UFC head honcho Dana White decided to bring in former Rizin Champ Kai Asakura into the UFC promotion and give him a direct title shot against Alexandre Pantoja. However, Michael Bisping decided to provide the Japanese rookie flyweight star with a reality check for his new venture into the UFC. Bisping spoke about the young fighter with 21 wins and hinted that he should be cautious. Why? Let’s take a look.

Many fighters have transferred from other promotions to the UFC and have found success, but not without hurdles. For instance, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua came from Pride into the UFC with a Pride Middleweight Grand Prix Champion belt. However, he needed some time to get success in UFC since the style was different.

This is why Bisping was worried for the Rizin star since UFC was a bit different than other promotions. He said, “Steve Erceg a man that shot to fame and rose through the rankings in record time. But Kai Asakura, this is an extremely explosive man he is a lifelong martial artist Bone breaking power as I said to you But if you can’t stop the takedown then I’ll tell you what it’s going to be another fighter coming over from Japan, and not making the transition.”

He also gave examples of fighters like Forrest Griffin and Rua. He spoke about fighters like Marco Croco and said, “People like Marco Croco having a good run in the UFC but certainly was not as successful as what he was in Pride. And the rest goes on and the Garrow brothers again I’m not saying anything bad about these fighters a lot of them went on to become champions. You know they got there eventually but there were a couple of stumbling blocks along the way.”

So all in all, Asakura needs to be cautious with his fighting stance, according to the ex-UFC middleweight fighter. However, Asakura has already shown off his skills by training with Merab Dvalishvili and stopped all takedowns from the bantamweight champ.

Kai Asakura might be a difficult opponent for Pantoja

Pantoja is almost like a concrete pillar for this division and has steadily performed amazingly. However, Asakura wants to spice things up and said the same in the Kai Channel. He said, “First of all, I want to fight in the flyweight division. Why? Because there’s a champion, Alexandre Pantoja, but almost all the ranked fighters have been defeated. I’m going to defeat everyone. It seems that Pantoja is already in his strongest state, but everyone has already been beaten, so it’s not fun anymore.”

‘The Cannibal’ has ruled the division for quite some time, and the 28-fight winner has a moderate takedown rate of 15 minutes and has found victory against fighters like Steve Erceg. Along with that, ‘The Cannibal’ has won by neck-crank submission at UFC 277 against Alex Perez. He also employed a rear naked choke against Brandon Royval at UFC on ESPN 29 on August 21, 2021. 

So it will not be easy for Asakura, even if he is confident. Do you think the legend will win or we will see a new face rise the ranks?