Rizin 45 and the “Absolutely Fantastic” storylines set for NYE 2023
Joe Ferraro is a stalwart in Canadian mixed martial arts and for years has helmed the position of Rizin play-by-play commentator. Rizin 45 looms closer and continues the rich tradition of New Year’s Eve combat sports events in Japan. Ferraro appeared on Bowks Talking Bouts to discuss several subjects before Rizin NYE 2023. Excerpts from our chat are below.
Joe Ferraro
I mean just what an event we have here with Rizin NYE 2023. I love checking out the New Year’s Eve events. Obviously, Pride was great with that for many years, but Rizin has definitely had quite a few memorable end-of-year events as well. I mean this Juan Archuleta fight definitely fits comfortably within that. Archuleta faces Kai Asakura with that bantamweight belt being defended by the former against the latter. What are your thoughts on that Rizin 45 co-main event fight?
“Oh, I think it’s absolutely huge. I think it’s absolutely fantastic because you’ve got that experience of Juan Archuleta, he’s got over 30 fights. But you know, many people don’t know Kai Asakura, I think this will be his 25th fight. So, he’s got experience as well, he’s very explosive, you know. Juan’s a methodical fighter, right. Like Archuleta when he fights, he’ll decide if he’s striking, he’ll decide if it’s going to go down to the ground. Whereas Kai Asakura just brings it.”
“The Asakura brothers are great, fantastic knockout artists but they’re very patient. They’ll wait for their opportunity. But the moment and I mean the moment they smell blood, they go in for the kill, right. So, I think it’s going to be one of those fights that could start off slow, kind of buildup, and then the moment there’s going to be some sort of action it will go from level one to level ten really quick.”
Rizin 45
Absolutely and the main event at Rizin 45 is very interesting in its own right too with Kyoji Horiguchi and Makoto Shinryu rematching for that vacant flyweight crown. A bit of an inauspicious way the first fight ended.
I guess to that point do you see the first fight at all informing this second fight at Rizin NYE 2023 to any kind of degree? Do you think maybe they will have that additional level of urgency or maybe that first fight is kind of inconsequential as far as how it’ll inform this sequel? Maybe this next fight is the better representation of what this matchup looks like, if that makes sense.
“It’s 100% a valid point. I think the previous bout where it was an accidental eye poke obviously it was so quick; it’s not really going to have too much per se. But it just means both fighters have done their homework or a lot more homework, right, on each other. So, it’ll really define exactly what may have happened back in July or what could have happened, excuse me, in July. But then again, a fight’s a fight. Anything can happen right, things change. One punch, one knee, one elbow, one kick. Anything can happen. A fighter can roll their ankle, we don’t know about it.”
Rizin NYE 2023
“Who was really 100% heading into that first fight? Who’s going to be 100% heading into this fight? So, it’s difficult to say how it’s going to play out. But you know, a lot of the questions that I’ve been dealing with have been, you know, is Horiguchi; are we beginning to see father time now affecting Horiguchi? Is this the beginning of the end of his career? I’m like well he’s sort of coming off of two straight wins. I know he’s two and two in his last four fights. But you can make the argument he’s three and two, right.”
“So, it’s one of those things where, you know; is this the beginning of the end for Horiguchi? Does he still have it whereas Shinryu is just like on fire, right. So it’s a wonderful matchup to say hey, Kyoji Horiguchi is still the man at this division at least in Japan and then, you know, is this just changing of the guard, a passing of the torch, right. So, the story lines heading into this fight are absolutely fantastic. Again, it’s another one of these fights that I can’t wait to call. Just referee, please step out of the way. Let’s just call this fight, let’s go.”
