who do you think is the Japanese greatest fighter of all time?

[emeraldgsl]

1. Saku
2. Fuji
3. Aoki
4. Gomi

 

[WAR RANDLEMAN!]

takada

 

[Xavier]

Megumi "Mega Megu" Fujii.

Should've retired undefeated imo, that Frausto loss was bs and had her over Aguilar in both those fights.

 

[Xavier]

Sakuraba but Gomi , Sakurai, Aoki , Yamamoto and Sudo could be there too.

 

[Zelig]

Kyoji horiguchi is prly the most legit, nostalgia aside.. Saku is my fav but his prime was short lived without a proper weight division, gomi wasnt that good imo his big wins dont seem that relevant in hindsight

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

They had 3 p4p #1 fighters:
Sakuraba, Sakurai, Fujii (women).

They also had a plethora #1 ranked fighters, in addition to those above:

1. Kawajiri (lightweight #1 briefly in 2005 before losing to go Gomi)

2. Gomi (lightweight #1 for 3 years straight 2005-2008)

3. Mamoru Yamaguchi (bantamweight #1 in 2001, flyweight #1 between 04-06 and again in 2011).

4. Yasuhiro Urushitani (#1 flyweight in 2002, 2003 and 2008)

5. Shinichi Kojima (#1 flyweight in 2007 and 2009)

6. Hatsu Hioki (#1 featherweight in 2007)

7. Yuka Tsuji (#1 women straw-weight basically 02-08)

8. Masakatsu Funaki (#1 heavyweight in 1998)


Overall the greatest was Sakuraba.

Honorable mention should be given to KID Yamamoto. Not certain he was ever ranked #1 in any division but he was a p4p contender longer than any of the above and fought and won stacked tournaments well above his weight division (he's smaller than most bantamweight but spent his career at lw)

 

[Typrune Goatley]

1. Kazushi Sakuraba
2. Hayato Sakurai
3. Takanori Gomi
4. Shinya Aoki
5. Tatsuya Kawajiri
6. Kid Yamamoto
7. Kazuo Misaki
8. Yoshihiro Akiyama
9. Kiyoshi Tamura
10. Hidehiko Yoshida
11. Kazuyuki Fujita
12. Yushin Okami
13. Masakatsu Funaki
14. Mamoru Yamaguchi
15. Yasuhiro Urushitani
16. Genki Sudo
17. Caol Uno
18. Yuki Kondo
19. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka
20. Ikuhisa Minowa
21. Masakatsu Imanari
22. Mitsuhiro Ishida
23. Akira Shoji
24. Daijiro Matsui
25. Hatsu Hioki
26. Kyoji Horiguchi
27. Akira Kikuchi
28. Akihiro Ghono
29. Shinichi Kojima
30. Rumina Sato
31. Takeshi Inoue
32. Kazuhiro Nakamura
33. Ryo Chonan
34. Hiroyuki Takeya
35. Nayoa Ogawa
35. Riki Fukuda
36. Sanae Kikuta
37. Satoru Kitoaka
37. Takeya Mizukagi
38. Michihiro Omigawa
39. Yoshiro Maeda
40. Hideo Tokoro
41. Kazuyuki Miyata
42. Mizuto Hirota
43. Hiromitsu Kanehara
44. Daiju Takase
45. Alexander Otsuka
46. Yoshihiro Takayama





Probably forgetting a few dudes but that is a rough draft

 

[superdiazbrothers]

Masahiko Kimura deserves a shout out!

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

Cant go wrong with Sakuraba. The guy is a legend and pioneer.

 

[Seven30]

My heart says it's between Saku, Gomi & Mega Megu....but honestly, Yushin Okami has probably been the best representative of modern Mixed Martial Arts. He's looked super shitty lately, but he has a solid run that lasted quite a bit. Dude was consensus top 5 for a few years straight, and most of that was in the top3...

 

[Fight Professor]

Saku is the best Japanese fighter.
Fedor is the best JMMA fighter.

We should accept that and stop throwing their names into the overall GOAT pool.

 

[tehMoose]

Saku

 

[Judge Lance Ito]

Ryu, E.Honda, or Heihachi

 

[LoneStalker]

SAKU GOAT. People´s Champ.

Nuff´Said.


View attachment 289329

This.

 

[Rav7n]

SAKU... Then aoki.

 

[Steve-French]

It has to be Sakuraba by today's standard he would have been a WW and he holds wins over...

Guy Mezger
Rampage (Even though he was green and Pride kept changing the conditions on him up until the last second)
Kevin Randleman
Vitor Belfort (Had broke his hands, but still a good win)
Ken Shamrock

His wins over the Gracie clan and Carlos Newton were also impressive in their day.

Imo Gomi, Aoki, and Okami all have a legitimate argument for 2nd place.

 

[beastman]

Megumi

 

[DaPunkMinowaMan]

It has to be Sakuraba by today's standard he would have been a WW and he holds wins over...

Guy Mezger
Rampage (Even though he was green and Pride kept changing the conditions on him up until the last second)
Kevin Randleman
Vitor Belfort (Had broke his hands, but still a good win)
Ken Shamrock

His wins over the Gracie clan and Carlos Newton were also impressive in their day.

Imo Gomi, Aoki, and Okami all have a legitimate argument for 2nd place.

for a WW, wins over dudes like Goes or Ebenezer Braga are true quality wins too.

Against Mezger, I consider it a draw.

Ken was way past his prime.

 

[TheGZA]

 

[Papawash]