Rizin CEO Says Unified Rules Are Holding Back MMA Evolution
Rizin CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara says the Unified Rules used by the UFC are holding back MMA’s evolution, and he is putting that argument in the cage this week. The comments land two days before Super Rizin 5, where both the Rizin and PFL featherweight titles will be on the line in one fight under Rizin rules.
Sakakibara, who also built Pride Fighting Championships, has never treated North American MMA as the finished product. He made that case again while discussing the main event at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
“I think that sticking to ‘Unified rules’ is holding back the evolution of the sport. I think we should be open to changing the rules. Even Judo and Wrestling has changed their rules.”
That is not a throwaway line from a rival promoter. Unified Rules are the standard in the UFC and across most U.S. commissions, and they ban soccer kicks, stomps, and knees to the head of a grounded opponent. Rizin still allows those attacks, carrying the Pride-era idea that a fight should not become safer the moment someone sits down.
Sakakibara’s point is that combat sports have always adjusted their codes. In his view, MMA froze too much of its identity around one American rulebook.
The timing is the other half of the story. Super Rizin 5 on Sept. 10 will ask undefeated Rizin featherweight champion Razhabali Shaydullaev and former Bellator champion A.J. McKee to settle two belts at once.
“For the first time in MMA history in one fight, a fighter can win both belts.”
That claim belongs to Sakakibara. Cross-promotional title fights have happened before, but Rizin and PFL are putting both championships into the same three-round bout, hosted by one company, at 66 kilograms.
The fight will be contested under Rizin MMA rules, not Unified Rules. That means McKee is walking into a ring where grounded head kicks and stomps are legal, a setting he has said he prefers because more damage is available.
Shaydullaev enters at 19-0 with a finish in every fight, including a first-round knockout of Mikuru Asakura on New Year’s Eve. McKee is 25-2, riding a three-fight winning streak at 145 pounds after decision wins over Akhmed Magomedov, Adam Borics, and Salamat Isbulaev.
McKee is the more experienced headliner. Shaydullaev is the more violent one, and the ruleset is built to reward that kind of finishing pressure.
That is why Sakakibara’s Unified Rules critique is more than promotional noise. If the Japanese rulebook produces a clearer, more aggressive title fight than the round-by-round, point-control style he associates with Unified scoring, he will treat it as proof.
Rizin has already been experimenting on the judging side. The promotion spent years using a total-must approach, then introduced a dual system this year that mixes the 10-point must with its own finish-first criteria.
Sakakibara’s argument is that fighters stop hunting knockouts once they believe two rounds on the cards are enough. Unified Rules, in that reading, train caution. Rizin’s rules, he believes, still ask for a finish.
The UFC is not a party to this fight and has not answered the comments. It does not need to. Unified Rules remain the commercial language of the sport in North America, and most major cards will keep using them.
What Super Rizin 5 can do is show a different version of MMA on a big stage. The winner leaves Osaka as champion of two organizations, at least on paper, and the loser leaves with a reminder that the sport still has more than one rulebook.
The main event is the next test of Sakakibara’s idea. If Shaydullaev or McKee can take both belts under Rizin rules, the CEO will have the result he wanted to put next to the speech.