Combate Global Collides With RIZIN in Tokyo on April 29
Combate Global and RIZIN today announced a showdown between two women’s Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) stars – Claire Lopez (7-4) and Rena Kubota (13-4) – from their respective fight organizations, for Saturday, April 29, in Tokyo, Japan.The matchup will be contested at RIZIN’s much-anticipated event at Yoyogi Gymnasium, at a catchweight of 112.6 pounds, and will consist of three, five-minute rounds. The fight will take place in a cage, rather than RIZIN’s customary square ring. “This is a phenomenal matchup for both fighters as well as for MMA fans around the world, so I am excited for Combate Global to partner with RIZIN for it,” said Mike Afromowitz, Sr. VP of Operations and Communications for Combate Global. Fighting out of London, England, the 34-year-old Lopez, a native of Beziers, France, is a member of Great Britain Top Team headed by Brad Pickett. Lopez, the runner-up in Combate Global’s first-ever, one-night, eight-woman tournament in August 2021, is a dangerous finisher who has earned six of her seven career victories by way of (T)KO or submission. The 31-year-old Kubota, a native of Osaka, Japan, is a famed champion of Shootboxing, and a record six-time winner of the promotion’s ‘S-Cup’ tournament. Kubota made her MMA debut with RIZIN on December 31, 2015, defeating Jleana Valentino by way of a flying armbar submission in the second round of action, and proceeded to reel off victories in each of her next five bouts, two of which came at the RIZIN World Grand Prix 2017 women’s atomweight (108 pounds) tournament. In her last start on July 31, 2022, Kubota defeated Anastasiya Svetkivska via unanimous decision at RIZIN 37 in Saitama, Japan.
