News Rizin confirmed collusion but dismissed alleged fight-fixing by Kubo and Shibata [Updated 11 Jan]

[Deleted member 363827]

Update: 8 January 2022



On his YouTube page, Kubo confessed about the match-fixing arrangement that Shitaba asked him to not hit him in the face in the first round and to only fight seriously in the second round.

Kubo basically said that he did not understand that Shibata was about to ridicule him by tricking him to fix the fight because he got Asperger, so he fell for it and agreed to fix the fight, not knowing that Shibata had tricked him. So when Shibata suddenly fought seriously and kicked his ass, Kubo then lost his fight. He was upset and did not know what to do after getting fooled, so he asked his wife's brother for advice, then he started to panic, because he just realized WTF he just did. He talked about it with his friend, who said that Mr XXX (name censored in the video) would support him if he tell the truth, so he decided to leak the voice record and DMs.

And yes, this video is basically him admitting that he fucked up again by leaking the DMs.

He said he is willing to accept any punishment from Rizin.

For people who want to use Google Translate to read article about this confession video.

https://efight.jp/news-20220108_833003

My guess is Mr XXX is Sakakibara lol

 

[GeneTunney7]

not sure if trolling. bob sapp won the vast majority of his fights in japan.

Bob Sapp won fights but he also admittedly has thrown them. To engineer a successful fixed fight operation you have to artificially build guys up before the dive. It would not be effective if the fighter flopping did not have a good pedigree behind them.

Japan has always blurred the lines between pro wrestling and MMA: their rasslin’ was often almost like real MMA, but they did indeed fix a lot of fights too within Pride, especially at first, as these rigged results helped Pride become a success. Napoleon Blownapart did a good documentary about Pride and pro rasslin’ in Japan, and how fixed fights and the perception of the small Japanese fighter beating up the big American was important for the Japanese psyche post world war 2. Pride would not have taken off and got funding if foreign fighters were wrecking the hometown Japanese fighters.

 

[panem-et-circenses]

Update: 8 January 2022



On his YouTube page, Kubo confessed about the match-fixing arrangement that Shitaba asked him to not hit him in the face in the first round and to only fight seriously in the second round.

Kubo basically said that he did not understand that Shibata was about to ridicule him by tricking him to fix the fight because he got Asperger, so he fell for it and agreed to fix the fight, not knowing that Shibata had tricked him. So when Shibata suddenly fought seriously and kicked his ass, Kubo then lost his fight. He was upset and did not know what to do after getting fooled, so he asked his wife's brother for advice, then he started to panic, because he just realized WTF he just did. He talked about it with his friend, who said that Mr XXX (name censored in the video) would support him if he tell the truth, so he decided to leak the voice record and DMs.

And yes, this video is basically him admitting that he fucked up again by leaking the DMs.

He said he is willing to accept any punishment from Rizin.

For people who want to use Google Translate to read article about this confession video.

https://efight.jp/news-20220108_833003

My guess is Mr XXX is Sakakibara lol

There’s our confirmation. I can’t remember a time when an active fighter admitted to fight tampering, so here we are. New territory thanks to Rizin.

it’s called working a fight, and it could get you suspended in most places, fined, and, obviously, ridiculed. Sakaki should’ve nipped this in the bud. You can’t control people, but the fact that Kubo is making YouTube videos admitting to some seriously damaging information, citing ADHD as part of the reason he went along with Shibatar, is a problem. Maybe Japanese fans don’t care as much, but we do. How many times have you heard PRIDE was fake lol?

Fire these two today.

 

[lukeuidswords]

Update: 8 January 2022



On his YouTube page, Kubo confessed about the match-fixing arrangement that Shitaba asked him to not hit him in the face in the first round and to only fight seriously in the second round.

Kubo basically said that he did not understand that Shibata was about to ridicule him by tricking him to fix the fight because he got Asperger, so he fell for it and agreed to fix the fight, not knowing that Shibata had tricked him. So when Shibata suddenly fought seriously and kicked his ass, Kubo then lost his fight. He was upset and did not know what to do after getting fooled, so he asked his wife's brother for advice, then he started to panic, because he just realized WTF he just did. He talked about it with his friend, who said that Mr XXX (name censored in the video) would support him if he tell the truth, so he decided to leak the voice record and DMs.

And yes, this video is basically him admitting that he fucked up again by leaking the DMs.

He said he is willing to accept any punishment from Rizin.

For people who want to use Google Translate to read article about this confession video.

https://efight.jp/news-20220108_833003

My guess is Mr XXX is Sakakibara lol

Shibatar also posted a video yesterday where he admits he made up all that stuff to trick Kubo, basically. Most importantly, that a RIZIN exec had told him it was ok to negotiate parts of the fight head of time. I assume RIZIN had threatened legal action against him as it feels like both guys are looking to tie this all up now and move on. Neither guy has any future on the big stage.

