Dana White Optimistic About Future of UFC-Japan Relationship

By Martial Arts Videos December 9, 2024
Martial Arts News 16 total views, 1 today

Though UFC 310
wasn’t a cross-promoted event, there were some elements that gave
Saturday’s card a little bit of a different feel.

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That started with the main event, where former
Rizin Fighting Federation bantamweight champion Kai Asakura
was given a flyweight title shot against Alexandre
Pantoja in his Octagon debut. Though Asakura had his moments in
the early going, he ultimately succumbed to a rear-naked choke from
his Brazilian opponent at the 2:05 mark of the second round.
There’s no shame in coming up short against Pantoja, who is one of
the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport today. UFC CEO Dana
White came away impressed with what he saw from Japan Top Team
representative in limited action.

“There are two sides to this story. You take a guy like Asakura,
who came into the UFC your first time. We talk about the jitters
and all the things that happened, your first time fighting in a
cage, etc., etc. – and he came in guns-ablazing, flying knee right
away,” White said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “Then,
Pantoja, how he put the pressure back on him – who in this room
didn’t want to see three more rounds of that? It would’ve been
amazing. It was a great fight and Pantoja went out and dominated. …
He’s awesome. He looked incredible tonight.”

Meanwhile, Rizin president Nobuyuki Sakakibara was a noteworthy
presence in the crowd at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on
Saturday night. Sakakibara met with White prior to the event and
also spoke with the UFC boss that night.

White seemed optimistic about building a relationship with
Sakakibara and Rizin to bring more Japanese fighters to the
UFC.

“We did it tonight,” White said. “He [Asakura] had a good
performance. I would love to do it. Having these up-and-coming
Japanese fighters, we were just talking in my room. He’s saying now
in Japan, all of these young guys want to be the first one to win a
world title in the UFC. That’s exciting.

“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 and in his too. We were talking about it, so the answer is
yes to all that. I’d love to go do a Fight Night there, too.”

The Las Vegas-based promotion hasn’t held an event in Japan since
Sept. 22, 2017, when UFC Fight 117 saw Ovince St.
Preux submit Yushin Okami
in the evening’s main event at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama,
Japan.

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