I've seen most of Kai Asakura's fights in RIZIN but I've never actually sat down to actually study him. Just casually watching thru his stuff now and oh boy, he seems uniquely geared to making Alexandre Pantoja look like a monster. Not super mobile. Can get drawn into long exchanges on the feet where he goes square and/or gets really high in his stance, giving access to the hips and legs. Primary defense when presented with a blitzing fighter is to move backwards. Can be put on the ropes with SOME pressure. His defensive wrestling is improved from what it was early on but it's still not particularly amazing. He can stop the first attempt but he gets locked up defending and someone who can chain wrestle can probably use those situations to get him down (Pantoja's specialty). And who knows how Kai will handle having to wrestle off the cage.
It really seems like Kai's best bet is his size and tagging Pantoja as he attempts to close range. Not impossible. Pantoja is getting old and Kai will be HUGE at 125lbs. But if he can't, this feels like a RNC waiting to happen. Happy Kai is being treated like a big deal but can definitely see this going terrible for him.
