UFC President Dana White has nearly booked an unprecedented world title fight at the last major pay-per-view event of the year.
The largest MMA promotion is considered the pinnacle of the sport worldwide. At its helm, Dana White does what he wants. Some fighters have fought for nearly a decade to earn a shot at the belt. But for flyweight, Kai Asakura is preparing to face champion Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 310 in December without having fought once in the UFC. This has never happened in modern UFC history. And on the rare occasions when it has, there were major caveats concerning the belts and the division rankings at the time.
Dana White grants Kai Asakura a UFC title fight in his debut In a promotional video released this week, UFC CEO Dana White confirmed several big fights for the year’s final pay-per-view event. One fight, in particular, caught attention: a flyweight title fight between Pantoja and Asakura, as a co-main event. The champion has already beaten, sometimes multiple times, all his top four challengers, except for Amir Albazi. But the latter must face former champion Brandon Moreno.
Instead, White made an unprecedented decision to offer former RIZIN champion Kai Asakura, who just signed with the promotion, his first title shot. The Japanese star leaves the promotion as the bantamweight champion and now has the chance to win UFC gold within minutes of stepping in the door.
Third time In the modern era of the UFC, only Gilbert Melendez, Liz Carmouche, and Ronda Rousey had the honor of fighting for gold in their debut. Michael Chandler was recently presented as the backup opponent for Khabib Nurmagomedov against Justin Gaethje but ultimately didn’t make it. For Rousey and Carmouche, there were no other fighters in the promotion at the time, so one of them had to fight for the title in the first promotional attempt. Their historic fight at UFC 157 ended with a defining moment in Rousey’s career.
As for Melendez, he became the Strikeforce lightweight champion at a time when there wasn’t a full monopoly at the top of MMA. There were also few challengers for Benson Henderson at that time, and he ultimately didn’t succeed.
