Rizin Fighting Federation (stylised in all caps and also known as Rizin FF) is a Japanese mixed martial arts organization created in 2015 by the former Pride Fighting Championships and Dream Stage Entertainment president Nobuyuki Sakakibara.

[1][2] Founded to be the spiritual successor of Pride FC and Dream, Rizin carries much of the philosophy and ambition of its two predecessors: its events are promoted as larger-than-life events with elaborate opening ceremonies and fighter entrances, its matches are fought in a roped ring and it has a ruleset inherited from Pride and Dream.

The organization also promotes "Grand Prix", single-elimination tournaments where fighters have to fight multiple opponents in the same night.

[9] By 2007, a scandal alleging its ties to the yakuza caused a financial decline that lead to the promotion folding.

[9] After Pride folded, most of DSE's former staff, fighters and executives joined Fighting and Entertainment Group, the promoters of K-1, to organize a successor, which became known as Dream.

[13] Sakakibara held a press conference on October 8, 2015, with Nobuhiko Takada and other former Pride FC employees to formally announce the launch of "Rizin Fighting Federation".

[14] Initial signees included Kazushi Sakuraba, Shinya Aoki, as well as female competitors Gabi Garcia and Rena Kubota.

[18][19][20][21] Kron Gracie (whose father Rickson competed at the inaugural PRIDE event) was announced to participate against Asen Yamamoto.

[24] Initial plans were to do at least four events per year, as opposed to the more frequent scheduling of other promotions, in order to build up the excitement and anticipation.

[25] Rizin's presentation is modeled after major sporting events, such as the UEFA Champions League and FIFA World Cup.

[26] In 2018, it was announced that the main event for the traditional New Year's Eve card (Rizin 14) was going to be a boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and undefeated Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa.

McKee, Juan Archuleta and Kyoji Horiguchi, and current champion Patricio Freire, fighting against Rizin representatives Koji Takeda, Soo Chul Kim, Hiromasa Ougikubo and champions Kleber Koike Erbst and Roberto de Souza.

[39] Other broadcasters have included SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation, Fuji Television, Fox Sports Brazil, Kix and Match TV.

However, if there is a weight discrepancy of 15 kg (33 lb) or more, the lighter fighter is allowed to choose if such ground attacks are permitted.

[51] Fights are judged on the following criteria:[50] Although not outlined in the Rizin rules, scorecards published on the JMOC website suggest that damage, aggressiveness and generalship are scored 50, 30 and 20 points respectively.