UFC, Bellator, WEC vet Diego Nunes meets Yusuke Yachi at Rizin FF 10

A former UFC, Bellator and WEC fighter will try to continue his resurgence after a few rough years when he makes his Rizin FF debut this spring.

Diego Nunes (22-7) is set to take on Yusuke Yachi (19-6) in a lightweight bout at Rizin FF 10, the promotion today announced. In addition, heavyweights Ante Delija (14-3) and Ricardo Prasel (9-0) will meet on the card.

Rizin FF 10 takes place May 6 at Marine Messe Fukuoka in Fukuoka, Japan. The card will stream in North America on rizinff.com. In the headliner of the promotion’s 2018 debut, former UFC flyweight title challengers Kyoji Horiguchi and Ian McCall meet at 134 pounds.

Nunes once was one of the most promising prospects to come out of Brazil. He went 4-1 in the WEC before coming to the UFC in the two promotions’ merger, and in his debut there he topped former WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown.

But Nunes’ six fights in the UFC were all up and down. He alternated wins and losses there, including victories over Manny Gamburyan and Bart Palaszewski. But he had decision losses to Kenny Florian, Dennis Siver and Nik Lentz. The latter was his final fight in the promotion.

Nunes headed to Bellator, but lost to current featherweight champion Patricio Freire by knockout in his promotional debut at Bellator 99. And at Bellator 110, he lost a split call to Matt Bessette. After a Superior Challenge win over the highly regarded Joachim Hansen in 2014, he was out nearly two years before a loss under the Fight Nights Global banner gave him four setbacks in five fights and a 3-6 record dating back five years.

But Nunes’ 2017 was a perfect one. He went 3-0 with three stoppage wins. He knocked out Radu Mihaita in 25 seconds for Magnum FC (though Mihaita had a 1-4 record coming in). And in December, he had two guillotine choke wins within a couple weeks of each other against Michel Ersoy at Superior Challenge 16 in Stockholm and Corneliu Rotaru Lascar at RXF 29 in Romania.

Yachi should provide a stiff test, though, in front of his home fans. In December, he submitted the legendary Takanori Gomi in the first round at Rizin FF’s New Year’s Eve show, giving him five straight wins. He’s perfect under the Rizin FF banner at 4-0 with three knockouts, including one over UFC veteran Daron Cruickshank, and the submission of Gomi.

“I feel like Gomi passed the torch to me last year, and now I feel more obligated to spread the popularity of Japanese MMA,” Yachi stated. “I want to continue to win and create a ridiculous record like Gomi did and become recognized not only in Japan, but globally. I know that Diego is a great striker and has flashy moves, but so do I. I think style wise, this fight has nothing but excitement all over it.

“I would really like to beat a name like Diego, and continue to fight international world class competition. Ultimately, it would be great to be able to fight Conor McGreagor since we are about the same age.”

The MMA portion of the Rizin FF 10 card includes:

• Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Ian McCall
• Kanna Asakura vs. Melissa Sophia Karagianis
• Kai Asakura vs. Manel Kape
• Kanako Murata vs. Weili Zhang
• Diego Nunes vs. Yusuke Yachi
• Ante Delija vs. Ricardo Prasel

For more on Rizin FF 10 and the rest of Rizin FF’s upcoming schedule, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.