Lightweight Grand Prix opening round matchups announced for RIZIN 19 1

Lightweight Grand Prix opening round matchups announced for RIZIN 19

ByDrake Riggs
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After having the lightweight tournament participants revealed to us last week, RIZIN has now announced the opening round matchups for RIZIN 19 on October 12.

The first matchup revealed out of the four pits entertaining Australian striker, Damien “Beatdown” Brown (19-12), against rising Azerbaijan representative, Tofiq Musayev (15-3). The 29-year old Musayev currently rides an impressive 11-fight winning streak. His last win came over Daron Cruickshank in June.

As for Brown, his current stint inside the RIZIN ring has been a successful one as well as he is on a two-fight winning streak since departing from the UFC. Brown also holds a win over Cruickshank which came in his RIZIN debut.

Next out of the batch is Johnny “Hollywood” Case (26-6-1) vs Roberto Satoshi Souza (9-0). Both men have been wildly impressive since joining RIZIN and this looks to potentially be the best matchup of the first round. Case, like Brown, hasn’t lost since exiting the UFC in June 2017 (4-0-1 since).

Following that announced matchup is the RIZIN debut of Bellator legend, Patricky “Pitbull” Freire (21-8), who will be welcomed by the most experienced member of the Grand Prix, Tatsuya “Crusher” Kawajiri (37-13-2).

And the last of the four great bouts is an expectedly violent one. Wanderlei Silva protege, Luiz “Killer” Gustavo (9-1), will hope to rebound off his first career loss against Hiroto Uesako (16-7).

Once the names of the participants were revealed for RIZIN 19, fans knew that no matter how everyone was matched up that we would see some awesome fights. That looks to be exactly the case – no pun intended. This should be a Grand Prix not to be missed.

As for the entirety of RIZIN 19, it now sits at a total of eight fights. With four more weeks left until the show, a few more late additions can be expected.

  • Catchweight – 220lbs: Jiri Prochazka vs Fabio Maldonado
  • Super Atomweight – 108lbs: Seo Hee Ham vs Miyuu Yamamoto
  • Welterweight – 170lbs: Marcos de Souza vs Keita Nakamura
  • Catchweight – 112lbs: Rena Kubota vs Shawna Ram
  • Lightweight – 155lbs: Tofiq Musayev vs Damien Brown
  • Lightweight: Johnny Case vs Roberto Satoshi Souza
  • Lightweight: Patricky “Pitbull” Freire vs Tatsuya Kawajiri
  • Lightweight: Luiz Gustavo vs Hiroto Uesako

Drake Riggs is an MMA writer based out of Brush Prairie, Washington, USA who specializes in feature pieces, the women's fight scene, lists, news coverage, and rankings. He has been a passionate fan of MMA ever since 2009. Drake has most notably written for BJPenn.com, FanSided, The Body Lock, South China Morning Post, MyMMANews, Cageside Press, Sherdog, The Scrap, and MMA Today. He has also written for and created video content for RT Sport. As for other sports, Drake is a longtime fan of the NFL's Green Bay Packers and Jacksonville Jaguars.

You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @DrakeRiggs_ . Also check out all of his video content on YouTube at: "Drake Riggs" where he uploads fighter interviews, podshows, and various other types of content.

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