—Could you tell us about your costume you’re wearing today?
On New Year’s Eve, μ’s (the voice actors from an animation called “love live”) are going to be on NHK (Japanese national TV broadcaster), so it’s inspired by that. When my fight is over, I am thinking of turning on the TV and tuning into NHK. But before I can do that, I have a job to do in the ring. Then I will think about TV.

—What if you are both on at the same time?
In 2010 when I was on the Dynamite card, my fight time was close to Nanako Mizuki’s TV appearance time, so yeah, I guess that is totally possible. Fans of μ’s will be watching NHK for sure, but if the Idol Master (Japanese raising simulation video game) fans can watch me, I would be really happy.

—What kind of performance will you give on the day?
Well since this event is being broadcast on Fuji TV, I have chosen a costume from Noitamina (Fuji Television programming block, devoted to anime, originally broadcast every Thursday late night from 24:45 to 25:15)

—What are your thoughts on an MMA match?
How long has it been since I’ve been in an MMA match? When I was a senior in university I had an MMA match, but I couldn’t tell you how long it has been since then? But in saying that, I know the job I have to do and I plan to put on a great MMA match.

—Who did you practice with?
Most of my training was with the Cobra Kai MMA dojo. I trained with Mishima Sensei, Kempo master Yusaku Nakamura, as well as with the Kansai All-Stars.

—Is your opponent a striker?
He plans to tackle this like an MMA fight and has been training as such. That’s why I think he is going to have a difficult time fighting me. If I concentrated all my training on fighting a striker, I’d lose focus on the other aspects of MMA like takedowns. But I do realize that his strikes are his biggest weapons so I have to be careful of those. He has many aspects that scare me.

—Are you wary of Andy Souwer’s ground game?
Yes, I am. I wouldn’t be practicing if I wasn’t scared of that. If he takes me down, I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I learnt from Mishima Sensei that I want to use. I am also very glad to hear that elbows have been banned.

—When you are fighting, how will you appeal to the fans?
I want all those channel surfers to stop when they see such a weird guy like me on TV. People will start wondering about me, and I want to change how the world views “otaku” geeks. I don’t think your traditional MMA fans will be too interested in me, what I am thinking about is how to win over the casual fans.

—What kind of fight is your ideal fight?
I want to have a fight similar to Takayama vs Don Frye.