RIZIN FF is ready to crown their first-ever light heavyweight champion. Competing for the honor will be Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal (21-8) and Jiri Prochazka (23-3-1) on April 21 from Yokohama, Japan.
The 205-pound showcase is a rematch of their 2015 encounter that concluded the fabled Japanese promotion’s heavyweight Grand Prix.
Lawal, 38, won the entire tournament when he slumped Prochazka in the very first round with his patented right hand. The national champion wrestler and former Strikeforce light heavyweight titleholder continued to try his hand in MMA’s maximum division, competing between RIZIN and Bellator against some of the sport’s biggest names (such as Mirko Cro Cop, Rampage Jackson and Ryan Bader).
“King Mo” Lawal and Jiri Prochazka first met in 2015 in the final round of RIZIN’s Grand Prix
Minutes into the fight, Lawal slumped Prochazka with his patented overhand right pic.twitter.com/K1yJkdNEsm
— Round By Round MMA (@rbrmma) April 17, 2019
But since blasting Prochazka, King Mo is just 2-4, including a current two-fight losing skid.
Prochazka, of the Czech Republic, has more than earned the rematch. The 26-year-old banger picked himself right up to win his next seven fights. None of these bouts provided any evidence of him tightening up his takedown defense, but his freewheeling style has gained serious attention. He’s finished all but one of his 23 victims and is 17-1-1 over his last 19 fights.
The 12-bout event will also include kickboxing phenom Tenshin Nasukawa (27-0, kickboxing) as well as Kyoji Horiguchi (26-2), who is staying fresh ahead of a rematch with Darrion Caldwell as the Japanese upstart faces former UFC veteran Ben Nguyen (16-8).
Tenshin and Horiguchi actually met last September at RIZIN 13 in a crossover match.
Full fight card
Muhammed Lawal vs. Jiri Prochazka
Tenshin Nasukawa vs. Fritz Biagtan (kickboxing)
Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Ben Nguyen
Mikuru Asakura vs. Luiz Gustavo
Damien Brown vs. Koji Takeda
Satoru Kitaoka vs. Roberto Satoshi Souza
Manel Kape vs. Seiichiro Ito
Karl Albrektsson vs. Christiano Frohlich
Kana Watanabe vs. Justyna Haba
Shinju Auclair vs. Saray Orozco
Taiga Kawabe vs. Thallison Ferreira (kickboxing)
