Fight Facts: Rizin 27

Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and ring rarities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF RIZIN FIGHTS: 290
TOTAL NUMBER OF RIZIN EVENTS: 30

Rizin Fighting Federation came back in style for its first event in 2021, bringing a championship bout and several favorites on full display. This violent card saw finishes galore before the dust settled. Rizin 27 featured a dominant force at atomweight holding on tight to the title, several choice knockouts and the first neck crank to happen in the Rizin ring.

Effective Reintroduction: Five MMA bouts throughout the evening ended by clean knockout, tying Rizin Saraba in 2015 for the most at a single Rizin event.

One-Hitter Quitter Party: Of those five KO finishes on Rizin 27, three were came from a single punch. This sets the promotion’s record for the most one-punch knockouts on a single card.

Blazing Speed: Three of the ten fastest knockouts in Rizin history took place at Rizin 27. The card opener saw a 33-second knockout from Yuki Ito, only to be outdone by a 27-second finish courtesy of Hiroki Yamashita a few bouts later. Tsuyoshi Sudario’s stoppage of Kazushi Miyamoto in eight seconds came after the intermission.

Sub-Minute Men: Those three knockouts all clocking in under 60 seconds, this card is also the promotion’s first to see three sub-minute knockouts on one night.

Division Cleaner: By beating Kanna Asakura by split verdict, Ayaka Hamasaki earned her eighth victory inside the Rizin ring. The atomweight queen holds the active Rizin record for the most wins without a defeat.

A Different Kind of Ham: Hamasaki now trails only Asakura (nine) and Rena Kubota (10) for the most wins for any female Rizin fighter.

No Non-Title Nonsense: The victory over Asakura was the first title defense of Hamasaki’s second atomweight championship reign. She is the first fighter in company history to defend her belt on two separate title runs.

Kanna Kontinue: Asakura has now gone the distance in nine Rizin bouts, extending her record for the most of any fighter under the Rizin banner. Only Miyuu Yamamoto (six) has reached the scorecards more than five times.

Enemy of the Judges: The loss was Asakura’s third by decision in the organization, tying Anthony Birchak and Reina Miura for the most in company history.

Teammates One-Upping Each Other: Two of the four triangle chokes in Rizin history took place on this card, with Roberto de Souza over Kazuki Tokudome and Kleber Koike Erbst over Kazumasa Majima. Kron Gracie and Yusuke Yachi are responsible for the others.

Souza Things: “Satoshi” lifted his record to 11-1 by tapping out Tokudome, and in the process, retained his perfect 100 percent career finish rate. All but one of de Souza’s bouts have ended in the first round, win or lose.

Call Him Kleber Lang: Erbst hit his triangle choke on Majima in the second round. Although not quite as high as teammate de Souza, Erbst now posts a stoppage rate of 93 percent, with 23 submission victories to his credit.

Sumo Strength: Sudario’s eight-second blitz of Miyamoto is registered as the second-fastest knockout in company history. Only Charles Bennett’s seven-second drubbing of Minoru Kimura in 2016 came sooner.

We Timed It, It Was About 7.5: The organization claimed the Sudario finish came at the six-second mark due to an error by the timekeeper. If this were the case, it would take the top spot as the quickest in Rizin history.

Records being broken left and right!

Sudario breaks the record for the fastest KO in RIZIN history, scoring a 6-second KO win against Miyamoto!

Stream the last 4 fights here:

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Desperation Demolition: Yoshinori Horie’s third-round knockout of Tetsuya Seki is just the ninth to come in a Rizin bout after the second frame. It is the first to come from a single punch.

Turning the Crank: In the second round, Shuto Watanabe snatched a neck crank on Takumi Tamaru and twisted until Tamaru tapped. In doing so, Watanabe recorded the first neck crank in Rizin history.

Can’t Choke, Just Crank: Watanabe’s go-to move is the rear-naked choke, and he has notched 11 of his 13 career submissions in such a fashion. Watanabe was unable to get the grip under the neck, but settle for the neck crank instead to lift his career finish rate to 68 percent.

This Would Fix the Weight Cut Situation: Although a kickboxing match, Riki Sakurai missed weight before facing Riku Yoshida. Sakurai automatically received a red card for a two-point deduction, and should he win, the fight would be ruled a no contest. Sakurai knocked Yoshida out.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into Rizin 27, de Souza had never landed a triangle choke (six submissions), Majima had never lost consecutive bouts (16 fights) and Tamaru (15 fights) had never been submitted.