RISE plays their best cards at the start with the reveal of two highly competitive and clamored for title fights for their just announced August 2nd event in Tokyo.
Fans of the sport knew that a face-off between Kento Haraguchi and Chadd Collins was always on the horizon, given their accolades and ranking, and with the 24-man Featherweight Grand Prix on the horizon, the odds seemed good that the two would finally meet inside the ring. RISE raises the stakes — and while the two may still meet in the tournament, they will first clash for the RISE World 65 kg title.
The journey of both men to this showdown is remarkably similar, with "Shark" not having lost a kickboxing fight for a long time with the exception of being knocked out twice by Miguel Trindade and the Japanese fighter boasting an equally successful history, falling short only against the very best opposition in the form of Petchpanomrung three times by decision and Miguel Trindade once by knockout.
A win here is of upmost importance to both men to show they still belong at the very top of the division, and to walk into the aforementioned Grand Prix with a better seed and forward momentum, as well as the champion title.
A title fight to decide the pecking order in the 55 kg division as Masashi Kumura challenges champion Shiro for his RISE World 55kg belt.
It's been 3 years since the two men last faced off in the enormous collaboration event THE MATCH 2022 which ended in a unanimous decision win for Kumura after scoring a knockdown in an otherwise very close fight. With cross-organizational fights between K-1 and RISE seemingly put on hold for an undetermined amount of time, it seemed unlikely that the two would ever settle their score. Had Kumura not been a part of the wave of departures from K-1 this would have remained true, however the challenger looks to buck the trend of his fellow former K-1 fighters by remaining in Japan in order to assert his well earned reputation as one of the division's best fighters despite his somewhat shaky record since that 2022 victory.
Shiro rides a different trajectory, having suffered only a single loss at a different weight class in the time period, so the champion will attempt to keep the wins coming and fix the mistakes of the past.
