- Name
- Fighting Network Rings
- Features
- 4 games
- view all →
- First game
- Sougou Kakutougi: Astral Bout
- Aliases
Fighting Network Rings
Fighting Network Rings, trademarked as RINGS, is a defunct Japanese combat sport promotion that was active from 1991 to 2002 with a revival in 2008. It was founded by Akira Maeda on May 11, 1991, following the dissolution of Newborn UWF.
Franchise Wiki Images Related Pages
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 (Character)
- Mega Battle Tournament 1995 (Oct 21, 1995 – Jan 24, 1996) – Akira Maeda (Character)
- Mega Battle Tournament 1997 (Oct 25, 1997 – Jan 21, 1998) – Kiyoshi Tamura (Character)
- Mega Battle Tournament 1998 (Oct 23, 1998 – Jan 23, 1999) – Netherlands
King of Kings
- King of Kings Tournament 1999 (Oct 28, 1999 – Feb 26, 2000) – Dan Henderson (Character)
- King of Kings Tournament 2000 (Oct 9, 2000 – Feb 24, 2001) – Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera
Title Tournaments
- Light Heavyweight Title Tournament 1997 (Mar 28 – Aug 13, 1997) – Masayuki Naruse (Character)
- Middleweight Title Tournament 2001 (Apr 20 – Aug 11, 2001) – Ricardo Arona (Character)
- Open-weight Title Tournament 2001 (Apr 20 – Aug 11, 2001) – Fedor Emelianenko (Character)
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 (Character)
- Absolute Class Tournament 2001 (Oct 20, 2001 – Feb 15, 2002) – Fedor Emelianenko (Character)
CHAMPIONSHIPS
Open-Weight Championship
| No. | Name | Date | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kiyoshi Tamura (Character)
(def. Mikhail Ilioukhine)||January 21, 1998 (Mega Battle Tournament 1997)||Tokyo (Location), Japan (Location)|| | |||
| 2 | Bitsadze Tariel
(def. Kiyoshi Tamura)||May 29, 1998 (Fighting Integration III)||Sapporo, Japan (Location)|| | |||
| 3 | Kiyoshi Tamura (Character)
(def. Bitsadze Tariel)||May 22, 1999 (Rise III)||Tokyo, Japan|| | |||
| 4 | Gilbert Yvel (Character)
(def. Kiyoshi Tamura)||April 20, 2000 (Millennium Combine)||Tokyo, Japan||Title was vacated in May 2000 when Yvel signed to Pride FC (Franchise). | |||
| 5 | Fedor Emelianenko (Character)
(def. Bobby Hoffman)||August 11, 2001 (Rings – 10th Anniversary)||Tokyo, Japan||Promotion closed on February 15, 2002. |
Light-Heavyweight Championship (-95kg)
| No. | Name | Date | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Masayuki Naruse (Character)
(def. Christopher Haseman)||August 13, 1997 (Fighting Extension VI)||Kagoshima, Japan (Location)||Title Dissolved. |
Middleweight Championship
| No. | Name | Date | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ricardo Arona (Character)
(def. Gustavo Ximu)||August 11, 2001 (Rings-10th Anniversary)||Tokyo (Location), Japan (Location)||Promotion closed on February 15, 2002. |
ROSTER
Japanese roster
- Akira Maeda (Character)
- Mitsuya Nagai (Character)
- Yoshihisa Yamamoto (Character)
- Masayuki Naruse (Character)
- Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (Character)
- Wataru Sakata (Character)
- Kiyoshi Tamura (Character)
- Hiromitsu Kanehara (Character)
- Ryuki Ueyama
- Hiroyuki Ito
Foreigners
Rings's system was very much like the NWA in which members of "foreign promotions" (actually stables composed of fighters from a given country) competed against the Japanese members.
Stables
Tariel vs. Yvel
Dick Vrij , Hanse Nyman , Gilbert Yvel (Character), Joop Kasteel, Valentijn Overeem, Alistair Overeem (Character), Chris Dolman, Willie Peters
Chris Haseman, Elvis Sinosic (Character), Tony Bonello
Todor Todorov, Dimitar Petkov, Georgi Tonkov
Maeda vs. Kopylov
Zaza Grom, Tariel Bitsadze, Amiran Bitsadze
Volk Han (Character) , Fedor Emelianenko (Character), Andrei Kopylov (Character), Bazigit Atajev, Nikolai Zouev (Character), Mikhail Illoukhine, Sotir Gotchev
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Ricardo Arona (Character), Renato Sobral, Gustavo Machado, Renzo Gracie (Character)
Big Nog vs. Volk Han
Lee Hasdell was the representative for Rings UK, which began in the late 1990s, other British fighters included Chris Watts, Dexter Casey and Paul Cahoon.
Randy Couture (Character), Dan Henderson (Character), Kerry Schall, and Bobby Hoffman
Decline
Maeda & Tamura
Maeda retired from active duty in 1998, leaving Tamura as the top star, but the collapse of UWF International and the subsequent rise of the Pride provided competition that proved to be too much for the promotion. On February 15, 2002, the promotion ceased activity. Japanese Rings stars who made transitions into puroresu since then include Nagai, Masayuki Naruse (Character), Wataru Sakata (Character) and Hiroyuki Ito.
Revival
RINGS : THE OUTSIDERS
Following the dissolution of Hero's and 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.
Games
25 February 1994