RIZIN closed the year with a night of wild finishes in Saitama, Japan, and crowned Kyoji Horiguchi its first-ever flyweight champion, defeating Makoto Shinryu in a rematch in the main event of RIZIN 45 at the Saitama Super Arena.

The first bout between the two took place in July and ended in just 25 seconds when an accidental eye-poked resulted in a no-contest. This time, Horiguchi and Shinryu put on a wild contest for as long as it lasted.

The fast-paced opening round had multiple submission attempts for both sides but the finish came in the second stanza, when Horiguchi took the back and landed punches to open space for a rear-naked choke.

Kai Asakura was crowned the bantamweight champion by flooring Juan Archuleta with a vicious knee to the body in the co-main event.

Archuleta missed weight for RIZIN 45 and was in no position to win the match — a victory would be automatically overturned to a no-contest — but he still went for a wild brawl in round one, receiving an yellow card for landing punches after the bell.

Asakura and Archuleta returned to round two looking for blood, and the Japanese talent hit with a strike to the body for the victory and reclaim the belt.

The second-to-last match of the card had former champions Kleber Koike and Yutaka Saito clashing for a better position in the featherweight rankings, and Saito fought a smart strategy in the first couple of rounds but decided to shoot for a takedown in the third, allowing Koike to secure a guillotine choke and put him unconscious.

In the early portion of the show, former RIZIN bantamweight champion Hiromasa Ougikubo rebounded from a three-fight skid against Archuleta, Horiguchi and Soo Chul Kim with a unanimous decision victory over former UFC contender John Dodson in a flyweight match-up.

Pound-for-pound great Seika Izawa retired 49-year-old Miyuu Yamamoto with a rear-naked choke finish, extending her MMA record to a perfect 12-0, seven of those under the RIZIN banner.

Mikio Ueda kept the action going with a head kick KO of heavyweight Tsuyoshi Sudario, plus Shinobu Ota and Igor Tanabe securing slick submissions. Watch the finishes, and check the complete RIZIN 45 results below.

Main card

Kyoji Horiguchi def. Makoto Shinryu via submission (rear-naked choke) — Round 2, 3:44
Kai Asakura def. Juan Archuleta via TKO — Round 2, 3:20
Kleber Koike def. Yutaka Saito via submission (guillotine choke) — Round 3, 1:21
Ren Hiramoto def. Ya-Man via unanimous decision
Seika Izawa def. Miyuu Yamamoto via submission (rear-naked choke) — Round 2, 0:37
Mikio Ueda def. Tsuyoshi Sudario via TKO — Round 2, 0:55
Hiromasa Ougikubo def. John Dodson via unanimous decision
Vince Morales def. Yuki Motoya via unanimous decision
Shinobu Ota def. Ryusei Ashizawa via TKO — Round 1, 2:21
Kouzi def. Kota Miura via TKO — Round 2, 0:59
Igor Tanabe def. Shinsho Anzai via submission (rear-naked choke) — Round 1, 1:32
Hiroya Kondo def. Jo Arai via TKO — Round 2, 2:53
Yuta Kubo def. Rukiya Anpo via submission (rear-naked choke) — Round 1, 4:28

Preliminary Card

Suguru Nii def. Satoshi Yamasu via KO — Round 2, 1:03
Tatsuki Shinotsuka def. Daichi Tomizawa via unanimous decision — kickboxing
Ryujin Nasukawa def. Jongmin Shin via TKO — Round 2, 2:16
Joe Hiramoto def. Yushi Sakura via unanimous decision

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