Chihiro
Suzuki made a successful first defense of his featherweight
title with a first-round TKO stoppage on Sunday at Rizin
Fighting Federation 46 in Tokyo, Japan. The 24-year-old Suzuki
overwhelmed veteran challenger Masanori
Kanehara with a barrage of ground punches at the 4:20 mark of
Round 1. Following an early timeout due to an accidental groin strike,
Suzuki (13-3, 1 NC, 8-1, 1 NC Rizin) began to target the lower left
leg of Kanehara (29-13-5, 4-2 Rizin) with kicks that slowed him
down. With 75 seconds remaining in the first round, Suzuki abruptly
picked up the pace, and he swarmed on Kanehara with punches —
including a right hook to the temple that wobbled him. When
Kanehara fell to the mat soon after, Suzuki sensed that a finish
was near and he dove in with more punches until the fight was waved
off.

Suzuki has now won eight of his past nine fights for
Rizin, with the lone blemish coming in the form of a June 2023
no contest against Kleber
Koike Erbst when Erbst submitted Suzuki but failed to make
weight and was stripped of his featherweight title in the process.
Erbst will be in action at Rizin
47 in June. A victory there could set up a championship rematch
against Suzuki down the line, but Suzuki had another plan in mind
when he spoke backstage following his win.

“I will take Pitbull’s belt,” Suzuki said in reference to the
Bellator featherweight title held by Patricio
Freire, whom Suzuki knocked out this past July at Super Rizin
2. “Rizin and Bellator will decide, but whether it is in Japan or
in the United States, I’m ready anywhere.”

The bantamweight co-main event saw standout wrestler Shinobu Ota
(6-3, 6-3 Rizin) score his biggest win to date with a clear-cut
unanimous decision triumph against former Rizin featherweight
champion Juntaro
Ushiku (21-9, 3-3 Rizin).

While the main story of the fight was Ota’s ability to dictate the
action with takedowns and clinch control, he did also land some
particularly nasty stomps to Ushiku’s Achilles tendons as well.
Ushiku’s best moment came late in the middle stanza after he took
Ota’s back, but he could not secure a finish, and Ota dominated the
final round en route to victory.

The Rizin 46 main card featured three Japan vs. South Korea
matchups. The Japanese squad ultimately prevailed by a score of
2-1, but Soo Chul
Kim (22-7-1, 3-1 Rizin) prevented a shutout by scoring one of
the best knockouts of the night in his bantamweight battle against
Taichi
Nakajima (16-13, 1-2 Rizin).

Nakajima appeared to be well on his way to victory after he scored
a takedown into mount in the first round and controlled the action
as Kim noticeably fatigued. That all changed in an instant as the
second round began. The fighters touched gloves, Kim dropped
Nakajima with a left hook and he knocked him out cold with
follow-up punches on the ground. The official time of Kim’s
knockout came just six seconds into Round 2.

Recent Rizin flyweight title challenger Makoto
Takahashi (17-2-1, 1 NC, 4-1 Rizin) overwhelmed Road to UFC
Season 2 competitor Jung Hyun
Lee (4-2, 0-1 Rizin) before submitting the South Korean with an
arm-triangle choke at the 4:29 mark of Round 1.

Takahashi took Lee’s back during the opening minutes and he
threatened with a rear-naked choke while also throwing punches. Lee
complained that some were striking the back of his head, but the
fight carried on, and Takahashi landed more strikes from back
control. He transitioned to the arm-triangle choke, and Lee hastily
tapped out. Following the bout, Takahashi requested a fight against
Hiromasa
Ougikubo, which has already been confirmed for Super Rizin 3 on
July 28.

Rounding out the Japan vs. South Korea bouts, Kazuma
Kuramoto (10-4, 4-3 Rizin) notched the first win of the night
for the Japanese contingent by edging out Ji Yong
Yang (8-2, 2-1 Rizin) via split decision after three
hard-fought rounds.

Kuramoto secured multiple takedowns in the first frame, and he
attacked with a heel hook while Yang stood against the ropes in a
corner. Yang opened a bad cut above Kuramoto’s right eye early in
Round 2, but Kuramoto responded with more heel hook attempts and
Yang was crucially given a yellow card for grabbing the ropes
multiple times. Yang was more active with strikes in the final
round, and he jumped guard with a guillotine choke late in the
fight, but the point deductions from the yellow card were his
undoing. One judge still scored the fight for Yang, but the
remaining two both sided with Kuramoto.

On the preliminary card, Noah Bey (2-3,
2-3 Rizin) earned a lackluster unanimous decision victory against
Yusaku
Inoue (11-5-1, 1-1 Rizin) at lightweight; Viktor
Kolesnik (26-4-1, 3-0 Rizin) took a well-deserved unanimous
decision win in his featherweight fight against Yoshiki
Nakahara (18-7, 3-2 Rizin); Ilhom
Nazimov (11-3, 2-0 Rizin) dropped Sora
Yamamoto (12-8, 3-4 Rizin) twice and finished him with elbows
and punches at the 3:39 mark of Round 2 at featherweight; and
Ryo Takagi
(7-2, 1-1 Rizin) won his featherweight duel against Taisei
Nishitani (6-7, 0-2 Rizin) via right-hook knockout at the 4:04
mark of Round 1.

The event also featured a 130-pound bare-knuckle boxing match
between Tatsuki Shinotsuka and Justyn
Martinez, which Shinotsuka won via knockout at the 1:33 mark of
Round 1.

IMAK ADMIN

By IMAK ADMIN

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