Featherweight champion Chihiro Suzuki will defend her title in a rematch against former titleholder Kleber Koike Erbst in the main event of the RIZIN Fighting Federation’s New Year’s Eve card.
The Japanese promotion announced the match at a press conference on Tuesday. The event, titled “Rizin 49 “Decade”, will be held on December 31st at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama and will be available to watch on pay-per-view. No other matches on this card have been announced.
Erbst was the current 145-pound champion in his first fight with Suzuki in June 2023. However, Brazilian Erbusto failed to weigh-in the day before the match at RIZIN 43 and lost the title on the scale. As a result, the belt remained vacant. Following Elbst’s first round submission victory, a no contest was declared per Rizin rules.
Suzuki has won three straight since that loss, starting with a first-round KO of Bellator champion Patricio Freire in a lightweight bout. He then won the featherweight title by defeating Vougal Karamov by KO in the first round, and defended the title at RIZIN 46 in April of this year by stopping Masanori Kanehara in the opening round.
Erbst has also fought three times since facing Suzuki. After dropping a unanimous decision to Kanehara at RIZIN 44, the 35-year-old bounced back and scored back-to-back submission wins over Yutaka Saito and Juan Archuleta.
