“He’s very good but people still don’t believe in him.”
Roberto “Satoshi” de Souza and Charles Oliveira are two of the very best Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) blackbelts in all of mixed martial arts (MMA). Naturally, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that each Lightweight champion is familiar with the other.
Reigning supreme over the RIZIN roster, Satoshi (14-1) has never seen the judges’ scorecards with all 15 of his fights ending via finish, his 10 submissions to four knockouts are in contrast with a technical knockout loss to Johnny Case preceding his current five-fight winning streak.
Just this past month (Sun., Apr. 17, 2022) at RIZIN 35, Satoshi avenged his lone loss when rematching Case in the event’s headliner, scoring a first-round reverse triangle armbar. Like his fellow Brazilian counterpart in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Oliveira too secured yet another brilliant submission win a few weeks after (Sat., May 7).
With both men being absolute sharks on the mat, the idea of an MMA clash between the two is more than enough to get any BJJ fanatic salivating.
“I fought him in jiu-jitsu when I was a blue belt,” Satoshi told MMAMania.com on BROADENED HORIZIN. “I fought him I think six times but really, his weight division was one under mine. Sometimes he’d come into my division just to fight me. When I fight him at blue belt, he was already a very dangerous guy. He and I have a very nice friendship now. Sometimes I talk to him, sometimes his coach motivates me when I’m going to fight. I think it’s hard if one day I have a chance to fight him, I don’t know if I’ll have a chance to fight him, you know. He motivates me a lot because he’s very strong, he’s very good but people still don’t believe in him, too. I feel this is similar to me (laughs). Maybe one day just to make money, for sure. I want to show to the world I can strike like a Charles ‘Do Bronx,’ too (laughs).”
Satoshi now has two title defenses under his belt and a couple of different options going forward. In RIZIN, the Bonsai BJJ product believes the most logical option is the current Deep Lightweight titlist, Juri Ohara who is also on a nice winning streak of his own with seven straight.
However, there is always the possibility of some international cross-promotion with RIZIN. Take the 2019 Lightweight tournament for example where Satoshi suffered that aforementioned loss to Case. He missed out on potentially crossing paths with now-Bellator titleholder, Patricky “Pitbull” Freire.
“I want to fight the top fighters in the world,” Satoshi said. “I always say I want to go to the top, not what’s in the back. I like fighting the top guys, it’s harder, for sure. But I have more motivation in training. I like the fights where people don’t believe in me. People say, ‘Ah, for sure he doesn’t want this fight.’ I like that (laughs). I like when I’m the underdog. I want to fight the Bellator guys too, you know? Whatever, whoever. The double title shot is so fun, the RIZIN belt, the Bellator belt. For me, whatever. I just want to fight the best guys in the world.”
Watch the full episode in the video embedded above or you can listen on Spotify.