UFC 310 title challenger had first fight against his own brother: “He was really trying to kill me”

Technically speaking, UFC 310 headliner Kai Asakura had his first fight in 2012, when he submitted Tomoya Suzuki. If you ask the man himself, however, he’ll tell you his first fight came earlier than that, when he took on his own brother, Mikuru.

Kai Asakura’s first ever fight was a street fight against his own brother

“One day, my older brother called me out into the street… He was really trying to kill me with each strike.”

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“My older brother was fighting in the street every day,” Japan’s Asakura said in a video package released by the UFC, which features footage of his scrap with his brother. “He beat everyone and there was no one left to fight. So one day, my older brother called me out into the street — in the middle of the night.

“Suddenly, he gave me some boxing gloves to wear,” he added. “He was really trying to kill me with each strike. I was able to dodge everything. It was the first time I ever had a real fight. That’s when I realized I had serious potential as a fighter. That’s what got me to train MMA.”

A Tough Debut at UFC 310

Kai Asakura will challenge Alexandra Pantoja for the flyweight belt in the main event of this Saturday’s year-end UFC 310 card in Las Vegas. It will be the Japanese star’s first appearance in the Octagon. It’s far from his first big fight. The 31-year-old is a former bantamweight champion in Japan’s RIZIN Fighting Federation, and has beaten the likes of Kyoji Horiguchi, Juan Archuleta, and Ulka Sasaki.

Heading into UFC 310, he’s sporting an impressive 21-4 record. The champion Pantoja, on the other hand, is sitting at 28-5, and has cemented himself as the division’s top dog with recent wins over the likes of Steve Erceg, Brandon Royval, Brandon Moreno, and Manel Kape.

UFC 310 will be co-headlined by a welterweight clash, with Shavkat Rakhmonov taking on Ian Garry in a battle of undefeated contenders. It will also feature a clash of top heavyweight contenders with Ciryl Gane taking on Alexander Volkov.