Inoki Genome Federation Books Shinya Aoki, Declares War on Rizin FF

Antonio Inoki (above)

As the organization behind Fedor Emelianenko’s highly anticipated New Years Eve comeback fight, Rizin Fighting Federation (Rizin FF) has commanded the Asian MMA spotlight for the last few months. In the last few weeks, it has tightened its grip on our attention with an awesome pairing of Shinya Aoki and Kazushi Sakuraba— two of the best Japanese fighters ever—who are set to meet on December 29th. Really, it’s safe to say that despite a few hiccups, things are going pretty well for the Nobuyuki Sakakibara-helmed Pride revival.

The organization is now feeling its first real pushbacks, however. And though one might expect these pushbacks to be dealt by the far-reaching hand of the UFC, or even Singapore-based organization One Championship, they’re instead coming from Japanese MMA staple, Inoki Genome Federation (IGF).

Shinya Aoki (Photo by Esther Lin/Zuffa LLC)

IGF, which is helmed by combat sports icon and one-time Muhammad Ali opponent Antonio Inoki, has made plenty of strange choices in the past, from the last-minute overhaul of an entire card’s lineup back in 2007, to the nurturing of a close relationship with North Korea and it’s deceased Supreme Ruler Kim Jong-Il. Now, IGF’s latest bizarre move is an outward, seemingly unprompted attack on Rizin FF.

For the last few years, IGF has hosted a New Years Eve event called Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye. This year, the event will make its annual return, which would not be big news were it not for its new and hostile theme: “Knockout the Rizin.” And, here’s where things get even stranger. Starring in this anti-Rizin offensive will be Shinya Aoki, who fights Sakuraba just two days earlier under the Rizin banner. And apparently, Aoki’s opponent will be Montanha Silva, a K-1 veteran and former pro wrestler who will lumber into the ring at 6’10 and well over 320 pounds.

Now, if Aoki were a heavyweight, or light heavyweight, or even a middleweight, perhaps we could dismiss this booking as strange, but par for the course in the case of Japanese MMA. The country’s fight game, after all, has had a longstanding predilection with matches featuring fighters of startlingly different sizes. This fight, however, presents a size disparity that rivals even that of Conor McGregor’s recent sparring match with “The Mountain.”

At 5’11, Aoki has spent most of his career in the 155-pound lightweight division, and has even ventured as far down as 145 pounds in recent years. And though he will probably be somewhere north of 170 pounds after his bout with Sakuraba, his frame can only support so much mass, and as a result, we can expect him to give up something in the area of 150 pounds in his fight with Silva—which brings us to the final, strange detail of Aoki’s IGF appearance.

As Dave Meltzer pointed out in a piece on MMAfighting.com, “fight” may not even be the correct term in the case of this curious confrontation. IGF, after all, has promoted both MMA and pro-wrestling bouts in the past, which raises the question as to whether Aoki and Silva will meet in a legitimate fight, or run a routine to a fixed outcome.

Really though, this booking is strange enough that it doesn’t exactly matter. The key detail in all of this chaos is that IGF has made an overt move to sabotage Rizin FF. Its first play? To recycle a Rizin FF fighter, who may well be in rough shape from his Rizin FF bout two days prior, and pit him against a Brazilian behemoth with almost no MMA experience in an encounter that may be legitimate, or may be fixed… Explain that to your grandmother.

Whether this Aoki vs. Silva booking actually swipes any of the viewership from Fedor’s comeback broadcast, however, is impossible to know until New Years Eve. So, which event will you be watching?