https://x.com/BrMassami/status/1747932652521587011?s=20
Today, Rizin President Nobuyuki Sakakibara shows interest to have a meeting in early February with UFC President, Dana White.
— Bruno Massami (Бруно Массами) (@BrMassami) January 18, 2024
He is looking to support Kyoji Horiguchi and Kai Asakura to try get a spot in UFC.
Sakakibara knows it's not a easy move but he wants to talk with UFC… pic.twitter.com/wJzRTVEK2P
Is this like when silva was going to fight Randy or Chuck wasn’t sticking to the game plan
Kyoji is a must. Has arguably been the best Flw in the world imo and could beat the past 3 Flw champs. Or maybe DJ is still the best? Either way, Kyoji is maybe the best fighter not in the UFC? Bet him and Umar? The Nurmagomedov in Bellator.
Time is ticking for Kyoji tho. They should been pushing a few years ago already.
Who tf is Silver?
Lol meant Silva
Interesting move.
I’m sure it helps Rizin gate/attendance keeping these two in Japan under Rizin banner?
I guess Nobu wants these Japanese warriors to go to a larger promotion to represent Japan.
This is what has hurt UFC FLW for the hardcore fans.
Horiguchi has been up at BW and in RIZIN/Bellator.
Johnson has been in ONE and up at BW.
Askarov went back to ACA.
Ougikubo went to RIZIN after TUF. He beat Pantoja, current UFC champ.
Kerefov in ACA is 17-0 and Brooks in ONE is 22-2.
You will always have stuff like Benavidez retiring and Fig, Pettis and Cejudo moving up in weight but I mean damn, when the best fighters who can still make FLW just leave for ONE, RIZIN and ACA…its hard to be too interested in the Moreno title fight because now you got to “change the channel” just to watch Johnson and Horiguchi compete.
I’ll put it like this Kara France can be ranked #4 in the UFC at the moment but so much of the top talent is outside the UFC, nobody believes Kara France is close to #4 in the world at the moment if a tournament of the best needed to be seeded.
Didn’t know Ougikubo was in TUF or that he beat Pantoja. Did Pantoja improve a lot since then?
Hiro went 3-1 on tuf, losing in the finals. I was surprised he didn’t get a shot.
He must have, but this was immediately after he beat Moreno for the first time.
Nobody outside of ufc casuals. Which makes up the majority of mma fans these days. Especially when talking about the lighter weights.
Hopefuly Dana makes this happen. Horiguchi is one of the GOATs of the division and I’ve always wondered how Kai Asakura would do against competition outside of Rizin. People like Jiri and Manel Kape have been very successful. The Asakura brothers are the most exciting fighters in Rizin. Hopefully Minoru comes back too.
Hopefully it ends better for him than it did for Morishita…
Well, yeah, nobody outside of UFC casuals…
I guess I was just saying, personally, not being able to see a lot of the top flyweights fighting each other has just really hurt my interest in the division.
Johnson going to ONE was like Jones leaving for ONE in his prime at LHW. Just changes everything.
On top of that you got Horiguchi being like the DC of FLW, having only lost to Johnson in the UFC and then he leaves the UFC too and moves up to BW.
Formiga kinda aged out but I think they cut him after he went 0-3 at the end there.
The timing of things really worked out for Figueiredo and Moreno.
Johnson leaves for ONE.
Horiguchi leaves for RIZIN and Bellator.
Ogikubo goes to RIZIN after TUF.
Cejudo goes up to BW.
Pettis goes to Bellator.
Fig won a split decision over Jared Brooks in his 2nd UFC fight. Brooks goes to ONE soon after.
Fig loses to Formiga, Formiga loses his next three and gets cut by UFC.
Benavidez starts to get old and then retires.
Askarov has a a draw with Moreno and beat Pantoja but goes back to ACA after only five UFC fights.
I’m not saying Fig, Moreno and Pantoja are not very talented and have not got better in the past five or six years…I’m just saying a lot of things got shook up and went their way in that division as well and they won gold without having to beat Johnson, Horiguchi, Cejudo, Askarov, Pettis, Ougikubo etc… and its probably a very different story if all the top talent was competing at FLW in one promotion.
FLW just had a situation where half the most elite fighters either left the promotion or moved up in weight.
Even Fig himself just moved up to BW.
Just how it goes with that division as some of these big FLW’s start to age and that cut just gets harder and harder.
Forgot about Taira too. He will prob need another year at the least to put himself in contention tho. He is only cracking the top 15 now.
