UFC 310 Opening Odds: Alexandre Pantoja Favored Over Kai Asakura

In a somewhat surprising move, UFC CEO Dana White has named a promotional newcomer as the next opponent for UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja. That fighter is former two-time Rizin bantamweight champion Kai Asakura. Pantoja vs. Asakura serves as the co-main event for the upcoming UFC 310 fight card. Asakura (21-4) has been with Rizin since 2017. He has a 13-3 record with the promotion. Asakura won the vacant Rizin bantamweight title in August 2020 with a knockout win over Hiromasa Ougikubo. He lost the title in his first attempted defense, falling to Kyoji Horiguchi via knockout. The 30-year-old regained the title in his most recent outing, defeating Juan Archuleta by TKO in the second round. In addition to his loss to Horiguchi, Asakura was knocked out by Manel Kape in 2019 and dropped a decision to Hiromasa Ougikubo while with Rizin. He has eight knockout wins with the promotion and five decision victories. Pantoja (28-5) has been with the UFC since 2017. His UFC record is 12-3, with six decision victories, four submissions, and two knockouts. Each of his UFC losses was by way of decision. Pantoja claimed the UFC flyweight title in July 2023 with a split-decision win over Brandon Moreno. In his first defense of the belt, Pantoja defeated Brandon Royval by decision. His most recent outing was a successful May 2024 title defense against Steve Erceg at UFC 301. Pantoja won that bout via decision. According to BetOnline, Pantoja opened as the -210 betting favorite over Asakura, who came in as a +180 betting underdog. UFC 310 is the final pay-per-view on the UFC schedule for 2024. UFC 310 takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on December 7. The main event on the UFC 310 fight card is another title fight. In that matchup, UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad is setto face the No. 3 ranked fighter in the official UFC welterweight rankings, Shavkat Rakhmonov. Muhammad (24-3-0-1) is unbeaten in his past 11 outings. His most recent setback came in January 2019 when he dropped a unanimous decision to Geoff Neal on a UFC Fight Night card in Brooklyn, New York. After that loss, Muhammad settled in and slowly climbed the 170-pound rankings. By the time he faced then-UFC champion Leon Edwards in the main event of UFC 304, Muhammad was the No. 2 fighter in the official UFC rankings. Edwards entered that fight as the -265 betting favorite over Muhammad, who was a +215 betting underdog. Edwards won the fight via decision. At the time, I wrote of Muhammad’s performance, “Belal Muhammad had the perfect game plan for Leon Edwards at UFC 304. Not only did he and his team have that strategy mapped out, but Muhammad seamlessly executed that plan of attack. “Muhammad used pressure and high-output striking to remove time and space from Edwards. That approach forced Edwards to retreat, and once Muhammad had his opponent’s back to the fence, he added his wrestling and ground control to the mix. “Edwards landed a decent percentage of his strikes at 66 percent, but the pressure from Muhammad limited his attempts to just 71 significant strikes. Edwards threw over 100 strikes in his two most recent bouts. Muhammad was especially effective in his wrestling, racking up nine takedowns on 13 attempts and picking up 12:02 of control time.” Rakhmonov (18-0) made his UFC debut in October 2020. Since then he has gone 6-0 with the promotion, earning five submissions and one knockout. Rakhmonov has never gone the distance in his career. His longest fight came in March 2023 when he submitted Geoff Neal at 4:17 of the third round. Rakhmonov’s most recent fight was a December submission win over former two-time UFC welterweight title challenger Stephen Thompson at UFC 296. Rakhmonov said he deserved the next shot at UFC welterweight gold in August. “UFC thinks I’m the No. 1 contender and that I should be next because there’s no clear contender anyway,” Rakhmonov recently told Submission Radio through an interpreter. “I have 100 percent finishes in the UFC, so I actually should be next. Everyone else is also very close, but I think they need one or a couple of wins to get this title shot, so I should be next.” The opening betting odds for the main event of UFC 310, according to BetOnline see Rakhmonov as the -265 betting favorite over Muhammad, who opens as the +225 betting underdog.