Kubo is looking for sympathy, but no one here should be fooled by it. He's a piece of shit who beat his ex-girlfriend so badly she had hearing loss and threatened to sue people for talking about it in the press. His current girl has rich parents and they don't even need to be taking so much promotion space trying to kickstart her awful showbiz career.

It's sad that this guy was, at one point, the pound-for-pound best Japanese kickboxer on earth. Biblical fall from grace.

 

[lukeuidswords]

not sure if trolling. bob sapp won the vast majority of his fights in japan.

He doesn't know Bob Sapp's most famous fights, by far, were beating Hoost and Akebono in K-1. He doesn't know anything about the Japanese scene, best leave him be.

 

[panem-et-circenses]

Napoleon Blownapart fur a good documentary about Pride and pro rasslin’ in Japan, and how fixed fights and the perception of the small Japanese fighter beating up the big American was important for the Japanese psyche post world war 2. Pride would not have taken off and got funding if foreign fighters were wrecking the hometown Japanese fighters.

idk about that documentary, I will have to check it out. I will say that some PW historians consider the Kakutogi boom to be a low-point. Kayfabe was definitely broken once pro wrestlers started getting their asses kicked.

Bob Sapp? Which fights. We can name fighters with worked fights. I just can’t think of any early Sapp ones. I don’t doubt you. Sapp was obviously a shady player, just would like to go back and see them, because I don’t remember K-1 fights that I thought were fixed, and that would be the easiest place to throw a fight.

 

[panem-et-circenses]

Lol at that apology video. He’s still promoting Sara Kubo’s stupid music. Please don’t put this guy on any more cards.

 

[Siver!]

to be fair it was a celebrity filler type fight. I thought it was odd at the time, but there are plenty of odd things in Japanese mma shows and it wasn’t one of the big fights on the card.

It's a really bad look whatever it is.

Surely the attraction of novelty bouts is they're unpredictable?

 

[kingcillo24]

a lot of RIZIN and JMMA fights feel like they are fixed, Shibatar probably should have gone straight to RIZIN management and asked for a fixed fight.





Flying arm bar +towel is not a fix? watch it 0.25 speed, it is 100% fixed
..
at 2.55 Kubo has a chance to head kick shibatar..but pauses and gently kicks his lower leg
..
they are constantly making eye contact
..
Kubo does not follow jab at 3.33...
..
but mysteriously Kubo low kicks into jab while out of position at 3.40 ?..he oversell's shibatar's counter..
..
Kubo without a tight thai plum is smiling just before the arm bar
..
all of kubo's high kicks are aimed at shibatar's arms..

a bad fix...

Kubo thought it was work in the first round and Shibatar went straight to the shoot. This has all been discussed.

 

[JacJeanFinger]

Update: 8 January 2022

He talked about it with his friend, who said that Mr XXX (name censored in the video) would support
My guess is Mr XXX is Sakakibara lol

It wasn't censored in the source I listened to, and Mr X wasn't sakakibara. Shibatar is a small time thug and he will never have courage to fuck with sakakibara.

 

[JacJeanFinger]

Goodrich is the king of doublecross. He said "no kicks" and this is what he did in the 1st minute into the fight. He didn't have to use DM or personal calls to set up a trap.. He said it out loud into the camera so everyone including Frye could hear it and he made sure "punch only rule" was firmly in place. He even got away with this free of criticism, free of troubles and free of salary reduction or moral punishment.

Thugs are born with lies and thug will live lies and eat cheats. Kubo didn't learn this 20 years ago because his parents wanted him to be cute and innocent.

 

[CatchtheseHands]

Yeah but the guy who asked him to take it slow then arm barred him!

Ohhh shit, ok I see now. I have not watched the fight yet, but yeah that makes much more sense. Shibata going against what they agreed on.

 

[Deleted member 363827]

Sakakibara announcement on the fight-fixing 11 January 2022



1. Every fight in Rizin history is real. There has never been fight fixing in Rizin.
2. The result of Kubo VS Shibata's investigation. Shibata had always said before the fight not just this one or fight in Rizin that "he is not feeling well" "he does not want to fight" "he does not want to get hurt". This is normal because Shibata is a pro wrester and YouTuber. He also said this to Kubo via phone etc. Kubo's team told this information to Rizin, and Kubo told Rizin that he will fight 100%. But Kubo himself has Asperger's so he did not understand that Shibata was lying to him (as he always does before the fight to other fighters as well). So Kubo agreed to Shibata's plan to not go hard on him in round 1.
3. Sakakibara said he himself does not like when fighters play dirty or using psychological warfare like this to their opponent. So far Rizin has never had a rule in the contract that fighters could not talk about the fight or their game plan directly with their opponent or their camp. So Rizin will include this in their future contract (but fighters can still do publicly via social media).
4. Kubo violated the law by leaking the recorded call with Shibata. From now on Rizin will also ban this type of these actions in the contract.
5. There will be no punishment for either fighter. They will take this as a lesson, going forward.

