{"id":168957,"date":"2025-09-25T21:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T21:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/168957\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T21:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T21:29:07","slug":"former-mma-champion-announces-major-change-following-difficult-start-to-ufc-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/168957\/","title":{"rendered":"Former MMA champion announces major change following difficult start to UFC career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former RIZIN star Kai Asakura has decided to return to the bantamweight division after starting his UFC run with back-to-back losses. <\/p>\n

One of the biggest names in Japanese MMA, Asakura joined the UFC to considerable fanfare in 2024 and was given an immediate title shot against UFC Flyweight Champion Alexandre Pantoja<\/a> at UFC 310, where Pantoja spoiled the former RIZIN titleholder\u2019s debut<\/a> with a second-round submission. <\/p>\n

Asakura was a sizeable favorite heading into his second Octagon outing opposite Tim Elliott at UFC 319, but the 31-year-old suffered the same fate as in his debut and was submitted late in the second round.<\/p>\n

Roughly a month and a half removed from his loss to Elliott, Asakura revealed on his YouTube channel<\/a> that he\u2019s decided that his next UFC fight will be at 135 lbs. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: Conor McGregor reveals payment demands for MMA return fight on UFC White House card<\/a><\/p>\n

“I\u2019m going to move up a weight class, so I\u2019m going to prepare properly and get my body in shape again,\u201d Asakura said (h\/t Cageside Press). \u201cIt might be next year or so, but I\u2019ll definitely win my next fight. It\u2019s not because someone told me to, but because I\u2019ve always done things based on my own instincts. I want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/p>\n

Tim Elliott (red gloves) fights Kai Asakura (blue gloves) during UFC 319 at United Center. \/ Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Asakura primarily competed below 135 lbs. through the early part of his career, but he fully committed to bantamweight for a rematch with Je Hoon Moon under the RIZIN banner in 2018 and avenged his previous flyweight loss to Moon with a unanimous decision victory.<\/p>\n

Following his win over Moon, Asakura stopped former UFC title challenger Kyoji Horiguchi<\/a> in just over a minute before he extended his winning run to six fights by finishing another UFC veteran in Ulka Sasaki at RIZIN 19. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: Conor McGregor teases wild move into brutal new sport after next MMA fight<\/a><\/p>\n

Current top-ranked UFC flyweight contender Manel Kape<\/a> ended Asakura\u2019s winning streak on New Year\u2019s Eve in 2019, but after a one-off exhibition bout with Ehime Pro Wrestling the Japanese star returned to RIZIN and claimed the promotion\u2019s vacant bantamweight belt against Hiromasa Ougikubo at RIZIN 23. The 31-year-old defended his RIZIN belt once with a first-round finish of Shoji Marayuma before Horiguchi stopped him in their headlining rematch at RIZIN 26. <\/p>\n

\"Kai<\/p>\n

Kai Asakura is a two-time RIZIN bantamweight champion. \/ (Sachiko HOTAKA)<\/p>\n

Asakura went on to win three-straight fights before coming up short in a rematch with Ougikubo in 2021. After stopping Yuki Motoya in his first fight in a year and a half, Asakura reclaimed the RIZIN bantamweight belt by stopping former Bellator titleholder Juan Archuleta<\/a> and made the jump to the UFC the following year. <\/p>\n

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Stick with MMAKnockout<\/a> for more FREE coverage of the UFC and MMA.<\/p>\n

Follow MMAKnockout on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former RIZIN star Kai Asakura has decided to return to the bantamweight division after starting his UFC run…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-168957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}