Suzuki is well noted for his excellence in freestyle wrestling and catch wrestling. He was an Olympic alternate freestyle wrestler for Japan and former Japanese freestyle wrestling national champion. As good as his wrestling credentials are, Suzuki is even more respected for his excellence in the art of catch wrestling and submissions. Suzuki has been praised many times by elite fighters such as Josh Barnett, Bas Rutten and Ken Shamrock for his outstanding grappling and submission skills.

Suzuki trained at the New Japan Pro Wrestling dojo and made his pro wrestling debut on June 23, 1988, against Takayuki Izaka,but soon after left with catch wrestling mentor Yoshiaki Fujiwara  for the newborn UWF . He joined Fujiwara's Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gomi but then left the organization to form Pancrase in 1993 with Masakatsu Funaki, one of the first MMA organizations in the world.

Despite his significant size disadvantage against most competitors, Suzuki became one of the most successful fighters in Pancrase with his amazing submission skills and top wrestling ability. Suzuki began his MMA career going 7-0, including a huge upset win over Pancrase's #1 fighter Ken Shamrock in early 1994. He did not lose a match until he lost to Bas Rutten via knee-to-the-liver KO. In 1995, he won the King of Pancrase (now 'KOP Open-Weight') title to become the second ever King of Pancrase. Suzuki is the only fighter to have beaten Ken Shamrock twice in the Pancrase era.

Over time, Suzuki's body became damaged and worn down from various injuries and resulted in his skills diminishing. He then decided to focus on the business and training side of Pancrase. His last non-worked fight for Pancrase was against a professional wrestler, Jushin Liger, whom Suzuki had known as Keiichi Yamada in his first NJPW stint. At the time he competed in grappling matches almost exclusively. Suzuki witnessed the transition Pancrase made from the so-called "hybrid wrestling" style to that of regular MMA and was instrumental in paving the way for MMA in Japan.