Fighting Network Rings

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Fighting Network Rings
Private
Industry Mixed Martial Arts promotion
Founded 1991
Founder Akira Maeda
Key people
 Akira Maeda

Fighting Network Rings, trademarked as RINGS, is a Japanese combat sport promotion that has lived three distinct periods: puroresu promotion from its inauguration to 1995, mixed martial arts promotion from 1995 to its 2002 disestablishment, and the revived mixed martial arts promotion from 2008 onward.

RINGS was founded by Akira Maeda on May 11, 1991, following the dissolution of Newborn UWF. At that time, Maeda and Mitsuya Nagai were the only two people to transfer from UWF, wrestlers such as Kiyoshi Tamura, Hiromitsu Kanehara and Kenichi Yamamoto would later also transfer from UWF International.

Tournaments

Mega Battle Tournament

  • Mega Battle Tournament 1992 (Oct 29, 1992 – Jan 23, 1993) – Chris Dolman
  • Mega Battle Tournament 1993 (Oct 23, 1993 – Jan 21, 1994) – Akira Maeda
  • Mega Battle Tournament 1994 (Sep 21, 1994 – Jan 25, 1995) – Volk Han
  • Mega Battle Tournament 1995 (Oct 21, 1995 – Jan 24, 1996) – Akira Maeda
  • Mega Battle Tournament 1996 (Oct 25, 1996 – Jan 22, 1997) – Volk Han
  • Mega Battle Tournament 1997 (Oct 25, 1997 – Jan 21, 1998) – Kiyoshi Tamura
  • Mega Battle Tournament 1998 (Oct 23, 1998 – Jan 23, 1999) – Team Netherlands

King of Kings

Title Tournaments

  • Light Heavyweight Title Tournament 1997 (Mar 28 – Aug 13, 1997) – Masayuki Naruse
  • Middleweight Title Tournament 2001 (Apr 20 – Aug 11, 2001) – Ricardo Arona
  • Open-weight Title Tournament 2001 (Apr 20 – Aug 11, 2001) – Fedor Emelianenko

Other Tournaments

  • Rising Stars Heavyweight Tournament 2000 (Jul 15 – Sep 30, 2000) – Bobby Hoffman
  • Rising Stars Middleweight Tournament 2000 (Jul 15 – Sep 30, 2000) – Jeremy Horn
  • Absolute Class Tournament 2001 (Oct 20, 2001 – Feb 15, 2002) – Fedor Emelianenko

Championships

Open-Weight Championship

No. Name Date Location Notes
1 Japan Kiyoshi Tamura
(def. Mikhail Illoukhine)		 January 21, 1998
(Mega Battle Tournament 1997)		 Tokyo, Japan
2 Georgia (country) Tariel Bitsadze
(def. Kiyoshi Tamura)		 May 29, 1998
(Fighting Integration III)		 Sapporo, Japan
3 Japan Kiyoshi Tamura
(def. Tariel Bitsadze)		 May 22, 1999
(Rise III)		 Tokyo, Japan
4 Netherlands Gilbert Yvel
(def. Kiyoshi Tamura)		 April 20, 2000
(Millennium Combine)		 Tokyo, Japan Title was vacated in May 2000 when Yvel signed to Pride FC.
5 Russia Fedor Emelianenko
(def. Renato Sobral)		 August 11, 2001
(10th Anniversary)		 Tokyo, Japan

Light-Heavyweight Championship (−95kg)

No. Name Date Location Notes
1 Japan Masayuki Naruse
(def. Christopher Haseman)		 August 13, 1997
(Fighting Extension VI)		 Kagoshima, Japan Title Dissolved.

Middleweight Championship

No. Name Date Location Notes
1 Brazil Ricardo Arona
(def. Gustavo Ximu)		 August 11, 2001
(Rings-10th Anniversary)		 Tokyo, Japan Promotion closed on February 15, 2002.

Japanese roster

Foreigners

RINGS' system was very much like the National Wrestling Alliance as it featured numerous foreign promotions, these were not promotions in the traditional sense but rater groups of fighters from a given country. These foreign fighters would do battle with RINGS' Japanese competitors and occasionally with each other.

Stables

Decline

Maeda retired from active duty in 1998, leaving Tamura as the top star, but the collapse of UWF International and the subsequent rise of Pride provided competition that proved to be too much for the promotion. On February 15, 2002, RINGS ceased activity.[1]

Many Japanese RINGS stars, including Masayuki Naruse, Wataru Sakata and Hiroyuki Ito, made the transition back into puroresu. The MMA promotion ZST was founded in November 2002 to accommodate former Japanese RINGS fighters who remained competitors in mixed martial arts.

Revival

Following the dissolution of Hero's and the conclusion of Maeda's involvement with FEG, Maeda revived the RINGS brand for a new series of MMA events named The Outsider. The first RINGS The Outsider event occurred on March 30, 2008. Over a dozen Outsider events have been held since.[2]

The Fighting Network RINGS brand was resurrected once more on January 22, 2012 with Battle Genesis: Vol. 9, Volume 8 took place on September 20, 2001.[3] The event was sanctioned by fellow mixed martial arts promotion ZST.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ [1][dead link]
  4. ↑ 2012年 ZST・RINGS スケジュール

External links

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