This week RIZIN Fighting Federation held open workouts for all of the RIZIN Bantamweight Grand-Prix quarter-finalists.
Pancrase champion Shintaro Ishiwatari will return to the RIZIN ring following a successful promotional debut in October.
The win over Fight Night Global’s Akhmed Muskaev placed him the bantamweight grand-prix quarter-finals vs. Kevin Petshi.
If he advances, two potential opponents include Takafumi Otsuka and Kyoji Horiguchi, two men Ishiwatari has faced in the past – defeating Otsuka and losing to Horiguchi.
With two potential foes in the room, Ishiwatari told media in Japan that everything he’d shown during open workouts was “irrelevant” to what he has actually been working on.