Japanese grappling legend Masakazu Imanari will be making his return to professional MMA against Kazumasa Majima in the co-main event of RIZIN Landmark 8 on February 24th, 2024. Despite the fact that Imanari turned 48 just two weeks before the fight takes place, he’s decided to delay retirement even further and continue competing. He’s had one of the longest MMA careers ever, spanning well over two decades and currently consisting of an incredible 63 professional fights. Imanari is also a Class-A Shootist and BJJ black belt who has used his phenomenal grappling skill to win matches against elite MMA fighters, creating his trademark Imanari roll along the way.
Imanari made his professional debut all the way back in 2000 and he made a big impact on the regional MMA circuit in Japan, including a fight for Pancrase at their tenth anniversary event. Although he went 5-2-1 in his first few years as a fighter, Imanari became known for his fantastic knowledge of leglocks and he was given the opportunity to compete for PRIDE. His promotional debut wasn’t successful but he continued to win fights at DEEP, before winning a tournament to crown their inaugural featherweight world champion.
Imanari defended that title multiple times before becoming the inaugural Cage Rage featherweight champion and moving down in weight to win the inaugural DEEP bantamweight title as well. He also famously fought in the DREAM bantamweight and featherweight grand prix tournaments too, although he wasn’t able to repeat his success there. By the time Imanari had made his ONE Championship debut in 2012, he had already amassed an impressive 25-10-2 professional MMA record. He went 1-1 for them the first time around before returning to DEEP and eventually managing to regain the promotion’s featherweight title.
After another few years competing for DEEP, Imanari returned to ONE Championship in 2018. He went 2-3 this time and although his last MMA fight took place at Road to ONE 3, he did continue competing in professional grappling for them. In the meantime, Imanari moved to a different promotion to continue his MMA career. Imanari made his RIZIN FF debut in 2021 and has since gone 1-3 for the promotion. He took part in one of his most famous grappling matches during this time too, as he competed against Mikey Musumeci at ONE 156 and lost by submission.
Masakazu Imanari has always been known as a game competitor and his co-main event fight against Kazumasa Majima at RIZIN Landmark 8 will surely be no exception. This is actually the first fight that he’s taken in over a year and at this point, every time he competes there’s a reasonable chance that he might his announce his retirement. Fans will no doubt be eager to see his trademark Imanari roll back in action, and Imanari himself will almost certainly be putting on a show for those in attendance and watching at home.
RIZIN FF announced the news that Masakazu Imanari was returning to MMA at RIZIN Landmark 8 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
