Featherweight Title Fight Headlines Rizin 31 in Yokohama on Oct. 24

Additional fight announcement for RIZIN.31

Yutaka Saito vs. Juntaro Ushiku#RIZIN #RIZIN31 pic.twitter.com/iUPvFVzPoM

— RIZIN FF English (@rizin_English) October 4, 2021

Featherweight champion Yutaka Saito will defend his crown against Deep title holder Juntaro Ushiku in the Rizin Fighting Federation 31 main event on Oct. 24.

The Japanese promotion announced the booking on Monday. Rizin 31 takes place in Yokohama, Japan, and will also see recent atomweight title challenger Kanna Asakura square off against Saori Oshima in the co-main event.

The rest of the Rizin 31 card was also confirmed: Tsuyoshi Sudario vs Saint Saint; Yusaku Nakamura vs. Yuki Ito; Daisuke Nakamura vs Suguru Nii; Masanori Kanehara vs. Takahiro Ashida; Daichi Abe vs Akira Okada; Rikuto Shirakawa vs Takuya Yamamoto; and Seiichiro Ito vs Kunta Hashimoto.

A former Shooto featherweight champion, Saito has won eight of his last nine professional outings. That stretch includes triumphs over Kazumasa Majima, Mikuru Asakura and Vugar Karamov under the Rizin banner. He claimed the Rizin belt with a three-round verdict over Asakura this past November.

Ushiku, meanwhile, has been victorious in seven of his last eight appearances. Most recently, the Tokyo native avenged knockout loss to Daisuke Nakamura when he won a split decision in the rematch at Deep “102 Impact” on July 4.