In 2024, Kai Asakura announced his farewell to the Rizin arena to join UFC. He was unexpectedly arranged by UFC to compete for the championship right in the launch of the tournament. It was the Flyweight weighing championship match, where Kai Asakura lost to Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 310.
In fact, the defeat of Alexandre Pantoja showed many limitations of Kai Asakura. Japanese boxers are inferior to many aspects of the MMA skill set. That made many experts say UFC brought Kai Asakura to compete early to attract audiences from the Japanese market.
The defeat of Pantoja helped Kai Asakura have a position in the UFC rankings, where he ranked 15th in the weight of Flyweight. Japanese boxers will have the opportunity to improve their rankings, when he was closed at the UFC 319 event. This time the opponent of Asakura was Tim Elliott, the 11 ranked.
The competition with Elliott's heart will verify the ability of Kai Asakura to play at UFC. In the past, some boxers have achieved success at UFC after leaving Rizin like Jiri Prochazka. However, the number of Asian representatives shows that the possibility is still quite rare at the present time.
Kai Asakura was born in 1993, with a professional MMA competition 26 matches, including 21 victories (13 no, 3 submission) and 5 defeats. He has won the Rizin Bantamweight Rizin Championship in the past.