“They want to know where they stand globally, right? Kai wasn’t satisfied with just being the RIZIN champion.”
The UFC has a new international superstar on its hands.
Truly “big” signings to the MMA leader feel like a dime a dozen these days. A solid debate can be argued about whether or not the now-former RIZIN bantamweight champion Kai Asakura even qualifies as one. However, when it comes to Japan specifically, he undeniably is a massive get for the market.
A two-time champion in his fighting home of six years, Asakura felt he was ready to move on after his latest title win, a phenomenal second-round TKO (knee to the body and punches) of former Bellator and RIZIN champion Juan Archuleta at RIZIN 45 in December. RIZIN Founder Nobuyuki Sakakibara explained it was all a matter of competition that got the best of one of his biggest stars.
“Kai is 30 years old. He’s in his thirties now and he’s only fought in RIZIN,” Sakakibara told MMA Mania on BROADENED HORIZIN. “Obviously, he’s fought for ROAD FC, he’s fought for the outsider, but his past few years and what made Kai who he is today: He only knows RIZIN.
“Once a fighter accomplishes something, they don’t become satisfied. The fighters continue to want to challenge themselves. They want to know where they stand globally, right? Kai wasn’t satisfied with just being the RIZIN champion. He wanted to continue to push himself. He wanted to continue to challenge himself to confirm where he’s at globally.”
For comparison’s sake, the Asakura brothers are essentially the Japanese equivalent of the Paul brothers, but legitimately talented at a high level in their respective combat sports. Sorry, not sorry, Jake and Logan.
The Asakura’s have millions of viewers and subscribers on their separate YouTube channels, and while Kai may not be as popular as his elder brother Mikuru, he’s made up for it with his MMA accomplishments and a 21-4 record, consisting of 13 KO wins (3 submissions).
Although he’s been a career-long bantamweight, MMA Mania has confirmed since Asakura’s signing last month that he’s expected to debut in the UFC flyweight division.
“We all understand that the UFC right now definitely has the top athletes,” Sakakibara said. “They have positioned themselves to where they have a lot of the world’s top talent that we can’t provide. So, he wanted to go out there and represent RIZIN to see what the RIZIN champion can do against other world-class athletes.
“[Asakura] told me this year, and I guess that the thought of him trying to challenge and test himself has gotten bigger and bigger, and that’s when he started to ask us, starting this year. So, he confessed to me and said, ‘Hey, boss, this what I want to do, this is how I feel.’
“Obviously, from our point of view, Mikuru Asakura, Kai Asakura, they both are very important,” he continued. “They are our key figures for our event, and it’s normal for us to think that we don’t want to give them away to anybody else. We want to keep them. We want to continue to grow with them. But I also understand him as a fighter and as a man who wants to continue to push himself, who wants to challenge himself. The time is running out. I understand all that.”
Time will tell how much the Asakura loss hurts RIZIN, if at all. From Sakakibara’s perspective, it’s a similar case to that of another former champion, Jiri Prochazka, who went on to capture the UFC light heavyweight title after a fruitful RIZIN run. Ultimately, the RIZIN boss isn’t going to hold back the best fighters on the planet, which was a part of the original idea to have a “federation” in the first place after returning from his PRIDE FC non-compete clause in 2015.
“I know that as a promoter, maybe I should have locked him up in the contract and say, ‘Hey, you have obligations,’ but I just couldn’t do that,” Sakakibara said. “On the flip side of it, I think by sending out Kai, he’s going to probably represent Japan and RIZIN, and if he does well, it’s good for us as well.
“I personally want to see him beat Sean O’Malley. I want to see him fight Sean O’Malley and see what’s going to happen, you know? So for me, it was a tough call, but I decided to have this father-like mentality to send him out into the open, the big, big waters, and see what he can do.”
Watch the full episode in the video embedded above, or listen to it on Spotify.