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I just want to say that if anyone finds these interesting or become fans of any of these guys and wonder how you can help, word of mouth on the Internet is powerful and just bringing these guys up in "X Y-of-the-Z" discussions or sharing fight news can help them get fans.
During contract negotiations, something that simple can be what gets a strawweight that extra $10k or what keeps them from ever affording a house.
December's rankings:
#!: Haruo Ochi
#2: Joshua Pacio
#3: Yoshitaka "Nobita" Naito
#4: Mitsuhisa Sunabe
#5: Alex Silva
#6: Hayato Suzuki
#7: Yosuke Saruta
#8: Daichi Kitakata
#9: Riku Shibuya
#10: Shinya Murofushi
Contenders: Pongsiri Mitsatit, Ryuto Sawada, Kritsada Kongsrichai, Anthony Do, Rene Catalan
These are also the year-end rankings since there's nothing really going on this month (if Little Rock beats Saruta the order's gonna be the same). I was gonna put them out at the end of November since nothing happened in October-- I don't really like it when rankings are mercernarically pumped out with little change [sometimes it's literally just the guy's description, ranking order's the same *MW*]-- but then I went "what's one more day?"
During contract negotiations, something that simple can be what gets a strawweight that extra $10k or what keeps them from ever affording a house.
December's rankings:
#!: Haruo Ochi
Coming into the fight with a studious gameplan, heightened skillset and sense of tact, the king of the SW division earned his place as arguably the top pound-for-pound Japanese fighter by outwrestling King of Pancrase and former SW overlord Mitsuhisa Sunabe before KOing him in the 3rd round. While Sunabe had his moments and the fight wasn't one-sided, Ochi made a bigger statement than has probably been made in the SW division since Rambaa Somdet's demolition of Masaaki Sugawara, Noboru Tahara and Hiroyuki Abe in Shooto. With this and his 7-1 stretch in the division [avenged loss to inaugural DEEP SW champ Kanta Sato], Haruo Ochi is capable of maintaining his status as the world's top SW for a long time to come. However, with the activity-level of the division in ONE compared to RIZIN or DEEP, Ochi may end up getting leapfrogged by the #2 SW and current ONE champion Joshua Pacio.
Ochi, who fights an average of twice or thrice a year, looks to just be enjoying his time in the sun, and as king he can take his pick of most the division. Shooto champion Yosuke Saruta tried to build some interest in a fight with Ochi, offering an everything-up-for-grabs multiple-title challenge, like in Boxing, but with Saruta's move to ONE, Ochi will have to see if ONE can come out ahead of DEEP or RIZIN (or any other upstart SW promotion) in a bidding war before that fight can happen.
Ochi, who fights an average of twice or thrice a year, looks to just be enjoying his time in the sun, and as king he can take his pick of most the division. Shooto champion Yosuke Saruta tried to build some interest in a fight with Ochi, offering an everything-up-for-grabs multiple-title challenge, like in Boxing, but with Saruta's move to ONE, Ochi will have to see if ONE can come out ahead of DEEP or RIZIN (or any other upstart SW promotion) in a bidding war before that fight can happen.
#2: Joshua Pacio
The SW division's finisher, holding 14 of his 16 victories inside the distance-- which is high for any division but particularly impressive for the lowest official division in men's MMA-- earned the biggest victory of his career, avenging a 2016 submission defeat to the then-undefeated former Shooto world champion and reigning ONE SW king Nobita Naito. This was on top of a three-fight winning streak in which Pacio showed a continually-improving skillset that included a highlight-reel knockout of former-top-10 SW Roy Doliguez and a dominant submission of the year contender against Pong'.
While the fight was competitive, with many in Japan saying Nobita deserved the victory, ONE's damage-based scoring favored the hard-hitting Wushu stylist's work over the first two rounds compared to Nobita's pitter-patter ground strikes, gas tank and positional control over the final two (3rd was even). Pacio, perhaps being the best embodiment of Team Lakay's fitness-and-aggression-based training philosophy, looked better than he ever had against the hyper-elite Japanese submission wrestler, and at only 22 years of age (he'll be 23 in January) and with ONE continuing to grow, Pacio is poised for superstardom in his native Philippines.
While the fight was competitive, with many in Japan saying Nobita deserved the victory, ONE's damage-based scoring favored the hard-hitting Wushu stylist's work over the first two rounds compared to Nobita's pitter-patter ground strikes, gas tank and positional control over the final two (3rd was even). Pacio, perhaps being the best embodiment of Team Lakay's fitness-and-aggression-based training philosophy, looked better than he ever had against the hyper-elite Japanese submission wrestler, and at only 22 years of age (he'll be 23 in January) and with ONE continuing to grow, Pacio is poised for superstardom in his native Philippines.
