Kate Lotus competes against Katie Perez at Rizin 53 on May 10th. When asked if it was exciting to get a quicker turnaround here and get back out to the ring after the March setback at Rizin 52, Kate Lotus said [viaBowks Talking Bouts],
“I prefer fighting with quick turnarounds. I mean obviously weight cutting is something that is always kind of an obstacle but for this fight we’ve agreed to catch weight. So weight shouldn’t be an issue.”
When asked if after this catchweight contest she was more interested in pursuing a path toward RFF super atomweight gold, Kate Lotus stated [viaBowks Talking Bouts],
“I personally hope so. Like obviously it’s not at the weight class that I want to pursue. But I would want it to mean something or else it won’t really serve a purpose of fighting. So I hope that a win against Katie Perez at this class, this weight, will mean something for me to move on with my career for the super atomweight division.”
Though she sustained a loss in Q1 of 2026, Lotus still went the distance with a tough individual in Saori Oshima, who ultimately had fought for the Rizin belt before. When asked what kind of lessons she took away from such a contest, Kate Lotus quipped [viaBowks Talking Bouts],
“I’m not fond of grapplers. I don’t like grapplers, don’t like facing grapplers. Somewhere in my mind, I was fighting not to get submitted. Like, I was confident that I was able to defend her submissions. But that kind of became my focus during the fight, and I realized that I had to be more aggressive. I had to fight more in my terms.”
“So I think during that fight I really did realize, and the takeaway was that I need to instigate my style. I can’t be on the defensive end. I can’t be fighting not to get submitted, even though I’m facing a grappler. That’s one very good thing that I learned from that fight, and now I need to incorporate my style. I have to force my style on my opponent, no matter who or what style that is.”
Bouncing off of the assessment that she was able to defend Oshima’s submission attempts to now fighting someone in Katie Perez, who has a bit of a track record for being a submission artist, Kate Lotus quipped [viaBowks Talking Bouts],
“Yeah, I do believe that my current training definitely allows me to keep in that mentality and that mindset on being able to enforce what I learned from the Oshima fight.”
Lotus is becoming a surging star for the promotion having taken on some big names as her cache continues to increase and tons of eyeballs tune in to see her compete live. When responding to this perception of being under the spotlight from the Japanese combat sports scene, Kate Lotus said [viaBowks Talking Bouts],
Source: LowKickMMA.com