Yep it is over. Sakakibara basically said no fight fixing, please ignore this and let's go forward to the future together.

 

[TorontoTO]

Sakakibara announcement on the fight-fixing 11 January 2022



1. Every fight in Rizin history is real. There has never been fight fixing in Rizin.
2. The result of Kubo VS Shibata's investigation. Shibata had always said before the fight not just this one or fight in Rizin that "he is not feeling well" "he does not want to fight" "he does not want to get hurt". This is normal because Shibata is a pro wrester and YouTuber. He also said this to Kubo via phone etc. Kubo's team told this information to Rizin, and Kubo told Rizin that he will fight 100%. But Kubo himself has Asperger's so he did not understand that Shibata was lying to him (as he always does before the fight to other fighters as well). So Kubo agreed to Shibata's plan to not go hard on him in round 1.
3. Sakakibara said he himself does not like when fighters play dirty or using psychological warfare like this to their opponent. So far Rizin has never had a rule in the contract that fighters could not talk about the fight or their game plan directly with their opponent or their camp. So Rizin will include this in their future contract (but fighters can still do publicly via social media).
4. Kubo violated the law by leaking the recorded call with Shibata. From now on Rizin will also ban this type of these actions in the contract.
5. There will be no punishment for either fighter. They will take this as a lesson, going forward.

Yep it is over. Sakakibara basically said no fight fixing, please ignore this and let's go forward to the future together.

If Kubo does have aspergers, I feel somewhat bad for him and I can understand where all off this misunderstanding came from.

 

[panem-et-circenses]

Sakakibara announcement on the fight-fixing 11 January 2022



1. Every fight in Rizin history is real. There has never been fight fixing in Rizin.
2. The result of Kubo VS Shibata's investigation. Shibata had always said before the fight not just this one or fight in Rizin that "he is not feeling well" "he does not want to fight" "he does not want to get hurt". This is normal because Shibata is a pro wrester and YouTuber. He also said this to Kubo via phone etc. Kubo's team told this information to Rizin, and Kubo told Rizin that he will fight 100%. But Kubo himself has Asperger's so he did not understand that Shibata was lying to him (as he always does before the fight to other fighters as well). So Kubo agreed to Shibata's plan to not go hard on him in round 1.
3. Sakakibara said he himself does not like when fighters play dirty or using psychological warfare like this to their opponent. So far Rizin has never had a rule in the contract that fighters could not talk about the fight or their game plan directly with their opponent or their camp. So Rizin will include this in their future contract (but fighters can still do publicly via social media).
4. Kubo violated the law by leaking the recorded call with Shibata. From now on Rizin will also ban this type of these actions in the contract.
5. There will be no punishment for either fighter. They will take this as a lesson, going forward.

Yep it is over. Sakakibara basically said no fight fixing, please ignore this and let's go forward to the future together.

so what did the call say exactly say? Did he or did he not ask Kubo to take it easy the first round? Kubo seemed to be telling a different story.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

opponent or their camp. So Rizin will include this in their future contract (but fighters can still do publicly via social media).
4. Kubo violated the law by leaking the recorded call with Shibata. From now on Rizin will also ban this type of these actions in the contract.

lol, "I promise it definitely won't happen, but I'm just going to put this thing in the contract that means you won't find out if it does happen, but it definitely won't happen"

 

[lukeuidswords]

lol, "I promise it definitely won't happen, but I'm just going to put this thing in the contract that means you won't find out if it does happen, but it definitely won't happen"

To be honest, Kubo leaking the audio was the most illegal and severe thing either guy did here. Everything Shibatar said was in the context of a private conversation and didn't violate any legal or contractual regulations. If anyone was going to get sued, it was Kubo.

 

[Deleted member 363827]

I love that within weeks we got Glory admiting that they can't hold events in the Netherlands any more because their stars aren't even good enough to dodge drug tests and Rizin not even giving a slap on the wrists to two stars for a collusion that would get people fired from any other MMA promotions.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

To be honest, Kubo leaking the audio was the most illegal and severe thing either guy did here. Everything Shibatar said was in the context of a private conversation and didn't violate any legal or contractual regulations. If anyone was going to get sued, it was Kubo.

Perhaps, but if it's illegal anyway then I don't see why RIZIN needs to have it in the contract.

 

[lukeuidswords]

Perhaps, but if it's illegal anyway then I don't see why RIZIN needs to have it in the contract.

It's probably easier to terminate someone's contract that way - rather than have to win an actual court case based specifically on the offense. It also covers the promotion from culpability in case it does happen.