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It seemed like just another day at the Syndicate MMA for Vince Morales. In for his usual day of training, he suddenly noticed an unusual face at the Las Vegas, Nevada-based gym: RIZIN talent Kai Asakura.
Morales saw him training and thought he looked sharp. “I gotta go get some work in with him,” he thought. At the time, it didn’t feel like anything more than training with a new fighter, although Morales does remember hitting it off well with him.
Fast forward to late 2023, that encounter with Asakura would bring Morales to a packed 23,000 fan Saitama Super Arena in Japan.
A ticket to Japan
Morales didn’t know it at the time, but his choice to train with the new guy at a gym opened doors for him. It gave him a connection to one of the most powerful names in the Japanese MMA scene currently. It gave him a chance to get on the country’s biggest card of the year.
The story of Morales getting on the RIZIN’s New Year’s Eve show is a story of one detail after another conveniently falling into place. Asakura had previously come to Syndicate MMA to train ahead of a few fights. But after launching Japan Top Team with his brother Mikuru in late 2023, he decided to stay inside the country for the fight camp before he faced incumbent champion Juan Archuleta on December 31.
Asakura brought some of Syndicate MMA with him. He brought in Billy Bigelow II, a wrestling coach, and also flew out Morales as a sparring partner. The plan for Morales at first was simple: Come in, train with Asakura and his team for a month, then go back home. Soon, however, the training nearly became a side quest of the trip.
“He was looking at paying me for my time,” Morales said in an interview with Bloody Elbow. The idea was floated that he could maybe fight for DEEP, a notable regional promotion in Japan. Then, suddenly, a much more enticing possibility came up: “‘What about RIZIN?’” Asakura asked him. “Like, duh, hell yeah, sure,” Morales recalls thinking.
For Morales, RIZIN was the biggest opportunity for him since his eight-fight UFC run concluded in 2022. At 33 years old, Morales was looking to get noticed and string together wins so he could get back to the “big show.” He picked up two victories on low-profile U.S. regional cards earlier in 2023, beating Teruto Ishihara and Joe Penafiel.
A veteran welcomes Vince Morales at RIZIN
The RIZIN booking would put him on a big stage — attendance-wise, one of the biggest in the sport all year. For reference: RIZIN 45 saw a larger attendance than any UFC card that same year. Stakes were raised even more when he realized his opponent would be 17-fight RIZIN vet Yuki Motoya. Previous performances from Motoya included a finish over Rogerio Bontorin in 2022, and a loss to Asakura earlier in 2023.
“I was a little nervous at first because he’s got so much [RIZIN] tenure,” he said. “I just knew, if Kai’s fighting him, he’s up there. So, I wanted to respect that and treat it accordingly.”
The fight was a unanimous decision win for Morales in the end. He showed aggression with his striking against Motoya and was able to evade trouble on the ground. In retrospect, Morales feels his fast start might have stopped him from earning a stoppage.
“I think I was forcing myself to try to get him out of there too much,” he said. “If I let it develop I could’ve gotten the job done.”
The larger goal remains the same
The win last month was just one piece of a bigger puzzle for Morales. His goal remains a big one: Get back into the UFC. He believes his first promotional run was hurt by the pressure of the big stage.
“It was the most money I had been fighting for … Every fight’s potentially your last fight in the UFC. Just a lot of things that I let weigh extra on me that forced me to not let myself go,” he reflected “[I didn’t] let my hands go or let my fight go because I spent a lot of time in there trying not to lose, really. And that’s not where we do our best. As fighters, we do our best when we’re going out there to fight.”
While his UFC campaign was cut short, it took that time in the promotion to realize what he needed to do to succeed at that level.
“Unfortunately, eight fights in, ups and downs with it, it took that to really get me out of that box and realize what I need to really be doing to perform at my level, which I think is a high level.”
After scoring his third consecutive win in December, Morales says he’s back. He’s now hoping that his current run can catapult him to another big opportunity in the sport.
“I haven’t felt like this in a very long time. I don’t even know if I’ve ever felt this good. I’m in a stride, a little bit. Hope I can get a call somewhere big and they can start taking notice of what I can do and who Vince Morales really is.”
Weeks removed, Morales still gushes about his time in Japan. He marveled at the architecture. He remembered feeling welcomed and treated graciously by those he brushed shoulders with. He ate so much food that he started to worry he could gain weight. His fanbase grew massively, and Japanese fans now represent a solid fraction of his following.
“I’m getting so many messages in Japanese, and I gotta hit translate every time,” Morales said. “It’s really bizarre. It’s so cool, though, at the same time.”
The trip to Japan was a great experience for him, and he can’t wait until he gets back. His next trip to the country might be for business yet again: Morales said that he will soon be meeting with RIZIN officials to discuss potential future appearances.