#3: Yoshitaka "Nobita" Naito
Poised to usurp the seat of the greatest SW of all time from Rambaa Somdet, thanks to breaking Somdet's Shooto SW-title-defense record and becoming a two-time ONE champion, Nobita's career took a step back in September, as he lost a competitive 5-round decision to the Filipino he'd previouisly defended his ONE title against, Joshua Pacio. While the fight was competitive and extremely close-- I personally thought Nobita won-- with his countrymen coming to his defense over social media in immediate reaction to the decision, Nobita nonetheless lost his championship belt.
Being the most skilled submission-[chain-]wrestler in the division with an abnormal amount of heart and never-say-die in him (considering his lack of any kind of athletic background-- he was a comic book nerd who didn't start training until he was 24), and a slick boxing game, and with both of his losses being hyper-competitive affairs against hyper-elite fighters, the tall SW and training partner of Hiromasa Ogikubo is still completely capable of becoming the greatest SW ever, and he's a shoe-in for ONE's debut trip to Japan coming in March.
With a 1-1 record against #5-ranked Alex Silva having taken place annually in 2017 and '18, a 2019 tiebreaker is titillating. Hypothetically, if Nobita won that fight and earned a rematch with Pacio off of it, or vice versa, he would have broken the MMA record for fighting the same two people more times in a row than anyone else.
Being the most skilled submission-[chain-]wrestler in the division with an abnormal amount of heart and never-say-die in him (considering his lack of any kind of athletic background-- he was a comic book nerd who didn't start training until he was 24), and a slick boxing game, and with both of his losses being hyper-competitive affairs against hyper-elite fighters, the tall SW and training partner of Hiromasa Ogikubo is still completely capable of becoming the greatest SW ever, and he's a shoe-in for ONE's debut trip to Japan coming in March.
With a 1-1 record against #5-ranked Alex Silva having taken place annually in 2017 and '18, a 2019 tiebreaker is titillating. Hypothetically, if Nobita won that fight and earned a rematch with Pacio off of it, or vice versa, he would have broken the MMA record for fighting the same two people more times in a row than anyone else.
#4: Mitsuhisa Sunabe
An undersized featherweight and bantamweight who began his MMA career in early-00s Pancrase while parlaying his amateur wrasslin' career into a professional wrasslin' one, Sunabe's drop to flyweight in 2008 led to unanimous placement in the top-10 after only a year. While his 4-fight battle-royale against Kiyotaka Shimizu [Sunabe went 1-2-1, all close] led to losing his inaugural Super-FLW (125-lb) King of Pancrase belt and giving Shimizu a top-5 ranking, Sunabe followed it up with a rarely-seen-in-JMMA 16-fight winning streak over four divisions (had an OW fight), including 5 finishes in his last 6 wins and defeating a lightweight and 6 ranked SWs in that time, in addition to a bunch of other solid opponents [now-top-20 Tatsuya So]. Sunabe became the second-ever three-divisional King of Pancrase, after legend Yuki Kondo, during this time at 125, 120 and 115 pounds.
Because so many of these fights took place in the bloated 120-lb SW division (the size difference between 115 and 120 offers a legitimate argument for a buffer division), Sunabe's historicity among SW greats like Rambaa Somdet is hindered, and even the guys in ONE may surpass him in the coming years unless the super-SW/junior-FLW division becomes more widespread. This fact coupled with Sunabe's 39 years of age and, including his kickboxing attempt in 2017 in RIZIN, his 1-2 stretch over the last two calender years may suggest that Sunabe's time in the sun is over after Haruo Ochi officially ended his streak in September.
Despite losing handily, Sunabe had more than enough moments in the fight to show why he's one of the top Japanese fighters in the world, and with athletes staying competitive older and older nowadays, the future's still open for the Okinawan "Speed Star", and with his home being Pancrase where he's already defeated the top fighters, he's likely to be a heavy favorite the next time he defends his title.
Because so many of these fights took place in the bloated 120-lb SW division (the size difference between 115 and 120 offers a legitimate argument for a buffer division), Sunabe's historicity among SW greats like Rambaa Somdet is hindered, and even the guys in ONE may surpass him in the coming years unless the super-SW/junior-FLW division becomes more widespread. This fact coupled with Sunabe's 39 years of age and, including his kickboxing attempt in 2017 in RIZIN, his 1-2 stretch over the last two calender years may suggest that Sunabe's time in the sun is over after Haruo Ochi officially ended his streak in September.
