Chihiro Suzuki is a man on a mission.
The last 11 months couldn’t have gone any better for the RIZIN featherweight champion. After a no-contest against former champion Kleber Koike at RIZIN 43, Suzuki returned one month later to pull off one of the biggest upsets in recent memory when he knocked out Bellator kingpin Patricio “Pitbull” Freire at the 2:32 mark of round one (watch highlights).
Suzuki, 25, followed up his epic performance with a late contender for knockout of the year when he hit Vugar Karamov with a first-round up-kick in Azerbaijan (watch highlights). One successful defense into his reign after dispatching Masenori Kanehora by another first-round TKO, Suzuki wants to stay as active as possible, still wanting a rematch with Pitbull for his title.
“If I’m forced to do two divisions, bantamweight, I can go down and fight, that’s fine,” Suzuki told MMA Mania on BROADENED HORIZIN when asked about any interest in becoming a dual-division champion. “I think if that happens, I won’t be able to fight as much in a year anymore, and right now, I prefer to fight every month or every other month. So, I’d like to stick with this weight class because I’ll be able to do it.
“I do have the desire to take on two divisions, but moreover, I think I want to focus on going after a world title at this weight class. I think me targeting the Bellator belt is the priority at this moment.”
To stay active, Suzuki has booked himself into back-to-back boxing matches. It was announced at RIZIN 47 earlier this month (June 9, 2024) that the champion will welcome the legendary Manny Pacquiao to RIZIN at Super RIZIN 3 next month (Sat., July 28, 2024).
Before Suzuki looks to do what his fellow previous RIZIN stars failed to do against legendary boxers like Floyd Mayweather, he’ll seek a thrilling knockout of his mentor, the one and only Takanori Gomi. The pair collide at Knock Out 2024: Blaze this weekend (Sun., June 23, 2024).
“At the timing where my nickname became the ‘Thunderball Kid,’ it was kind of like a successor to the ‘Fireball Kid’ Takanori Gomi,” Suzuki said. “Once my name has kind of changed and I’d be known for that, I didn’t want to be known as just the successor of Takanori Gomi. I wanted to be the one who earned it. So, the best way to earn his name and be the truthful successor the right way is to actually take it from him and beat him via knockout so that everybody knows that I’m not just Takanori Gomi’s successor, I took it from him and I am the truthful successor.”
Watch the full episode in the video embedded above, or listen to it on Spotify.
BROADENED HORIZIN Ep. 40 AUDIO - 以下の日本語版:
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