Rizin ‘Trigger 2nd’ Cage Event Set for Feb. 23; Koike Erbst vs. Sasaki to Headline

Rizin Fighting Federation enjoyed its caged event so much that it decided to stage another.

On Nov. 28, 2021, Rizin put on its first of a new series of fight cards called the “Trigger” series, in which fights would be contested inside of a cage instead of a ring. The rules were otherwise the same, permitting soccer kicks and stomps, just changing the enclosure to a more western setting. Rizin “Trigger 1st” went down with 10 MMA matches, and multiple bouts ended via spectacular soccer kicks, but one fighter was disqualified for grabbing the fence. The end result at the World Memorial Hall in Kobe, Japan, appeared to be a success, so much so that Rizin will be putting on its second Trigger show on Feb. 23.

The organization sent out a press release on Friday to officially announced that Rizin “Trigger 2nd” will be going down inside the Ecopa Arena in Fukuroi, Shizuoka, Japan, towards the end of February. Rizin plans on unveiling its own cage for this fight card, as it was not ready for the first Trigger fight card and it had to borrow a cage from another league. It is expected that in addition to the MMA bouts scheduled, kickboxing matches will take place that night as well. Three fights have been officially added to the billing, and more will come in the near future.

“We will be kicking off the new year with the Trigger event on February 23 at the Ecopa Arena in Shizuoka” Rizin chief Nobuyuki Sakakibara said in the release. “We are looking to run the event with full capacity which is about 10,000 [in attendance]. Our first caged event was not held in our own cage due to construction purposes, but now our original cage is ready and we will reveal it for this event.”

Rizin “Trigger 2nd” will be capped off by a featherweight scrap between the surging grappler Kleber Koike Erbst (28-5-1) and ex-Ultimate Fighting Championship talent Yuta Sasaki (23-9-2). Erbst will try to make it four wins in four appearances under the Rizin banner, as his first three could not have gone better, with finishes in each including two technical submissions. His foe Sasaki has gone through a rough patch as of late, with only two wins in five Rizin outings. While “Ulka” did prevail over future UFC signee Manel Kape, he fell short to Shintaro Ishiwatari by a rare north-south choke and then had his jaw shattered by Kai Asakura a few months later.

Rizin Trigger 2nd Card Lineup

Kleber Koike Erbst vs. Yuta Sasaki – featherweight
Kenji Kato vs. Kazuma Kuramoto – bantamweight
Suguru Nii vs. Sora Yamamoto – featherweight