Chihiro Suzuki He's a man on a mission.
The past 11 months have been a great year for the RIZIN featherweight champion. After a no-contest against a former champion, Clever Koike Suzuki returned a month later and pulled off one of the biggest upsets in recent memory by knocking out the Bellator kingpin at RIZIN 43. Patricio “Pitbull” Freire At the 2:32 mark of the first round (watch highlights).
The 25-year-old Suzuki followed up that impressive performance with a late knockout of the year candidate. Vuga Kharamov with an upkick in the first round in Azerbaijan (watch highlights). Masanori Kanemoto Suzuki suffered another first-round TKO loss but wants to stay active as long as he can and is hoping for a rematch with Pitbull for the title.
“If I'm forced to become a two-division bantamweight champion, I can move down a weight class and that's fine,” Suzuki said on BROADENED Horizon's MMA Mania when asked if he'd be interested in becoming a two-division champion. “If that happens, I don't think I'll be able to fight that much in a year, and right now I want to fight every month or every other month, so I want to keep fighting in this weight class, because that's how I'll be able to do it.”
“I want to become a two-division champion, but more than anything, I want to focus on winning a world title in this weight class. I think my number one priority right now is to get a shot at the Bellator belt.”
To stay active, Suzuki has been booking back-to-back boxing matches. At RIZIN 47 earlier this month (June 9, 2024), the champion faced off against the legendary Manny Pacquiao I will be participating in RIZIN at Super RIZIN 3 to be held next month (Sat. July 28, 2024).
Before Suzuki could do what the Rizin stars couldn't do against the legendary boxers, Floyd MayweatherHe was the one and only man who taught him. Takanori GomiThe two will clash this weekend (Sunday, June 23, 2024) at Knock Out 2024: Blaze.
“When my nickname became 'Thunderball Kid,' it was like I was the successor to Gomi Takanori, 'Fireball Kid,'” Suzuki said. “When my nickname changed and I became known by that name, I didn't want to be known just as Gomi Takanori's successor. I wanted to be the person who earned the name. So the best way to earn his name and be the rightful successor the right way is to actually take the name from him and beat him by knockout. That way, everyone will know that I'm not just the successor to Gomi Takanori, but that I'm the rightful successor who took the name from him.”
Watch the full episode in the video embedded above, or listen on Spotify.
