UFC Macau update: Kai Asakura to face fighter who collapsed at UFC 324 weigh-ins

Barring something funky on fight night, one of these two Ultimate Fighting Championship athletes will shed a losing streak at night’s end. The UFC announced the return of former Rizin Fighting Federation champion Kai Asakura (21-6) on Thursday, who will be moving back up to 135 pounds after suffering two defeats in the Octagon. He draws fellow skidding combatant Cameron Smotherman (12-6), who won his promotional debut and has since dropped two decisions.

The latter may be more famously known as the one who made weight ahead of his UFC 324 match with Ricky Turcios , only to faint and faceplant shortly after walking off the scales. Japan’s Asakura, 32, has not panned out since debuting with the promotion in 2024. Coming off winning the Rizin bantamweight belt against Juan Archuleta at the end of 2023—where Archuleta missed weight by over five pounds on fight night—Asakura was thrust into an immediate title shot.

Champ Alexandre Pantoja throttled him in just over seven minutes, rendering the Rings: Outsider expat unconscious for the first submission defeat of his career. After over nine months away, Asakura came back against Tim Elliott , only to get submitted again. This prompted a relocation to bantamweight, a division he previously competed at from 2018 to 2023.

The two will collide at UFC Macau , also known as UFC Fight Night 277, which goes down on May 30 at the Galaxy Arena in Macau, a special administrative region in China. It will mark the first time that Houstonian Smotherman has competed outside of the U. S.