Roberto Satoshi’s championship reign hasn’t been all he’d hoped it would be.
The RIZIN lightweight titleholder, who has reigned atop his division since June 2021, has won 11 of 12 fights since joining the Japanese promotion despite only four title defenses in his past six wins. He returns to the ring to face Won Bin Ki at RIZIN Korea on Saturday, and yet again it won’t count as a title defense as his 155-pound belt isn’t on the line.
“The legacy is different,” Satoshi told MMA Fighting. “When you fight and say, ‘I’ve already defended the belt four, five, six times,’ you’re building a different legacy.”
Satoshi’s title was at stake when he finished Yusuke Yachi, Johnny Case, Luiz Gustavo and Vugar Karamov, but matches with Spike Carlyle and Keita Nakamura, both immediately after losses under the Bellator banner, were not for gold.
Ki, his upcoming foe, makes his first walk to the RIZIN ring after knocking out Tatsuya Saika at a Road to UFC show in May 2024.
“It’s odd that the champion is fighting and his belt is not on the line,” Satoshi said, “But I also think it’s a mistake that the promotion doesn’t have a ranking that people would earn the right to fight me. But it would also be a bit odd that someone came in straight for the belt in his debut. As an athlete, I’d prefer to always fight with my belt on the line.”
The Brazilian talent said it will be weird to look back in time and see he doesn’t have as many title defenses as wins in RIZIN, and that could change his legacy as champion. The same has happened in PRIDE, when long-reigning champions like Fedor Emelianenko and Wanderlei Silva frequently fought without their belts on the line.
“When I saw that in PRIDE, I thought it was kind of normal,” Satoshi said. “I even thought it was weird that a champion in the UFC always fought with his belt at stake. Sometimes you had a champion lose to a guy that wasn’t even ranked that high and then you had to run it back.
“If you think about it, it would be cool if the UFC did the same thing because then it would prevent from a certain thing happen, like the UFC lightweight division right now. [Islam] Makhachev didn’t want to fight [Ilia] Topuria because he had to prove himself [at 155], Charles [Oliveira] was next in line and had to wait for a title fight. If it wasn’t for that, Makhachev could have fought Topuria in a non-title fight; if [Topuria] proves he can win, then it’s for the belt next. But it would be a bit confusing, right?”
Satoshi admits he was surprised to see Ki wasn’t signed by the UFC after going 2-2 on Road to UFC, with one of the defeats being a DQ due to illegal punches. He appreciates the fact he’s facing a man that was put to the test in a UFC setting. Satoshi plans on scoring another submission in Asia, but won’t desperately go for takedowns.
“Knowing this guy was part of this UFC tryouts excites me to prove myself,” said Satoshi, a jiu-jitsu expert who has now won two of his past three by knockout. “You can’t fight like the old days, 1-2 combo, side kick to the knee and shoot [laughs]. But at the same time you can have a plan and it go back to your natural habitat when things get hard. I’m sure we’ll trade hands early, I wanna feel that, but there’s no way around it: When I see an opportunity, if he makes a mistake and I see a shot, I’ll try to take it to the ground.”
