Luiz Gustavo is just days away from his shot at RIZIN lightweight gold, but the memory of his last fight still lingers—not just for the victory, but for the damage he caused.
In March, "Killer" Gustavo delivered a violent second-round knockout over Taisei Sakuraba, son of Japanese MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba. The win earned him a title fight against Ilkhom Nazimov this Sunday in Kobe, Japan, but it came with a heavy dose of regret. Gustavo later learned he had fractured Sakuraba's jaw in the exchange.
"We want to win no matter what, but not in a way that seriously harms the other guy," Gustavo told MMA Fighting. "Of course losing already hurts, but I mean injuries, like someone needing jaw surgery. We don't want that for anyone. We want to win and only hurt the guy the minimum necessary. We want him to recover quickly and come back as soon as possible because this is our job, and we can't afford to stay out of work."
The bout carried extra weight. Gustavo trains under Andre Dida in Curitiba—the longtime coach of former PRIDE champion Wanderlei Silva. RIZIN leaned into the rivalry between Silva and "The Gracie Killer" Sakuraba to build the narrative for this clash. In the end, much like the 2000s, Brazil came out on top.
"Japan doesn't really have rankings," Gustavo explained. "They usually go with the guy who sells the fight and puts on good performances. All my fights are wars, there's always a knockout, never a boring fight. That last fight was really good, and because of the names involved, Sakuraba and Wanderlei, it sold really well. It got a lot of attention. And the way the knockout happened, the way the fight played out, gave me credibility to fight for the belt."
The hype from that finish propelled Gustavo into his second RIZIN title opportunity. He previously challenged Roberto Satoshi for the belt less than two years ago. Now, Nazimov holds the crown after dethroning Satoshi in just 13 seconds this past December—even quicker than Satoshi's 21-second win over Gustavo.
"I deserve the belt," Gustavo said. "I've been in this promotion for a long time and I've had a lot of fights to earn this title shot."