Dana White and his multibillion-dollar fight promotion faced quite an embarrassment at the weigh-ins for UFC 310. It has been a routine affair for UFC to get a translator; multi-lingual Brazilian Fabiano Buskei definitely comes to mind, the UFC translator (and interpreter) and it has been over four years now since his first event with the promotion. So omnipresent is his personality, be it his quick-witted delivery or meme-able reactions, his rare absences are taken notice of, far more than his presence. So, with Kai Asakura set to fight Alexandre Pantoja in the main event, a rare miss by the UFC head honcho became the apple of discord for Kai and the fans.

Dana White and Co. messed up big time by failing to secure a translator for the Japanese fighter. Rogan asked the Japanese star, “Kai Asakura, nice to meet you, sir. It speaks so much about your reputation and your accomplishments that your debut in the UFC is for the flyweight title. Give us your thoughts on what this is like and what tomorrow night will bring for you.”

Asakura had trouble responding to the UFC color commentator. He started off with: “Oh please, translator!”

Now, here we have a matchup as interesting as Asakura vs. Pantoja: Asakura, unranked in both the UFC rankings and the MMA Fighting Global Rankings but is all pure dynamism, boasting his knockout power and finishing ability that is not without reason. In 21 professional wins, 16 have come by finish, 12 in the first round. He is known to be a threat to finish a fight, which isn’t really what a durable Pantoja — an elite grappler, fighting for his third defense of his UFC flyweight title who has a claim to being the second-greatest flyweight of all time, just behind Demetrious Johnson — is known for. But moving on…

Joe Rogan looked around: “Translator, please.”
As much as it wasn’t a hilarious moment, Rogan looked to make light of the situation. The desperation was apparent when he said:

“Oh, we don’t have a translator. That’s hilarious! I’ll translate for you. You’re gonna kick some a–. You’re awesome.” Jeez, talk about losing your audience! It was at this point that the former 2-time RIZIN champion refused to sit this one out as a lame duck. He snatched the mic, walk up a few steps, and declared, “Okay, okay, okay!

“Tomorrow, I will put on a show. I’ll become UFC champion. I will change flyweight division! Come on, baby!”
Rogan followed that up with a “Good luck to you, sir. Kai Asakura, ladies and gentleman” And, scene!

Soon, the video footage of Kai Asakura’s interaction with Rogan found its way to social media as ESPN MMA shared the moment on IG. The netizens wasted no time in jumping to the comments section to reveal their thoughts about the UFC’s goof-up. Let’s take a look at what the fighting community had to say.

Fans put Dana White and Joe Rogan in the crosshairs for failing to bring a translator for Kai Asakura at UFC 310 weigh-ins

One of the fans pointed out that it was shameful for the UFC to not get a Japanese translator. The comment read, “UFC is not preparing Japanese translation, it’s a little shame.” Asakura is a main event fighter, and despite being a fight promotion worth more than $12 billion, the UFC failed to get a translator for him. Criticizing this, one fan wrote, “Billion dollar company can’t even get a translator ready for their main event fighter.” Meanwhile, another fan commented, “Can’t even have a translator ready and they know he don’t speak English like that.”

Another fan asserted that Dana White was probably busy with the promotion of PowerSlap. The comment read, “I find it kind of embarrassing from the UFC not to have a translator ready for your new international talent that’s fighting for a title Dana too busy promoting Slap.”

The fighting community also brought in Duolingo, the app that’s famous for teaching different languages. Making a mockery of JRE, a fan who impersonated Joe Rogan on his podcast. The fan wrote, “Jamie pull up the Duolingo Japanese app.” Another fan commented, “They thought my boys has been on Duolingo or what.” 

Nevertheless, Asakura managed to win the fight fans’ respect for not giving up. One fan wrote, “I like his confidence tho.” Another fan wrote, “I respect him trying, a lot of fighters don’t even bother.” A few fans even liked the way he spoke. One of them wrote, “A for effort on his English.”

What do you think of the UFC’s goof-up? Do you think this incident would make White more cautious? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.