Elite grappler Roberto Satoshi de Souza has just booked his first fight of the year and he will be facing Won-Bin Ki in the main event of RIZIN World Series in Korea on May 31st, 2025. He is the reigning RIZIN FF lightweight world champion and although this fight is taking place at lightweight, it’s set to be a non-title bout. He’s coming into the fight on a great winning streak too, as he finished all three of his fights last year in the very first round. That run included two successful defenses of his lightweight title and it was a great comeback, as Souza had alternated wins and losses in the 4 fights he had across 2022 and 2023.
He finished 2023 on a loss but he started 2024 by bouncing back with a TKO win over MMA veteran Keita Nakamura at RIZIN Landmark 9. He then racked up another TKO against Luiz Gustavo at RIZIN 48 before finishing the year on an even higher note on New Year’s Eve. That was when he submitted Vugar Karamov at RIZIN 49: Decade and took his total number of title-defenses to four. Souza is now 18-3 with an incredible 17 finishes in his professional MMA career and has spent the majority of it fighting for RIZIN FF, establishing himself as one of their top stars in the process.
The promotion has actually looked outside of their existing roster to find the latest challenger for him, as this will be Won-Bin Ki’s promotional debut. He has racked up a solid 18-9 professional MMA record himself and has fought on several promotions all around Asia like Shooto, Road FC, and Double G. He’s got a high finishing rate as well, with 15 of his wins coming inside the distance and 12 of them by KO or TKO. He will present a tough challenge for Souza and will likely give him a lot to deal with on the feet, but Souza is one of the best grapplers in MMA and can submit anyone once the fight goes to the ground.
RIZIN FF announced the news that Roberto Satoshi de Souza was fighting Won-Bin Ki at RIZIN World Series in Korea in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
