Naoki Inoue appears to be like to increase his reign as RIZIN bantamweight champion when he faces off with DEEP titleholder Ryuya Fukuda at Tremendous RIZIN 4, which matches down Sunday morning in Saitama, Japan
Plus, Inoue would additionally introduce him to worldwide viewers as one of many world’s finest bantamweights and open doorways for greater challenges on the market.
“My dream combat could be combating the present UFC bantamweight champion,” Inoue advised MMA Combating by means of a translator. “Nonetheless, proper now the present bantamweight champion is Merab [Dvalishvili] and I used to coach him with him, so I don’t actually wish to name him out as a result of we all know one another, we skilled collectively. However my dream is to combat the hardest man on the market, which might be the UFC bantamweight champion. That’s one factor that I’d undoubtedly wish to attempt. Or anyone on the market in title competition.”
Inoue fought twice within the UFC again in 2018, when he was nonetheless competing as a flyweight, defeating Carls John de Tomas and dropping to Matt Schnell.
“There are a whole lot of powerful guys within the PFL,” Inoue stated. “I’ve additionally preferred to face Sergio Pettis. He additionally fought in RIZIN as soon as, I believe that might be a enjoyable matchup. There’s a whole lot of powerful guys on the market that I’d wish to combat.”
Profitable a champion vs. champion conflict with Fukuda could be big for RIZIN’s native aspirations, however Inoue can be keen to face non-Japanese expertise sooner or later. RIZIN stars Kleber Koike and Roberto Satoshi advised MMA Combating prior to now they really feel like representing RIZIN in these conditions, however Inoue appears to be like at it from a unique perspective.
“I’ve at all times wished to combat worldwide powerful competitors to proceed to problem myself,” Inoue stated. “Clearly, it looks like Kleber and Satoshi each have a powerful feeling the place they wish to defend and defend Japan or, you realize, defend RIZIN and combat for RIZIN in a manner. However, for me, if I could possibly be extraordinarily egocentric, I wish to combat powerful fighters for myself. I wish to face harder competitors, harder worldwide competitors, to boost my skills. And if that results in proving RIZIN is primary, that’s nice, it really works out. However for me, I’ve extra of a egocentric mentality. I do that for myself and I would like powerful competitors to boost my skills.
“I imagine RIZIN is the No. 1 group in Japan, and the RIZIN champion ought to be the perfect in Japan. That’s a no brainer. That’s my mentality. In current occasions, there was some harder worldwide competitors, worldwide fighters coming into the RIZIN bantamweight division. With all that stated, my plan is to proceed to be the champion and proceed to show that RIZIN has the perfect fighters not solely in Japan, however they’ll go towards the worldwide world competitors as properly.”
The 28-year-old expertise stays targeted on the duty forward this weekend, seeking to go 10-2 contained in the RIZIN ring with a second profitable title protection after beating Soo Chul Kim and Yuki Motoya to win and defend the belt. Fukuda is 25-8-1 within the sport, and in addition 9-2 in his house promotion, however already holds an ideal 3-0 below the RIZIN banner with a trio of stoppages over Masayuki Watanabe, Erson Yamamoto and Ryusei Ashizawa.
“He has been completed only a few occasions,” Inoue stated of Fukuda. “Clearly I’ve been coaching to complete him. I’ve been engaged on some conditions the place I can end him, submit him. I’ve recreation plans the place I can edge him out by a call. I’ve been engaged on varied conditions towards Fukuda. However as you could have talked about, he’s a really powerful fighter and he’s been completed only a few occasions. I’ve been analyzing the combat the place he truly acquired completed, making an attempt to search for his weak spots. I’ve been finding out him rather a lot. I can combat him wherever the combat takes it and I’m gonna attempt to end him.”
