Daron Cruickshank signs with Rizin FF, set to debut in April

[Punch]

Former UFC fighter Daron Cruickshank has found a new home.

Cruickshank has inked a new deal with Rizin Fighting Federation, MMAFighting.com has learned. "The Detroit Superstar" will meet Shinji Sasaki in a lightweight bout on the second Rizin FF card, which is scheduled to take place April 17 at the Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya, Japan.

Cruickshank (16-8) was recently released by the UFC after losing his third fight in a row. The Ultimate Fighter season 15 competitor had been in the organization since 2012.

Sasaki (16-8), a veteran of the Japanese scene, is undefeated in his last four fights.

The event, which is being billed as "Top Presents RIZIN Fighting Federation I," will be headlined by Wanderlei Silva and a partner to-be-named later vs. Hideo Tokoro andKazushi Sakuraba.

Also slated for the card:

Chris "Huggy Bear" Barnett vs. Kirill Sidelnikov
Hisaki Kato vs. Yuta Watanabe
Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Jiri Prochazka
Allan Nascimento vs. Yuki Motoya
Gabi Garcia vs. Anna Malyukova
Jaideep Singh vs. Teodoras Aukstuolis
Vadim Nemkov vs. Karl Albrektsson

LINK to article: Daron Cruickshank signs with Rizin FF, set to debut in April

 

[Punch]

Shinji

 

[ECC170]

Huggy Bear is FUN AS HELL TO,WATCH...huge guy that moves like a WW...it's been a while since I've seen him fight

 

[La Paix]

Good move for him, his exciting style will go over well in Japan I'd think.

 

[Punch]

Huggy Bear is FUN AS HELL TO,WATCH...huge guy that moves like a WW...it's been a while since I've seen him fight

He's also going to be fighting a guy who looks like he could easily compete at LHW or MW.

 

[TheEmperorRises]

Whoa- "the Elephant That Eats Russians"is on this card?!?

I'M ALL IN

 

[Star-Lord]

I'll be watching

 

[ECC170]

He's also going to be fighting a guy who looks like he could easily compete at LHW or MW.

Yea Barnett is a SHW like 300 pounds doing flips and break dancing lol...Gona be fun

 

[Psychotropic Wanderlust]

Singh in the second fight of the night? my how the mighty have fallen.

 

[trick]

Looks like a fun night of fights, and that's good enough for me. RIZIN might not be around for very long (they supposedly owe DEEP's main sponsor money for the 12/29 and 12/31 shows), so I'm gonna definitely gonna try to watch this live.

 

[1372]

Have always liked Darron....Best of luck to him.

 

[regular john]

Good move for him, his exciting style will go over well in Japan I'd think.

agree but I think he would be a much better fit at Bellator.

 

[PeteyParker]

I'm guessing maybe he got double the UFC money since for the most part he is an action fighter. He should dominate over there and make it look EZ.

 

[Wild]

agree but I think he would be a much better fit at Bellator.

Bellator & Rizin are basically working together, so I'm sure Coker can have Daron fight on a Bellator card every now and then if they both were interested. I wonder how many fights his contract is for?

 

[regular john]

Bellator & Rizin are basically working together, so I'm sure Coker can have Daron fight on a Bellator card every now and then if they both were interested. I wonder how many fights his contract is for?

yes I forgot that angle. now I'm again hoping for great fights from Cruickshank at Bellator.