Well, it’s back. RIZIN returns to start their 2016 Grand Prix this Sunday with the opening round. In fairness, RIZIN doesn’t reach the weirdest limits the PRIDE did, but it’s well beyond anything else that happens in modern MMA. Kauyuki Fujita fighting in 2016? Krazy Horse? Gabi Garcia? RIZIN will definitely be the strangest card you watch this year… at least until the New Year’s Eve cards happen. The main event on Sunday will be a featherweight MMA bout between Kron Gracie and Hideo Tokoro. Gracie will be competing in MMA first just the third time, and this will be his toughest test by far, as the other opponents had no experience. Tokoro has 63 MMA bouts heading into this one, fighting well above his natural bantamweight class, and has only been submitted five times in his career. He’s been competing since 2000 and is now 39 years old, so Tokoro is well past his prime, but he should at least be able to give us a better glimpse of how Gracie will do should he ever choose to actually pursue MMA as a career. It wouldn’t really be a big Japanese MMA card without a high-level Japanese competitor from another discipline making their MMA debut. Such is the case with Miyu Yamamoto, former world champion in freestyle wrestling, and older sister of ‘Kid’ Yamamoto, making her debut against Shootboxing champion Rena Kubota. Yamamoto’s son, Asen, will also be competing on the card, and was a prior opponent for Kron Gracie. RIZIN will also see Mirko ‘CroCop’ take on South Korean Hyun Man Myung, in what (if my calculations are correct) is Filipovic’s 74th comeback from retirement. The aforementioned Kazuyuki Fujita will be taking on former Sumo competitor Baruto Kaito. Another crossover bout sees kickboxer Andy Souwer face UFC veteran Daron Cruickshank. Then the 8-man RIZIN Grand Prix tournament will also see its first round take place. Names like Jiri Prochazka, Karl Albrektsson, and Teodoras Aukstuolis will return from last year’s tournament, with a host of other fighters brought in from around the world. MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened betting lines for some of the fights on RIZIN today at Several Bookmakers. Check them out below: ——————– RIZIN 2016 Grand Prix 2am ET Hideo Tokoro +180 Kron Gracie -260 MMA 145 lbs – Andy Souwer +205 Daron Cruickshank -285 MMA 157 lbs – Hyun Man Myung +435 Mirko Filipovic -705 MMA Openweight – Mark Tanios +260 Jiri Prochazka -380 MMA Openweight – Valentin Moldavsky -105 Karl Albrektsson -135 MMA Openweight – ——————–
