RIZIN 20 takes place Tuesday, December 31 at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The offshore sportsbooks recently opened up the betting odds for the full card, and here they are.
RIZIN 20 Opening Odds
Kai Asakura -227
Manel Kape +162
Ayaka Hamasaki -200
Seo Hee Ham +150
Mikuru Asakura -300
John Teixeira +220
Jiri Prochazka -714
CB Dollaway +400
Simon Biyong -278
Vitaly Shemetov +200
Shintaro Ishiwatari -137
Hiromasa Ogikubo +100
Satoshi Ishii -227
Jake Heun +162
Patrick Mix -333
Yuki Motoya +240
Suwanan Boonsorn -175
Miyuu Yamamoto +130
Patricky Freire -400
Luiz Gustavo +275
Tofiq Musaev -189
Johnny Case +138
Lindsey Vanzandt -333
Rena Kubota +240
And here are my initial thoughts on the RIZIN 20 Opening Odds:
- The final MMA card of the decade should be a good one. In the main event, the vacant RIZIN bantamweight belt is on the line as two very underrated fighters in Asakura and Kape battle for the belt that the injured Kyoji Horiguchi gave up due to injury. Asakura is actually coming off of six straight wins including a shocking KO over Horiguchi this past summer. He also has a decision win over Kape from last year during that stretch. As for Kape, he’s coming off of two straight knockout wins himself. But Asakura has all the momentum coming into this fight and has the confidence of a previous win over his opponent. This should be a fun fight, but you have to go with Asakura to win it.
- Also on the main card the RIZIN super atomweight title is on the line as the champ Hamasaki defends her belt against former UFC fighter Ham. Hamasaki is coming off of four straight wins and has won nine of her last 10 fights overall. As for Ham, she has won five straight fights since being cut by the UFC in 2016. These two have fought twice before, with Hamasaki beating Ham twice a decade ago. A lot has changed since then, and this time around this should be a closer fight. Considering her previous head-to-head wins you have to favor Hamasaki slightly, but at age 37 she may finally show her age here and Ham at age 32 may very well be in her prime.
- The RIZIN light heavyweight title is also on the line as the champ Prochazka takes on former UFC contender Dollaway. Prochazka is one of the most underrated fighters outside of the UFC and is coming off of nine straight wins, having not lost since 2015. Dollaway, meanwhile, hasn’t fought since a September 2018 TKO loss to Khalid Murtazaliev in the UFC and overall just isn’t the same fighter he once was. Look for Prochazka to get another huge knockout win here and continue his winning ways.
- Looking on the undercard, there’s a four-man lightweight tournament going on featuring some very good fighters. In one semifinal, Freire takes on Gustavo while in the other one Musaev takes on Case. Pitbull beating Gustavo seems likely considering his massive edge in fight experience, but the other fight is much tougher to call as Musaev has looked great lately while Case is the one with tons of UFC experience. Overall it should be a really interesting mini-tournament featuring four underrated lightweight fighters.
