7x World Jiu Jitsu Champion Gabrielle Garcia is set to return to mixed martial arts (MMA) on the 17th of April, 2016. This will be Gabi’s 2nd professional fight after beating Seini Draughn (AKA Lei’d Tapa) by TKO on December 31st last year.
Though Garcia’s opponent has not yet been named, Gabi has already confirmed through her Instagram account that she will be fighting in the card. The event is believed to be also headlining Kron Gracie, who will be back to the ring for his 3rd MMA match, after two submission wins over Erson Yamamoto (Rizin FF – 2015) and Hyung Soo Kim (Real Fight Championship – 2014). This however has not yet been confirmed by the 2013 ADCC champion.
The format of the show should remain the same 10 minutes first round, 5 minutes second and third round. According to the head of Rizin FF, Nobuyuki Sakakibara: “Right now, the sport of MMA has been effected little too much by the unified rules, and also, the entire sport is being pulled by UFC so I feel a lure of MMA has been concentrated on just one portion of the sport. Like yesterday, when the rules were changed to 10 minutes first round, 5 minutes second and third round, and also, the stage was a ring instead of a cage, and everyone’s fight styles have changed. UFC is great and I do respect them but I think, in MMA, there are still a lots of attractions to be presented to the fans. UFC can stick with what they are doing and, with fighters like Fedor Emelianenko, Gabi Garcia, Baruto, and King Mo, we can stick with what we can show then I believe we can start seeing something new. In RIZIN I want to show the flexibility of making what the fans really want to see happen.”
RIZIN.1
Sunday, April 17th, 2016
At Japan Gaishi Hall, Nagoya, Japan
