UFC CEO Dana White confirmed that he was very interested in welcoming more Japanese champions from RIZIN FF, with the full support of RIZIN president Sakakibara.
Kai Asakura may not be the only Japanese champion we see in the UFC.
While the RIZIN flyweight champion got bullied and slept by Alexandre Pantoja in just under a round and a half, it marked the beginning of a renewed friendship between UFC CEO Dana White and RIZIN FF president Nobuyuki Sakakibara.
White and Sakakibara were once rivals during the early 2000s when the Sakakibara-run PRIDE was bigger and more successful than the fledgling UFC. Their fortunes would reverse after a Yakuza scandal forced PRIDE off broadcast television and The Ultimate Fighter earned UFC a spot on basic cable.
White would end up buying and shutting down PRIDE in 2007, sending Sakakibara into the wilderness with a lengthy non-compete contract.
Dana White: There’s such a rich history of MMA in Japan. Some of the best days of my life were our rivalry with Pride. It was a really fun time in my life. pic.twitter.com/2xK0opC9z0
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) December 8, 2024
Now Sakakibara is back and his company RIZIN is one of those rare fight promotions that moves serious numbers of tickets and pay-per-views. That’s earned some respect from White, who seems tired of the half-baked competition he deals with these days. The two businessmen met multiple times over UFC 310 fight week and spent a good chunk of the event together.
Asked if he’d bring over more Japanese champions after the Asakura experiment, White said “I would love to do it!”
“We were just talking in my room, and he’s saying that in Japan all of these young guys now wanna be the first one to win a world title in the UFC,” he continued. “So that’s exciting. There’s such a rich history of MMA in Japan, and some of the best days of my life were our rivalry with PRIDE, it was a really fun time in my life. And in his too. We were talking about it.”
Dana White exited #UFC310 with RIZIN president Nobiyuki Sakakibara pic.twitter.com/GFvOvfiDsT
— Nolan King (@mma_kings) December 8, 2024
It’s funny to hear that now considering some of the things White and Sakakibara said about each other back in the day. All water under the bridge now, and things seem so cozy between the men that we don’t doubt we’ll see some more collaboration, if only in the form of RIZIN fighters competing in UFC.
“So the answer is yes to all of that,” White said of working with RIZIN. “I’d love to go do a Fight Night there too.”
Is it too much to hope for a wild RIZIN vs. UFC event at Saitama Super Arena? That might be asking too much of the rigid UFC, but a man can dream.