UFC 310 title challenger had first fight against his own brother: “He was really trying to kill me”

Technically speaking, UFC 310 headliner Kai Asakura had his first fight in 2012, when he submitted Tomoya Suzuki. If you ask the man himself, however, he’ll tell you his first fight came earlier than that, when he took on his own brother, Mikuru.

Kai Asakura’s first ever fight was a street fight against his own brother

“One day, my older brother called me out into the street… He was really trying to kill me with each strike.”

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“My older brother was fighting in the street every day,” Japan’s Asakura said in a video package released by the UFC, which features footage of his scrap with his brother. “He beat everyone and there was no one left to fight. So one day, my older brother called me out into the street — in the middle of the night.

“Suddenly, he gave me some boxing gloves to wear,” he added. “He was really trying to kill me with each strike. I was able to dodge everything. It was the first time I ever had a real fight. That’s when I realized I had serious potential as a fighter. That’s what got me to train MMA.”