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Kyoji Horiguchi (pictured) fights Kai Asakura in the bantamweight main event of RIZIN 26 on New Year’s Eve in Saitama, Japan | RIZIN FF

Kai Asakura and Kyoji Horiguchi are set to kick off the new year in style.

RIZIN has released its official card for it’s New Year’s Eve show, headlined by Asakura (16-2) defending his bantamweight title against Kyoji Horiguchi (28-3). This will be Horiguchi’s first fight since having to vacate his RIZIN and Bellator titles in late 2019.

Horiguchi actually lost to Asakura by first-round knockout when they fought at RIZIN 18, though it was a non-title bout. Asakura then won three of his next four, including a first-round KO of Hiromasa Ougikubo to claim the RIZIN bantamweight championship.

Also slated for the Dec. 31 show are kickboxing star Tenshin Nasukawa, a vacant atomweight title bout between Ayaka Hamasaki and Miyuu Yamamoto, Japanese legend Ikuhisa “Minowaman” Minowa, and Kai’s older brother Mikuru Asakura.

Retired PRIDE and UFC standout Takanori Gomi makes his return to action when he meets Koji Tanaka in a “special standing bout rules” match. The three-round bout will not have an official decision read should it go the distance.

A live pay-per-view stream of the event will be available for English-speaking viewers at www.live-now.com.

See the full RIZIN 26 lineup below:

Kai Asakura vs. Kyoji Horiguchi

Tenshin Nasukawa vs. Kumandoi Phetjaroenvit — kickboxing

Mikuru Asakura vs. Satoshi Yamasu

Takanori Gomi vs. Koji Tanaka — “special standing bout rules”

Ayaka Hamasaki vs. Miyuu Yamamoto

Yuki Motoyo vs. Naoki Inoue

Kyle Aguon vs. Kleber Koike

Kyohei Hagiwara vs. Ren Hiramoto

Hideo Tokoro vs. Shinobu Ota

Yoshinari Nadaka vs. Petmalai Phetjaroenvit — kickboxing

Ulka Sasaki vs. Kenta Takizawa

Kanna Asakura vs. Ai Shimizu

Taiyo Nakahara vs. Kazuma Kuramoto

Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Tsuyoshi Sudario

Sakura Mori vs. Eru Takebayashi

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