Despite losing handily, Sunabe had more than enough moments in the fight to show why he's one of the top Japanese fighters in the world, and with athletes staying competitive older and older nowadays, the future's still open for the Okinawan "Speed Star", and with his home being Pancrase where he's already defeated the top fighters, he's likely to be a heavy favorite the next time he defends his title.
#5: Alex Silva
With all the activity happening in the division since the seizure of Little Rock's ONE championship belt (and #1-SW position) by Nobita in May, it's easy to forget that Alex Silva has arguably the greatest Jiu-Jitsu in the entire SW division, being a 3rd-degree black belt and a Copa Do Mundo world champion (it's basically like the Mundials, except less prestigious and the competitors get paid). But more importantly than that, he has the physical strength and wrestling needed to always be Capable of keeping the fight where he wants it to be, and a Nova Uniao-champion-level Muay Thai arsenal, which is why he defeated Nobita. Despite holding a nascent 7-2 record, these factors have elevated his in-fight experience far above the ceiling most 7-2 fighters hit and made him a legit world-class fighter.
The memories of him gaining those victories against the Catalan family are long-forgotten, thanks in large part to oldest brother Rene having become a legit competitor.
All of which (sans Jiu-Jitsu) is thanks to the training he's received at the EVOLVE gyms in Singapore, where he's also an instructor and trains every day with more former Muay Thai world champions than all but a handful of shootfighters in Thailand.
Because of his inactivity, were it not for the fact that Silva got his title-shot off of a one-minute submission of the man ranked beneath him, Hayato Suzuki, Silva would have been leapfrogged from the top-5. Suzuki may still get that chance as, after 7 months of little news, Little Rock has a fight announced for December 7th in a recent ONE signee: 7th-ranked Shooto world champion Yosuke "Tobizaru no.2" Saruta.
The memories of him gaining those victories against the Catalan family are long-forgotten, thanks in large part to oldest brother Rene having become a legit competitor.
All of which (sans Jiu-Jitsu) is thanks to the training he's received at the EVOLVE gyms in Singapore, where he's also an instructor and trains every day with more former Muay Thai world champions than all but a handful of shootfighters in Thailand.
Because of his inactivity, were it not for the fact that Silva got his title-shot off of a one-minute submission of the man ranked beneath him, Hayato Suzuki, Silva would have been leapfrogged from the top-5. Suzuki may still get that chance as, after 7 months of little news, Little Rock has a fight announced for December 7th in a recent ONE signee: 7th-ranked Shooto world champion Yosuke "Tobizaru no.2" Saruta.
#6: Hayato Suzuki
Hayato Suzuki did his job in Bangkok and Jakarta in October and November, as the gigantic SW used his championship-wrestling to take down the accomplished strikers Robin Catalan and top-15 Pongsiri Mitsatit before submitting them. Though Robin Catalan showed a lot of toughness, lasting longer by far than Pong', former top-15 SW and Shooto Brazil champion Yago Bryan, and current ONE champion Joshua Pacio did against Suzuki combined, and lasting longer than Suzuki himself did against Alex Silva.
These accomplisments alone would be enough to leapfrog Suzuki above Shooto kingpin Yosuke Saruta, whom Suzuki defeated in 2015 but whose greater history at SW and possession of a highly-regarded trophy in the Shooto belt kept him ranked higher, but the quick succession and the dominance he's shown in victory has made Suzuki a scary opponent for any non-hyper-elite SW. Not since Jarred Brooks "Was Here"-- who just got his UFC release and gave Suzuki's organization, ONE Championship, a call-- has there been such a dominant, powerful wrestler who's dropped down and stormed through his SW opponents in such fashion.
He's fighting better guys than Brooks did, too.
These accomplisments alone would be enough to leapfrog Suzuki above Shooto kingpin Yosuke Saruta, whom Suzuki defeated in 2015 but whose greater history at SW and possession of a highly-regarded trophy in the Shooto belt kept him ranked higher, but the quick succession and the dominance he's shown in victory has made Suzuki a scary opponent for any non-hyper-elite SW. Not since Jarred Brooks "Was Here"-- who just got his UFC release and gave Suzuki's organization, ONE Championship, a call-- has there been such a dominant, powerful wrestler who's dropped down and stormed through his SW opponents in such fashion.
He's fighting better guys than Brooks did, too.
