BROADENED HORIZIN brings you discussion with your favorite Japanese and RIZIN personalities… in English!
One more RIZIN event is on the way in 2023 as RIZIN 45 goes down on New Year’s Eve.
It’s been a chaotic year for mixed martial arts (MMA) outside of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Bellator has been absorbed by Professional Fighters League (PFL), which in turn, will have a slight impact on RIZIN and the working relationship it previously established.
Arguably the biggest star and winner throughout 2023 has been Featherweight striking sensation, Chihiro Suzuki, who wants a direct role in the happenings. Suzuki played spoiler earlier in 2023 with one of the biggest upsets of all time when he finished multi-time and multi-division Bellator champion, Patricio “Pitbull” Freire. Suzuki has wanted the rematch for Bellator ever since, but in the meantime recently won the RIZIN title with an insane up-kick knockout of Vugar Karamov (watch highlights) at the promotion’s debut in Azerbaijan.
Suzuki’s career is only getting off the ground and running as 2024 nears close, but for one of the world’s most badass grandmothers, Miyuu Yamamoto, she’ll call it a career at RIZIN 45. The “Fighting Queen Bee” will close out her career with the stiffest challenge possible in the form of the best Atomweight on the planet, the RIZIN Super Atomweight champion, Seika Izawa. The pair were originally supposed to meet for Yamamoto’s retirement bout this past May 2023. Yamamoto, unfortunately, tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), which led to her withdrawal and the bout’s cancellation.
Watch the full episode in the video embedded above or listen on Spotify.