Rena Kubota fought at Bellator 222 when they were in Madison Square Garden in New York City. She was coming off of a win from RIZIN 15 and was the favorite against Lindsay VanZandt. VandZandt delivered an upset by finishing Kubota in the first round and Kubota is looking to get back in the win column at RIZIN 19 in October.

“I am sorry to have disappointed you all in New York,” Kubota said at a press conference for RIZIN 19. Translated in a press release from RIZIN, she added, “I hit rock bottom but I am now back on track and ready to start climbing the ladder once again.” RIZIN 19 takes place at the Edion Arena in Osaka, Japan on October 12 and after suffering a loss far from home, Kubota is excited to have the hometown advantage for this event. “I am nothing but grateful that RIZIN gave me an offer in my hometown Osaka,” she said of the location and promises to deliver, “an exciting finish.”

The odds are certainly in her favor as she is facing Shawna Ram who has a professional record of 1-0 and is making her debut in RIZIN. Ram also went 4-1 in her amateur career and believes both she and Kubota bring a “skillset to make this a very exciting fight,” according to Ram. She added, “I am honored to live my dream and fight for RIZIN.”

Also confirmed for RIZIN 19 are the eight lightweight participants for the RIZIN 2019 World Grand Prix which are; Patricky Pitbull Freire (21-8), Johnny Case (26-6-1), Luiz Gustavo (9-1), Tatsuya Kawajiri (37-13-2), Tofiq Musaev (15-3), Roberto de Souza (9-0), Damien Brown (19-12), and Hiroto Uesako (16-7).

The confirmed, non-grand prix bouts for RIZIN 19 are listed below:

Jiri Prochazka vs. Fabio Maldonado

Seo Hee Ham vs. Miyuu Yamamoto

Marcos de Souza vs. Keita Nakamura

Rena Kubota vs. Shawna Ram

Edward Carbajal Edward holds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Bachelor’s degree in Communications. Along with over 20 years martial arts experience, he is lead MMA contributor at Frontproof Media and also writes for Sherdog while maintaining his own site, The Blogboard Jungle. You can follow him on Twitter @Carbazel See author's posts