Juan Archuleta (right)(image vi a RIZIN / YouTube)

By FCF Staff

RIZIN’s has been hit with a major development, ahead of the promotion’s final card in 2023, as Juan Archuleta has been stripped of the bantamweight title.

Archuleta is scheduled to fight Kai Asakuara at RIZIN 45, which is taking place New Year’s Day in Japan. But, since the accomplished fighter failed to make championship weight for the fight he is no longer holding the bantamweight title (as per RIZIN’s rules).

Asakura can win the bantamweight championship if he is victorious.

More recently, Archuleta reported on social media that illness was behind his failed, weight cut.

Sorry this happened nothing I can do about getting sick. ☹️ I did my best to make weight and still step on the scale knowing, I was going to have my title taken away. But I don’t want my fans who pay hard working money to miss this fight. So I did my best and came up short .

— Juan Archuleta (@jarchmma) December 30, 2023

RIZIN 45 will also feature Kyoji Horiguchi versus Makoto Takahashi for the vacant flyweight title.

Here are the complete weigh-in results for RIZIN 45 (via MMA Fighting.com). The pay-per-view card will be streamed on FITE TV.

Main card

Kyoji Horiguchi (125) vs. Makoto Takahashi (125.6)
Juan Archuleta (140.6) vs. Kai Asakura (134.2)
Kleber Koike (145.2) vs. Yutaka Saito (145.1)
Ren Hiramoto (145.3) vs. Ya-Man (145.1)
Seika Izawa (107.2) vs. Miyuu Yamamoto (107.6)
Tsuyoshi Sudario (262.1) vs. Mikio Ueda (243.6)
Hiromasa Ougikubo (125.4) vs. John Dodson (125.5)
Yuki Motoya (134.4) vs. Vince Morales (133.9)
Shinobu Ota (134.4) vs. Ryusei Ashizawa (134.4)
Kota Miura (143) vs. Kouzi (143.1)
Igor Tanabe (169.5) vs. Shinsho Anzai (169.5)
Jo Arai (125.3) vs. Hiroya (124.8)
Yuta Kubo (153.8) vs. Rukiya Anpo (153.9)

Preliminary Card

Satoshi Yamasu (144.9) vs. Suguru Nii (145.1)
Tatsuki Shinotsuka (132.1) vs. Daichi Tomizawa (131.8) — kickboxing
Ryujin Nasukawa (118.7) vs. Jongmin Shin (118.6)
Yushi (133.6) vs. Joe Hiramoto (133.8)