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Roberto Satoshi calls for RIZIN interim belt if Tofiq Musayev doesn’t return from war soon

RIZIN lightweight Roberto Satoshi thinks it’s time to move on and crown a new 155-pound king.

The company’s lightweight belt was captured by Tofiq Musayev in December 2019, when he defeated Bellator star Patricky Freire in the RIZIN grand prix final. A global pandemic was followed by a conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, forcing Musayev to join the Azerbaijani army and remain sidelined from the MMA world.

Satoshi is now scheduled to face longtime MMA veteran Kazuki Tokudome in the co-main event of Sunday’s RIZIN 27 in Nagoya, Japan, and told MMA Fighting he was in talks with the promotion about a fight with Musayev in December.