RIZIN lightweight champion Roberto Satoshi will return to the ring at the RIZIN 42 card on May 5, the company announced Monday. The line-up will also include John Dodson, Juan Archuleta and Kai Asakura.
Satoshi, who lost a decision in a non-title clash with Bellator star A.J. McKee this past December, is slated to face UFC veteran Spike Carlyle in a non-championship bout at the Tokyo Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan. Carlyle, who also lost to McKe in his most recent fight and went 1-2 under the UFC banner, tapped Koji Takeda in his sole RIZIN contest.
The promotion also revealed the opponent for Archuleta, announcing that the former Bellator bantamweight champion will fly back to Japan to fight Naoki Inoue. Archuleta was on the five-fight Bellator-RIZIN challenge in December, earning a split decision over Soo Chul Kim. Inoue, who had a short run in the UFC between 2017 and 2018, stopped Kenta Takizawa on the same night.
Dodson will re-enter the RIZIN ring after another victorious stop in the bare-knuckle world, knocking out Jarod Grant in under two minutes this past February. Dodson finished Hideo Tokoro via first-round knockout in his RIZIN debut in December. Tatsuki Saomoto, his opponent, is riding a 14-fight winning streak dating back to 2016.
Asakura, a former 135-pound champion in RIZIN, is slated to meet Yuki Motoya. Asakura will try to rebound from losing a decision to Hiromasa Ougikubo in the one-night bantamweight in December 2021, while Motoya looks to go 6-0 in just over two years, having stopped UFC veteran Rogerio Bontorin in his most recent showing.
Check the complete RIZIN 42 card below.
Kai Asakura vs. Yuki Motoya
Naoki Inoue vs. Juan Archuleta
Roberto Satoshi vs. Spike Carlyle
Seika Izawa vs. Miyu Yamamoto
Kouta Miura vs. YA-MAN — custom rules
Yuryuka Sasaki vs. Boyd Allen
John Dodson vs. Kiyo Saomoto
Takashi Soya vs. Ramazan Temirov
Hiroki Ito vs. Arsen Yamamoto
Takuya Yamamoto vs. Takeshi Yokoyama
