RIZIN 33

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

So I am not even sure it's a fixed fight anymore. Both agreed to go easy the 1st round then actually fight the 2nd round. Then 1 fighter decides to actually fight the 1st round. Just all kinds of ****** up but not fixed....I guess

Nah, I still think the fight was probably fixed beyond that. I believe that was a dive from Kubo. He's a relatively high-level kickboxer. No one is gonna convince me that a sloppy YouTuber is gonna drop him with a punch like that. The flying armbar looked fishy enough, but that's whatever compared to what happened beforehand. 

As for Tenshin vs. Floyd being a fix... literally one of the dumbest takes people have ever had online re: combat sports. In what world would RIZIN pay Floyd a bunch of money to come into their company and embarass their #1 star. Not just 'embarass', but literally make him sob profusely after the fight following a R1 stoppage. If the fight was fixed why would they not book it to go a few rounds and let their guy look strong leading to a decision if not a late stoppage? There is literally no logic to it. Tenshin is a kickboxer. Floyd is a masterful boxer. They fought under boxing rules and Tenshin was severely undersized. Floyd wasn't taking him seriously, Tenshin landed one decent shot and you can see Floyd's entire gameplan change. After getting tagged 1x he decided to put it on Tenshin and stopped him. A 50-0 boxer KOing a promotion's #1 star who just so happens to be a 20-year-old kickboxer is not unrealistic. The idea that the fight was fixed is insane to me.

Even if we take them at their most charitable and believe they only conspired to 'work' the first round but Shibatar did a 'shoot' and went off the agreed script that would still make it a fixed fight. They conspired, they agreed to how the round would go, etc. That's fight rigging. I ultimately agree with Mikey though that the fight was fixed beyond that. 

*Comes into thread
Checks what people are talking about
See people are discussing whether or not fight is fixed
Not paying attention, don't even know what promotion in which this supposedly happened
Check thread header, Sees RIZIN
Assumes whoever saying there was a fixed fight was right
Leaves Thread*

* Edited at 01.08.2022, 1:05 AM ET *

Basically allegedly leaked DMs and phone call suggest that Shibata forced Kubo to fix the fight or he would pull out.




Update: 8 January 2022




On his YouTube page, Kubo confessed about the match-fixing arrangement that ****aba asked him to not hit him in the face in the first round and to only fight seriously in the second round.

Kubo basically said that he did not understand that Shibata was about to ridicule him by tricking him to fix the fight because he got Asperger, so he fell for it and agreed to fix the fight, not knowing that Shibata had tricked him. So when Shibata suddenly fought seriously and kicked his ass, Kubo then lost his fight. He was upset and did not know what to do after getting fooled, so he asked his wife's brother for advice, then he started to panic, because he just realized *** he just did. He talked about it with his friend, who said that Mr *** (name censored in the video) would support him if he tell the truth, so he decided to leak the voice record and DMs.

And yes, this video is basically him admitting that he ****** up again by leaking the DMs.

He said he is willing to accept any punishment from Rizin.

For people who want to use Google Translate to read article about this confession video.

https://efight.jp/news-20220108_833003

Update 11 January 2022

Sakakibara announcement on the fight-fixing




1. Every fight in Rizin history is real. There has never been fight fixing in Rizin.
2. The result of Kubo VS Shibata's investigation. Shibata had always said before the fight not just this one or fight in Rizin that "he is not feeling well" "he does not want to fight" "he does not want to get hurt". This is normal because Shibata is a pro wrester and YouTuber. He also said this to Kubo via phone etc. Kubo's team told this information to Rizin, and Kubo told Rizin that he will fight 100%. But Kubo himself has Asperger's so he did not understand that Shibata was lying to him (as he always does before the fight to other fighters as well). So Kubo agreed to Shibata's plan to not go hard on him in round 1.
3. Sakakibara said he himself does not like when fighters play dirty or using psychological warfare like this to their opponent. So far Rizin has never had a rule in the contract that fighters could not talk about the fight or their game plan directly with their opponent or their camp. So Rizin will include this in their future contract (but fighters can still do publicly via social media).
4. Kubo violated the law by leaking the recorded call with Shibata. From now on Rizin will also ban this type of these actions in the contract.
5. There will be no punishment for either fighter. They will take this as a lesson, going forward.

Yep it is over. Sakakibara basically said no fight fixing, please ignore this and let's go forward to the future together.