Emotional Appeal: Japanese UFC Fighter Ask Shohei Ohtani for…
Making his UFC debut at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Japanese MMA phenom Kai Asakura will face UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja in the main event of the UFC 310 card.
If that weren’t enough pressure, the fight will also mark Asakura’s first ever in the United States — he’s 21-4 as a pro MMA fighter but every fight has taken place in Japan for a number of promotions, most notably Rizin.
Though Asakura will be fighting in unfamiliar territory he’s hoping to see a friendly face in the crowd after the 31-year-old prize fighter made a plea for the $700 million MLB star to come watch him fight in person.
“I have never met [Ohtani], but I’d love him to come and watch my fight,” Asakura said through a translator to TMZ Sports.
It’s not known whether Ohtani is a UFC fan, or even a combat sports fan, but it’s not uncommon to see big stars from other sports as well as other high-profile celebrities sitting cage-side for some of the UFC’s biggest pay-per-view events.
As for what Ohtani and his entourage can expect from Asakura’s UFC debut, he was pretty confident he could turn Ohtani into a fight fan if he could just get him to the arena.
“They’re gonna realize that I have an explosive fight style,” Asakura added. “I think they’re gonna see something that they’ve never seen before, and I want them to be my fans after this fight as well going forward.”
The 30-year-old Ohtani, who hit a career-high 54 home runs and 130 RBIs in 159 games for the World Series champion Los Angels Dodgers this season, is also a native of Japan.
His professional baseball career started overseas for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of the Nippon Professional Baseball league back in 2013. There, he was a five-time All-Star, a three-time Pacific League Best Nine selection, the Pacific League MVP and Japan Series champion in 2016.
After joining MLB in 2018, Ohtani took the league by storm, winning American League Rookie of the Year. He achieved several other milestones including becoming a two-time AL MVP, a seven-time All-MLB selection, a four-time All-Star, a three-time Silver Slugger, and a World Series champion.
