Juntaro Ushiku vs. Mikuru Asakura Tops Rizin Landmark Vol. 5 Lineup

A featherweight showdown pitting ex-champ Juntaro Ushiku against Mikuru Asakura will serve as the headlining bout at Rizin Landmark Vol. 5.

The promotion recently announced the event at a press conference. Rizin Landmark Vol. 5 takes place on April 29 at Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan, and also features a 145-pound clash between Yutaka Saito and Ren Hiramoto — which is billed as a second main event by the Japanese organization.

Several other bouts were also confirmed for the card: Koji Takeda vs. Luiz Gustavo at lightweight; Kazuma Kuramoto vs. Shinobu Ota at bantamweight; Rena Kubota vs. Claire Lopez at a 113-pound catchweight; Tsuyoshi Kamiyama vs. Roque Martinez at heavyweight; Kanna Asakura vs. Mei Yamaguchi at super atomweight; Masanori Kanehara vs. Sora Yamamoto at featherweight; Callyugibrainn Marinho Borges vs. Mikio Ueda at heavyweight; and Johnny Case vs. Ali Abdulkhalikov at lightweight.

Ushiku relinquished the featherweight belt in his last outing, when he suffered a second-round submission loss to Kleber Koike Erbst at Rizin 39 last October. That ended a four-bout winning streak for the Tokyo native, who owns a 20-7 career mark as a pro.

Asakura, who didn’t compete at all in 2022, has won three of his last four appearances under the Rizin banner. Most recently, he outpointed Yutaka Saito at Rizin 33 on Dec. 31.