#7: Yosuke Saruta
Although he hasn't fought since his summer loss to Shooto flyweight prospect Takumi Tamaru, the powerful well-rounded 2009 Shooto bantamweight (123-lb) rookie king and Shooto world champion said on his twitter he plans on staying at SW and believes nobody can beat him in the division, and wants to challenge the hyper-elites of SW.
While his ideal goal-- a multiple-titles-up-for-grabs challenge against Pancrase and DEEP champions Mitsuhisa Sunabe and Haruo Ochi, making Yosuke the first-ever simultaneous Shooto, Pancrase and DEEP champion-- didn't happen, the next best way to fight the best SWs in the world has as Saruta's joined ONE, scheduled to fight former champion and 5th-ranked strawweight Alex Silva next week. With his accolades-- wins over then-top-10 Ryuto Sawada and currently~20 SW Hiroba Minowa, formerly-ranked flyweights Kiyotaka Shimizu [who's like 3rd in Shooto right now], Masaaki Sugawara and Kentaro Watanabe, draws with greats Ryuichi Miki and Junji Sarumaru, and most recently then~15-ranked Itchaku Murata-- skill and athleticism, he's a threat to anyone at SW.
While his ideal goal-- a multiple-titles-up-for-grabs challenge against Pancrase and DEEP champions Mitsuhisa Sunabe and Haruo Ochi, making Yosuke the first-ever simultaneous Shooto, Pancrase and DEEP champion-- didn't happen, the next best way to fight the best SWs in the world has as Saruta's joined ONE, scheduled to fight former champion and 5th-ranked strawweight Alex Silva next week. With his accolades-- wins over then-top-10 Ryuto Sawada and currently~20 SW Hiroba Minowa, formerly-ranked flyweights Kiyotaka Shimizu [who's like 3rd in Shooto right now], Masaaki Sugawara and Kentaro Watanabe, draws with greats Ryuichi Miki and Junji Sarumaru, and most recently then~15-ranked Itchaku Murata-- skill and athleticism, he's a threat to anyone at SW.
#8: Daichi Kitakata
The #2 SW in Pancrase holding a 19-8-1 (1) record known for his physical strength (he kinda reminds me of Kawajiri, namely in his wrasslin' and strength), Kitakata rebounded from a 2016 loss to Mitsuhisa Sunabe (a title-shot) with three successive victories, notably with two submissions. He unofficially holds a 10-2 record at SW-- one of his arm-triangles was ruled a no-contest due to Kitakata missing weight-- the losses being against divisional elites Hiroyuki Abe and Mitsuhisa Sunabe. He's also garnered notable wins over Kanta Sato, Shinya Murofushi and Ryo Hatta, and most recently ended Hiroaki Ijima's solid late-career-resurgence 3-0 streak.
With Sunabe's loss and Kitakata's three-fight winning streak, it may seem that Sunabe's time with RIZIN is up for this year and a rematch is on the horizon. Given that Kitakata had success against Sunabe with his wrestling the first time around, he may feel inspired by Ochi's performance and be far more confident in a rematch.
With Sunabe's loss and Kitakata's three-fight winning streak, it may seem that Sunabe's time with RIZIN is up for this year and a rematch is on the horizon. Given that Kitakata had success against Sunabe with his wrestling the first time around, he may feel inspired by Ochi's performance and be far more confident in a rematch.
#9: Riku Shibuya
The Outsider veteran [Outsider's a deeply-Yakuza-affiliated fight circuit operated under the RINGS organization, known for producing extremely entertaining and unique fighters] has continued his social media disappearance, which, coupled with an 11-month gap in fights, doesn't look good for the former ONE (FC) title challenger's tenure as a ranked fighter. The former student of Kenji Osawa and-- as of 8 months ago-- current member of the Lee family's gym in Hawaii looked better than ever in submitting inaugural ONE champion and former top-5 SW Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke in under a round, showing a slick submission-wrestling game to compliment his scrappy Outsider-bred wild striking, and a big strength advantage compared to what he had at flyweight.
Unfortunately, if he doesn't have a fight announced next month, he'll lose his spot in the rankings by January.
He allegedly has Yakuza connections outside of merely competing in Outsider, so he may have other things to attend to in his life than competing in a sport and this may be the last time we hear from "The Outsider", a fitting nickname given the nature of his career and that he's probably the greatest fighter to have ever come out of there.
He also holds a win in Outsider over RIZIN star Kai Asakura.
"The Outsider" Riku Shibuya vs. "Kru Rong" Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke
Unfortunately, if he doesn't have a fight announced next month, he'll lose his spot in the rankings by January.
