Who is Kai Asakura?
Some fans may not know Kai Asakura.
Don’t let the Japanese sensation’s lack of popularity fool you. Asakura is all action all the time. He’s fought the best in the world over in RIZIN and now looks to do the unprecedented.
In the main event of UFC 310 in his debut Asakura will look to become the first Japanese champion and do it in his debut.
Who is Kai Asakura?
So, what is there to know about Kai Asakura? First of all, he is a striker, and a very confident one at that. Feeling at home in the brawl, Asakura will be right at home against Pantoja at UFC 310.
In RIZIN, where grounded knees are allowed, Asakura is a fan of the grounded knees. Unfortunately, that will be nerfed from him this weekend.
Asakura is also comfortable with wrestlers, another aspect of Pantoja’s game. In his last two fights with RIZIN, Asakura was taken down by Yuki Motoya and Juan Archuleta. Both are great wrestlers. Kai Asakura put them both away with spectacular flying knees.
Debutant title shot?
What’s odd about Kai Asakura is that he’s getting a title shot in his UFC debut. This is not the norm. Even Alex Pereira, a star now and has history with then-champion Israel Adesanya, had to fight a few contenders before being thrown to a title shot.
What made this possible is Pantoja’s clearing of his division. He’s beat Brandon Royval twice. Brandon Moreno has fallen to Pantoja twice, and three times if we count The Ultimate Fighter. Albazi lost. Kara-France is a good option, sure. Taira is on a loss. Perez lost to Pantoja and is injured. Asu Almabayev is nearly there but not yet. Pantoja’s beat eighth and ninth ranked Erceg and Manel Kape.
I could go on.
Kai Asakura will look to not go to that name and, instead, become the next star in the UFC. A former bantamweight, he’s beat Kyoji Horiguchi, Ulka Sasaki, and many more on the Japanese scene. Now, he’s in the big show. Should he win, there’s a mob at his back waiting for a chance at the title again.
