Dana White on collaborations with Rizin

Dana White talked about the current a potential future collaboration with the Rizin federation.

In the evening fight of the UFC 310 gala Alexandre Pantoja and Kai Asakura faced each other. The excellent UFC champion defeated the talented Japanese in a championship bout. The clash was jointly watched from under the octagon by Dana White and Nobuyuki Sakakibara, former president of PRIDE FC and current head of Rizin.

Dana White was asked at a press conference about his assessment of the main event and what he thought of Asakura’s attitude. The UFC chief commented extensively on the UFC 310 fight of the evening.

– There are two sides to this story. You take a guy like Asakura, for whom this is his first fight in the UFC, take into account all the things like the first fight in the octagon, the whole fight week and other things, and this guy drives in with a flying knee, ready for an absolute exchange of punches. Who among you wouldn’t want to see three more rounds conducted at just such a frenetic pace? That would have been incredible. It was a very good fight, with the victory going to the dominant Pantoja, who performed amazingly.

Contrary to opinions about other promoters and organizations, in the case of Rizin Dana White admitted that he is open to collaborations and joint market building.

– Listen we did it today and Kai did a good job. I would like to do it again. I just talked to Sakakibara in my office, he told me that now in Japan all young fighters have one goal. Every one of them wants to become the first fighter from Japan to reach for the UFC championship belt. This is exciting for me.

– MMA in Japan has a very rich history, some of the best days of my life were our rivalry with PRIDE FC. This is both a great time in my life and a great time in Sakakibara’s life. We’ve talked about it and that’s how we want to work together. I would also very much like to organize a gala in Japan, at least some fight night.