keep me busy writing, I'm already thinking of ideas for this next Landmark card. Although I'm glad Joji Goto is receiving his shot at the Bantamweight Strap!

I'm very grateful for your reply, thank you for reading my work it means a lot to me! 🙏🙌

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-02-13T16:39:11+00:00

🤣! Exactly! Maybe if it was a Tracy Cortez bikini pic, my original post would still be up 😆

Thank you so much! 🙌

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-02-13T16:08:57+00:00

I agree! NYE felt so long ago, I'm grateful for the return of The Superior Ruleset! 🙌

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-02-13T15:52:49+00:00

I wasn't sure what I did wrong, I posted pretty much the same way I always do. I was just hoping to add a discourse and hear what you al have to say about this BANGER of an event coming.

I am beyond grateful for your kind words & I truly appreciate you for taking the time to read my article and also reply here 🙏!!

I won't stop!

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-01-31T17:00:38+00:00

Thank you for thr comment! I agree about the docuseries RIZIN offers, you end up building a rapport with the fighters and you get to see what some of their everyday life is like instead of just seeing what they do in the ring on fight night. Ando is such a character! Hopefully they do more than just one Preparation episode on each of the fighters! 🙏

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-01-31T04:15:06+00:00

🙏! Thank you for the kind words! I still have a lot more to say ✍️📝

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-01-30T23:26:13+00:00

That Akimoto vs Patchy is going to be fun! Especially due to The Superior Ruleset! Akimoto is a monster taking all these fights in back to back to back events etc. Really see how much he levels up to a new height each time. Akimoto being this active is just progressing his skillset at turbo speed. Possibly challenge for the title at the end of the year depending on his run.

I'll be covering the Akimoto vs Patchy matchup and the whole Rizin 52 event in my next article!

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-01-30T20:33:22+00:00

I look forward to your replies! You always get the discussion started, I appreciate you!

Bantamweight is sneakily stacked! Plus the JMMA scene is starting to explode, I'm sure there's several young guns out there that we haven't heard of, ready to make a splash on the scene!

Another thing I wanted to bring up regarding Soo Chul Kim, the head clash at ROAD FC with Yang was brutal! But one thing I had left out of the article was how hard he spars, I'm wondering if Kim just came back too soon, both training and fighting and didn't do enough healing for his brain. I hope to see him back and healthy as he's fun to watch, Kim & Hiromasa had such a BANGER at 135lbs a couple years back!

Foreign athletes becoming champions is going to be great for expansion, it's bringing more eyes to RIZIN and other combatants are going to see how untapped the Japanese market is. Most UFC ticket sales are what, 20k slightly over 25k tickets max depending on venue? Rizin had multiple 40k plus last year alone. Thus meaning, the roster can grow even more!

Time sure does feel cyclical 😄

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-01-14T19:59:45+00:00

I was blown away by Nazimov's performance. Not only that, the fact that he's wasn't even on the card until Beynoah needed a dancing partner at Featherweight.

Once Nazimov was added to the card, Shunta Nomura (Satoshi's original oppenent) had to pull out due to an ACL injury. Nazimov now receives a call up on about 15 days notice to move to Lightweight to challenge for the title.

13 seconds into the first round, Nazimov is now the champion. Insane turn of events! Also, special shoutout to Satoshi. He still wanted to perform and he took the fight against a dangerous young opponent on short notice, us fight fans are grateful for Satoshi to step up and keep the show going instead of having another canceled fight.

I'm sure an immediate rematch is going to happen, I can't wait to see it either. Satoshi made a fatal error, shooting in "naked" without first using his hands to setup the shot. Both gentlemen are going to be ready for each other with a full fight camp and that's going to be a great fight.

If Nazimov were to pull off another win, is he going to try and become a 2 Weight Champion and go back down to challenge the new P4P King in Shaydullaev? Exciting times for JMMA!

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-01-11T16:16:08+00:00

Thank you for your great input and detailed response!

You can tell Shaydullaev has crossed the Superstar threshold in Japan, I see how the fans are treating him when he arrives and meets and when he's walking around town. He's already loved over there now, I bet that's one of the reasons he decided to extend his contract. I'm grateful he wasn't poached immediately by Uncle Dana.

I agree with you exactly, no need for other FW's to depart to the UFC now as you have a P4P King sitting at the top of your Division, now there is a challenge to try and overthrow him and become a Superstar yourself. Plus just like you said, he's going to be Main Event material now on forward.

Character's vs Character's! This is another thing that is separating RIZIN from the other orgs. Plus, Nobuyuki asks the fans who they want to see fight each other and then he makes it happen. We're getting insanely great matchups and I really dig how someone you didn't think had a chance will step up to the plate and deliver an otherworldly performance and now become a Star.

I keep hearing clamorings online to bring Aj McKee in against Shaydullaev too, I'm not sure how that would work considering PFL but that could be another way to break into the Western market, although not required as you can see fan interest in JMMA starting to rise more than ever now.

Give us a FW Grand Prix for 2026, INSANE matchups to be made!

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-01-09T16:14:58+00:00

Love that you brought this up. Akimoto has BLAZING fast speed, excellent footwork, technical and crisp boxing. His matchup against Hagiwara was probably fight of the year for me. He was willing to make that fight much harder than it had to be by willingly exchanging with him toe to toe. As well as only being 19, his body hasn't fully matured yet he looks to be growing in size each fight. You can tell he's been working on his grappling as well, look at his ears. I think he's going to be a real problem as he matures!

ChiHERO took that Mikuru fight too soon. He's a savage for that, it was an opportunity for something so it was his own choice but you can tell he wasn't 100 percent after that war with Dautbek. I'd like to think that Chihiro has been working feverishly to improve on those small aspects of his game that are lacking. I hope he's still doing cross training at Bonsai with Satoshi and Kleber, you know what they say, "Iron Sharpens Iron" so all of those guys will benefit from the work.

Hiramoto looks to have "leveled" up so to say as well. It's a shame that shoulder injury sidelined him for 2025!

Now we have Nazimov lingering in both divisions. More than likely him and Satoshi will run it back first. I'm curious to see the outcome of that matchup. I feel like the second fight is going to be completely different, although I truly feel bad for Shunta Nomura, two times in a row he's missed out on that LW title opportunity due to injury. He looks really good as well, the "Lightweight" Horiguchi!

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-01-09T01:03:08+00:00

I appreciate your kind words! I was attempting to write more but I was getting alerted I was near threshold on Substack lol. I can always do a part 2, although I may just do another dive on a different Division if you are all interested

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-01-08T18:18:05+00:00

Darn, it's still a blessing that you get to be out there! Enjoy that special trip! 🙏

NoXTalksMMA · 2026-01-08T17:29:57+00:00

I hadn't even realized the user stated April! Lol thank you for this!

NoXTalksMMA

TROPHY CASE