RIZIN Lightweight Champion Roberto Satoshi will return to the ring at RIZIN 42 on May 5, the company announced on Monday. The line-up will also include John Dodson, Juan Archuleta and Kai Asakura.
Satoshi, who lost a non-title fight to Bellator star AJ Mackey last December, is scheduled to take on UFC veteran Spike Carlyle in a non-championship bout at Tokyo Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan. Carlisle, who also lost to McCa in his last fight and went 1-2 under the UFC banner, entered Koji Takeda in his only RIZIN competition.
The promotion also revealed an opponent for Archuleta, announcing that the former Bellator bantamweight champion would return to Japan to face Naoki Inoue. In December, Archuleta competed in five Bellator-RIZIN Challenge bouts, earning a split decision over Soo Chul Kim. Inoue, who briefly competed in the UFC between 2017 and 2018, stopped Kenta Takizawa the same night.
Dodson will once again enter the RIZIN ring after another stoppage victory in the bare-knuckle world, knocking out Jarod Grant in less than two minutes this February. Dodson defeated Hideo Tokoro via first-round knockout in his RIZIN debut in December. Tatsuki Saomoto, his opponent, has a 14-fight winning streak since 2016.
Asakura, former RIZIN 135 lbs champion, is due to face Yuki Motoya. Asakura will look to bounce back from a one-night bantamweight decision loss to Hiromasa Ougikubo in December 2021, while Motoya looks to go 6-0 in just over two years by stopping UFC veteran Rogerio Bontorin in his latest outing.
Check out the full RIZIN 42 map below.
Kai Asakura vs Yuuki Motoya
Naoki Inoue vs. Juan Archuleta
Roberto Satoshi vs. Spike Carlisle
Seika Izawa vs Miyu Yamamoto
Kota Miura vs. YES MAN – custom rules
Yuriuka Sasaki vs. Boyd Allen
John Dodson vs. Kiyo Saomoto
Takashi Soya vs. Ramazan Temirov
Hiroki Ito vs Arsen Yamamoto
Takuya Yamamoto vs Takeshi Yokoyama
Source: www.mmafighting.com
