5. Ren Hiramoto vs Mikuru Asakura
The other major mixed martial arts event this week is Super RIZIN 3, which will take place soon after UFC 304, starting at midnight EST in the US. Though it is an MMA card, RIZIN does odd things, so three of the biggest fighters on the card come from either boxing or kickboxing: Manny Pacquiao, Rukiya Anpo, and Ren Hiramoto. Pacquiao is forty-five years old going into an exhibition with former K-1 champ Anpo, so that fight will absolutely not be on this list though it is notable.
The fight that will be really good on Super RIZIN 3 is Ren Hiramoto vs Mikuru Asakura. Hiramoto is a star in Japan due to his looks, as well as his fighting. Although he has a poor 3-3 MMA record, he is a former K-1 and KRUSH tournament runner-up with prodigious kickboxing ability and the usual thrilling Japanese style of kickboxing. He is almost certainly the better striker than Asakura, who is a striker also but has always competed in MMA, like his brother Kai, the RIZIN bantamweight champion who just signed with the UFC.
Mikuru can absolutely hang on the feet, but will probably be just outmatched. Ren is just younger, faster, and sharper. But Asakura will be the more well-rounded MMA fighter, as Ren has really struggled to develop any sort of wall-wrestling ability. His wins in MMA are mostly against other kickboxers who could not wrestle at all themselves. Mikuru is a not a great wrestler, not even a good one, per se. But he has been training this sport for more than ten years while Ren began in 2020, and is clearly not focused on it full-time. Despite most of his losses being by submission, including his recent failure to capture the vacant featherweight title at the hands of Vugar Karamov, the more experienced MMA fighter has a good chance to mix this up and eke out a victory. He does not even have to take Hiramoto down, even holding him against the fence may be enough.
Hopefully Ren has improved enough – or Mikuru just does not try to grapple – so that will not work and fans are treated to an epic kickboxing brawl in four-ounce gloves, which are designed to increase violence. These Japanese fighters both have juice for days and can go to war until the wheels fall off, as anyone who has watched their past fights will know. There are always underrated fights going on in Japan, in the West it is simply a matter of staying up late enough to watch them.
