Tourney field set for Rizin Fighting Federation, but 'King Mo' still awaits opponent

Rizin Fighting Federation heavyweight tournament field

The pairings for the heavyweight tournament have been set for this month’s first Rizin Fighting Federation event in Japan – except for a key fight.

Muhammed Lawal (16-4 MMA, 8-3 BMMA) will represent Bellator in the eight-man tournament at the event on Dec. 29 and 31 at Saitama Super Arena near Tokyo. But after Monday’s blind draw to set the tourney’s matchups, it is “King Mo” who is waiting to hear who is opponent will be.

BAMMA heavyweight champ Mark Godbeer was supposed to be in the tournament, but an injury forced him to withdraw. Instead, a still-to-be-determined BAMMA fighter will compete in his place, and he’ll meet Lawal in the tourney’s first bout on Dec. 29.

The tournament will take place over two days, and the winner will receive a $300,000 grand prize, Rizin has announced. At Monday’s draw in Tokyo, each fighter picked one of seven envelopes. Fighters with the first four numbers got to choose their places in the draw. Lawal chose Slot A.

The other opening-round fights pit Teodoras Aukstuolis (7-2) vs. Bruno Cappelozza (7-3); Satoshi Ishii (14-4-1) vs. Jiri Prochazka (13-2-1); and Goran Reljic (15-5) vs. Vadim Nemkov (3-0). Ishii is on the opposite side of the bracket from Lawal. A tournament reserve bout between Valentin Moldovsky (1-0) and Yuta Uchida (0-0) also was announced.

“I am honored to fight for Rizin,” Lawal stated. “I am excited to showcase my skills in front of the Japanese fans and get the job done. I currently don’t have an opponent, but I’m sure that BAMMA will send a good fighter for me. But unfortunately whoever comes will get smashed, so he better be prepared. I think Ishii made a smart choice by avoiding me and my bracket. Good for him.

“(The $300,000 prize is) a lot of money! I’d buy a bunch of ice cream, some nice clothes, and go to Disney World and see a bunch of movies. I’d go to Vegas and party and buy tons of gold accessories.”

Reljic is a four-fight UFC veteran who went 1-3 with the promotion. The Croatian got his walking papers after a three-fight skid in 2010 to C.B. Dollaway, Kendall Grove and Krzysztof Soszynski. But he has gone 7-2 since then.

Spike is the U.S. broadcast home of the event, and the Bellator broadcast team of Jimmy Smith and Sean Grande will be on the microphones in Japan.

The Rizin Fighting Federation 1, Day 1 lineup includes:

• Shinya Aoki vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
• Vadim Nemkov vs. Goran Reljic
• Satoshi Ishii vs. Jiri Prochazka
• Teodoras Aukstuolis vs. Bruno Cappelozza
• Muhammed Lawal vs. opponent TBA
• Valentin Molfovsky vs. Yuta Uchida
• A.J. Matthews vs. Anatoly Tokov
• Nam Jin Jo vs. Yuki Motoya
• Tsuyoshi Kohsaka vs. James Thompson

For more on Rizin Fighting Federation 1, Day 1, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.