Are Korean prospects all destined to fail?

[starfish01]

And that is equally ironic. Japan is largely credited for developing practical martial arts to be used in combat and self defense, but apparently it doesn’t have a large mixed martial arts fan base. The ground based jujitsu that is such a big and essential part of mixed martial arts, was actually first developed in Japan and imported to Brazil.

True, but the abhorrent sportification of Judo really fucked shit up in that regard. Its seen as an important national and cultural sport so everyone learns sport Judo, and newaza falls by the wayside. And its more popular than wrestling as well. So you have alot of talent learning a very specialized bastardized version of what was once basically what we now call BJJ or sub grappling and is not very applicable for MMA when compared to other disciplines. If Judo never got sportified into the atrocity it is today, I believe we'd see many great MMA fighters from Japan, although the sportification via olympics etc is what put Judo on a global stage, so who knows if it would be seen as the valuable cultural asset it is today if it had never taken off internationally in the first place.

Also, I think Japanese generally tend to like more specialized sports or activities compared to ones that are open ended like MMA, at least from my observation. Just anecdotal but for instance in powerlifting Japan isnt that great overall, but in the bench press specifically there are tons of specialists that put up insane world beating numbers. And instead of concentrating on overall strength, the Japanese powerlifting scene focuses on form to minimize the ROM of the bench press to an extreme degree. To westerners or non Japanese in general the appeal of powerlifting is seeing whose the overall strongest guy, while In Japan it's basically who can get the high score for this one lift, everything else be damned. I've noticed that kind of hyper-specialized theme in many hobbies and scenes here. Most guys that grew up doing full contact karate or Judo dont really care about trying to convert to MMA, they want to kickbox or win judo tournys. Most Japanese prospects nowadays are either from wrestling backgrounds(which is the same worldwide of course but wrestling is not as popular as Judo or Karate) or strikers who were'nt good enough to make it kickboxing(which is extremely competitive and there are many world class J-Kickboxers at the moment). The only exception that pops into my head is Horiguchi and the Inoue siblings, and and Guchi happens to be one of the best in the world at lower weights while Inoue is a young promising prospect.

 

[InfinityLens]

True, but the abhorrent sportification of Judo really fucked shit up in that regard. Its seen as an important national and cultural sport so everyone learns sport Judo, and newaza falls by the wayside. And its more popular than wrestling as well. So you have alot of talent learning a very specialized bastardized version of what was once basically what we now call BJJ or sub grappling and is not very applicable for MMA when compared to other disciplines. If Judo never got sportified into the atrocity it is today, I believe we'd see many great MMA fighters from Japan, although the sportification via olympics etc is what put Judo on a global stage, so who knows if it would be seen as the valuable cultural asset it is today if it had never taken off internationally in the first place.

Also, I think Japanese generally tend to like more specialized sports or activities compared to ones that are open ended like MMA, at least from my observation. Just anecdotal but for instance in powerlifting Japan isnt that great overall, but in the bench press specifically there are tons of specialists that put up insane world beating numbers. And instead of concentrating on overall strength, the Japanese powerlifting scene focuses on form to minimize the ROM of the bench press to an extreme degree. To westerners or non Japanese in general the appeal of powerlifting is seeing whose the overall strongest guy, while In Japan it's basically who can get the high score for this one lift, everything else be damned. I've noticed that kind of hyper-specialized theme in many hobbies and scenes here. Most guys that grew up doing full contact karate or Judo dont really care about trying to convert to MMA, they want to kickbox or win judo tournys. Most Japanese prospects nowadays are either from wrestling backgrounds(which is the same worldwide of course but wrestling is not as popular as Judo or Karate) or strikers who were'nt good enough to make it kickboxing(which is extremely competitive and there are many world class J-Kickboxers at the moment). The only exception that pops into my head is Horiguchi and the Inoue siblings, and and Guchi happens to be one of the best in the world at lower weights while Inoue is a young promising prospect.

What is the lead KB promo in Japan?

 

[mxer31]

Soo Chul Kim effectively retired at his peak.

Yoon Jun Lee hasn't fought in 2.5 years

A-Sol Kwon hasn't fought in 1.5 years

What Korean prospect has the best chance of future success? In Su Hwang? Jung Young Lee? In Jae La? Someone else?

is doo ho choi korean?

 

[gato sin techo]

It’s crazy how Asia, supposedly the homeland of martial arts, doesn’t produce a large amount of high level mixed martial artist.

they're busy fighting tuberculosis

 

[EndlessCritic]

is doo ho choi korean?

I'm talking current prospects. Choi is a proven contender for over two years now.

 

[mxer31]

I'm talking current prospects. Choi is a proven contender for over two years now.

fair enough.

 

[starfish01]

What is the lead KB promo in Japan?

I am actually not that knowledgable about kickboxing itself(I'm a hardcore MMA guy), I just live here and am Japanese so I have a good feel for the sentiment of the general public. That said, I would say K-1 Japan is the lead, not to be confused with the basically dead K-1 that is/was run by Mike Kim into the ground. K-1 Japan licensed the name from K-1 and is run completely separate. Kickboxing is in a very weird place right now globally in regards to promotions as there is no clear cut top dog and theres merely a few good promos, and that goes for Japan as well. K-1(best talent, biggest star is Takeru, Noiri also badass), Krush (kind of a sibling K-1 if im not mistaken) and Knock Out(Tenshin Nasukawa fights in this) are the biggest promos in Japan, but there are a ton of minor promotions that have good talent. Combat sports in general are in a big slump here, currently pro wrestling seems to be very popular though. But K-1 and Krush are doing streaming numbers in the millions and putting asses in the arena seats, so I think we will see those orgs putting on big shows on TV in the future. Rizin on the other hand is doing absolutely terrible numbers on TV, and I wouldnt be surprised if it shuts down in the next year or two, especially if their next event with Horiguchi vs Tenshin(which, surprise, is a kickboxing match) is not a smash success.

 

[starfish01]

I'm talking current prospects. Choi is a proven contender for over two years now.

I'm sorry but how is Choi a proven contender for years? His best win is Thiago Tavares back in 2016, he has fought twice in the last two years and been brutally beaten both times. While I love watching him fight he is not a contender in any way and likely won't be considering the emergence of talents like Miocano, Ortega, Zabit, Volkanovski, as well as Mendes back in the mix. He is definitely more prospect than contender, great right hand and love his style, but hes not a contender.

 

[The Judo Champ]

Asian countries haven’t grown their martial arts skills. Their customs and traditions hold them back. Most wont weightcut and they believe their traditional arts are superior so they refuse to adapt and round out their games. They’re still counter boxers with some good offensive jujitsu skills. Modern mma fighters will outmuscle with wrestling or just simply use their extra tools to expose the holes in their game. It’s a shame because if some of their judokas rounded out their game they’d be monsters. Instead we get glimpses like iishi who looks fantastic against some but struggles against much bigger opponents who actually have well rounded skills. I wish judo would become North Americanized