“We are all a very important aspect of what happened during the early RIZIN days.”
The atomweight division is about to lose one of its mainstay elites.
RIZIN 48 features the final walk to the ring for Chiba, Japan’s Kanna Asakura as she takes on the undefeated 13-0 champion Seika Izawa on Sept. 29. To the surprise of many, the fight will be the last for the 26-year-old 27-fight veteran.
One of the most thrilling rivalries in the atomweight division’s history happened seven years ago and began with the underdog Asakura winning her way through the 2017 RIZIN Grand Prix. The tournament was set up to showcase the emerging Shootboxing superstar Rena Kubota, and it did until Asakura played the spoiler.
Asakura submitted Kubota with a first-round rear-naked choke, erupting into tears as the crowd lost its collective mind. Only 19 at the time, Asakura was now viewed as the next superstar to take the division to a new level. She helped boost awareness and always performed in exciting fights, but it’s still too early to see her go, believes her revival.
“It’s her decision, so I don’t really feel like saying anything about her decision,” Kubota told MMA Mania. “She’s obviously younger than I am, and she’s got lots of talent. So I personally think it’s such a waste of time. But again, it’s her decision. So I wish her the best of luck with whatever happens, whatever she has planned in the future. But it’s her decision. So I don’t really have any other opinions than that.”
Asakura and Kubota’s highly anticipated rematch took place the following year after each had won a fight since their first encounter. Once again, Asakura proved to have Kubota’s number when she won a unanimous decision in RIZIN 11’s main event.
Kubota, 33, had already had a full career in Shootboxing before she started MMA and because of that, fighting for another decade after her 2015 RIZIN debut was never her plan.
Ultimately, Kubota and Asakura’s rivalry didn’t just boost the division in an overall sense but it helped boost each’s career.
“What we did back in back in the early RIZIN days, it was definitely a phase of what we went through, both of us,” Kubota said. “We are all a very important aspect of what happened during the early RIZIN days. So if I were to say something, I would have wanted another fight against her, but it is what it is.”
“The proudest moment would be the time when I won the Grand Prix,” Asakura told MMA Mania on BROADENED HORIZIN. “Beating Rena to be the champion, fighting two times in one night, that whole experience that I went through is the proudest moment of my life, for sure.”
As Asakura prepares for that final fight of her career, she reveals it could have come sooner. Earning her last win over longtime veteran Mei Yamaguchi at RIZIN Landmark 5 in April 2023, it was around that time Askakura developed thoughts of moving on.
In the end, the youthful wrestler didn’t want to leave the fans and supporters behind without a proper send-off, and who knows? Maybe one last big upset.
“There’s no particular reason,” Asakura said of her retirement. “I’m turning 27 this year; many people still say that I have time to improve, and I can still work hard, but for me, I just kind of lost the fire. That’s how it all trickled down and started.
“Honestly, I don’t really have anything solid in the works [for post-fight life]. I know I have to think of something and I have to have a plan. There are some ideas but there’s nothing concrete. So, there’s nowhere I can start immediately.”
Watch the full episode in the video embedded above, or listen to it on Spotify.