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During a press conference on Thursday, Rizin officials announced that their former bantamweight champion, Naoki Inoue (20-5), would be departing its confines to take a match outside of Asia. The organization will now be working with PFL for the time being, lending Inoue to the former tournament-based league to take on a home-grown talent. Inoue will be squaring off with 2025 bantamweight tourney victor Marcirley Alves (15-4) at PFL Brussels in Belgium’s capital city on May 23.
Kill Cliff FC product Inoue saw his four-fight win streak come to a grinding halt when he lost a split decision to Danny Sabatello in December. First winning the strap by knocking out Soo Chul Kim in 2024, Inoue registered a pair of defenses against Yuki Motoya and Ryuya Fukuda in 2025. Of note, he became the lone 135-pound Rizin beltholder to ever successfully defend his throne. It will be his first appearance outside of his native Japan since his one-off match at Cage Fury FC 72 in New Jersey in 2019.
His Brazilian opponent crashed into last year’s PFL tournament and rattled off three decisions to unexpectedly take home the belt and a $500,000 check. Alves closed as a betting underdog in his promotional debut against Leandro Higo, and similarly clocked in at plus money when facing Jake Hadley in the semifinals. He did come in as the favored fighter in the finals against Justin Wetzell, and he picked up the narrow decision that had the Sherdog virtual judges split and leaning in the latter’s favor.
PFL Brussels current lineup:
Patrick Habirora vs. Benson Henderson – welterweight
Taylor Lapilus vs. Jake Hadley – bantamweight
Boris Mbarga Atangana vs. Jared Gooden – middleweight
Marcirley Alves vs. Naoki Inoue – bantamweight
Asael Adjoudj vs. Keisuke Sasu – featherweight
Donegi Abena vs. Joe Schilling – light heavyweight
Baris Adiguzel vs. Gustavo Oliveira – bantamweight
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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