{"id":40201,"date":"2026-08-31T06:44:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T06:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Kai-Asakura-finds-new-life-in-UFC-following-rocky-flyweight-start-202593"},"modified":"2026-08-31T06:44:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T06:44:59","slug":"kai-asakura-finds-new-life-in-ufc-following-rocky-flyweight-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/kai-asakura-finds-new-life-in-ufc-following-rocky-flyweight-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Kai Asakura finds new life in UFC following rocky flyweight start"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Kai
\nAsakura<\/a> is reinvigorated at bantamweight following a rocky
\nstart in the
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asakura stopped Qileng Aori<\/a>
\nwith a second-round technical knockout at
\nUFC Shanghai<\/a> on Aug. 29. The Japanese star is now 2-0 in the
\nUFC bantamweight division after losing his first two UFC fights via
\nsubmission at flyweight. He detailed how his approach has changed
\nsince the move up and broke down his finishing move against Aori
\nsoon after the victory.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Kai Asakura says bantamweight gives him more power, speed and
\nconfidence<\/h2>\n

Asakura claims that he can be more assertive with his offense at
\n135 pounds, a significant improvement on how he felt while
\ncompeting at 125 pounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt bantamweight, I have more power and I have more speed,\u201d Asakura
\nsaid in a post-fight interview. \u201cSo, I feel like I can fight with
\nmore confidence than at flyweight.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also broke down the sequence that led to the finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were two things,\u201d Asakura added. \u201cThe opponent was backing
\naway and he was trying to counter with the right, so I made the
\ndistance a little bit closer and he was also focusing on the body
\nshots, so I put a head kick in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

With two straight victories at bantamweight, Asakura now hopes to
\nface a ranked 135-pounder next.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to fight in Top 15, anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

“I want to fight in top 15, anyone.”<\/p>\n

After back-to-back finishes at bantamweight, Kai Asakura<\/a>
\n(@kai_1031_<\/a>) has
\nhis sights set on a ranked matchup next time out
\n#UFCShanghai<\/a><\/p>\n

Main Card Results \u27a1\ufe0f https:\/\/t.co\/G8E8FUHmUD<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/3YQb84t02n<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 UFC News (@UFCNews)
\nAugust 29, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kai Asakura is reinvigorated at bantamweight following a rocky start in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Asakura stopped Qileng Aori with a second-round technical knockout at UFC Shanghai on Aug. 29. The Japanese star is now 2-0 in the UFC bantamweight division after losing his first two UFC fights via submission at flyweight. He detailed how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}