He allegedly has Yakuza connections outside of merely competing in Outsider, so he may have other things to attend to in his life than competing in a sport and this may be the last time we hear from "The Outsider", a fitting nickname given the nature of his career and that he's probably the greatest fighter to have ever come out of there.
He also holds a win in Outsider over RIZIN star Kai Asakura.
"The Outsider" Riku Shibuya vs. "Kru Rong" Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke
#10: Shinya Murofushi
With former DEEP champion Kanta Sato's absence-forced exit, this replacement spot was tough for me to pick, but I decided to give Murofushi's historicity [was the #1 SW in 2014] credit over Ryuto's two first-round submissions this year, and I can't overlook that Kongsrichai holds a recent loss to Robin Catalan, slam-disqualification aside.
It's been rough for Murofushi over the years. After struggling for years to be the top fighter in his division-- a goal he came close to after defeating onetime-elite SW and training partner of Rambaa Somdet, "ATCH Anarchy" Atsushi Takeuchi, but fell short of several times after in key fights against former divisional elites "Heat" Takeshi, Noboru Tahara and Mikihito Yamagami-- the lanky and well-rounded submission expert finally became the Shooto world champion with a 2014 first-round submission over longtime top-5 SW Junji Sarumaru.
Since then, Murofushi's gone 3-3 (exacerbated by his career-long tendency to occasionally take a year between fights for whatever reason), following up his title-winning effort against Sarumaru with a competitive late-5th-round submission loss to currently-third-ranked Nobita Naito, and defeating strong-but-unranked opponents Takuya Eizumi [was in the top-15 shortly before, not at the time of the Shinya fight], Rildeci Dias and Seiji "Oz" Ozuka. He's also lost a clear-cut decision to eighth-ranked Daichi Kitakata and, most recently, suffered a 2nd-round knockout to current fourth-ranked Mitsuhisa Sunabe in an attempt to usurp the King of Pancrase.
Though the Sunabe fight was very competitive, with Murofushi's sharp knees and kicks on full display, along with his crafty guardwork, willingness to scrap, and his Shooto-reared mastery of the fundamentals of every element of shootfighting, a Sunabe slam ended the fight. The knockout loss (quite a statement in the sport's most unforgiving division) combined with the activity of fighters above him may mean this stroke of luck that led to Murofushi becoming a top-10 figure again is the last time we see him in the top-10. However, with Murofushi's skills, another two wins could either secure him a longtime spot in- or catapult him up these rankings just as easily.
It's been rough for Murofushi over the years. After struggling for years to be the top fighter in his division-- a goal he came close to after defeating onetime-elite SW and training partner of Rambaa Somdet, "ATCH Anarchy" Atsushi Takeuchi, but fell short of several times after in key fights against former divisional elites "Heat" Takeshi, Noboru Tahara and Mikihito Yamagami-- the lanky and well-rounded submission expert finally became the Shooto world champion with a 2014 first-round submission over longtime top-5 SW Junji Sarumaru.
Since then, Murofushi's gone 3-3 (exacerbated by his career-long tendency to occasionally take a year between fights for whatever reason), following up his title-winning effort against Sarumaru with a competitive late-5th-round submission loss to currently-third-ranked Nobita Naito, and defeating strong-but-unranked opponents Takuya Eizumi [was in the top-15 shortly before, not at the time of the Shinya fight], Rildeci Dias and Seiji "Oz" Ozuka. He's also lost a clear-cut decision to eighth-ranked Daichi Kitakata and, most recently, suffered a 2nd-round knockout to current fourth-ranked Mitsuhisa Sunabe in an attempt to usurp the King of Pancrase.
Though the Sunabe fight was very competitive, with Murofushi's sharp knees and kicks on full display, along with his crafty guardwork, willingness to scrap, and his Shooto-reared mastery of the fundamentals of every element of shootfighting, a Sunabe slam ended the fight. The knockout loss (quite a statement in the sport's most unforgiving division) combined with the activity of fighters above him may mean this stroke of luck that led to Murofushi becoming a top-10 figure again is the last time we see him in the top-10. However, with Murofushi's skills, another two wins could either secure him a longtime spot in- or catapult him up these rankings just as easily.
Contenders: Pongsiri Mitsatit, Ryuto Sawada, Kritsada Kongsrichai, Anthony Do, Rene Catalan
These are also the year-end rankings since there's nothing really going on this month (if Little Rock beats Saruta the order's gonna be the same). I was gonna put them out at the end of November since nothing happened in October-- I don't really like it when rankings are mercernarically pumped out with little change [sometimes it's literally just the guy's description, ranking order's the same *MW*]-- but then I went "what's one more day?"
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