In October 2015 he announced that he would become a mixed martial arts fighter, joining the Rizin Fighting Federation. He told a press conference that he had lost in weight and that he wanted to be ″the strongest fighter in the world.″ On December 31, 2015 he had his first match, defeating Peter Aerts at the Saitama Super Arena. On September 25, 2016 he defeated, by a unanimous decision, 45-year-old veteran Kazuyuki Fujita, who announced his retirement afterwards. After four fights, Baruto had three wins against one loss, and said that he "wanted to fix sumo's reputation in the MMA world" after the lack of success of some other ex-sumo professionals who switched to MMA. He is also involved in several charities, including ADHD awareness.