Why do Japanese fighters struggle so much in the UFC?

[xyzxyz94]

Wrestling and genetics

They're pretty decent at freestyle wrestling. 3rd most medals of all time at the olympics.

 

[Orochimaru 大蛇丸]

that's why run the show in kickboxing and are one of the great nations in boxing.

They run muay thai because its the thai national sport, they dont run kickboxing.

As far as boxing goes theres multiple billions of asians so of course a couple are good, but all the greats are black, white, or mexican :/

 

[Yodsanan]

They run muay thai because its the thai national sport, they dont run kickboxing.

As far as boxing goes theres multiple billions of asians so of course a couple are good, but all the greats are black, white, or mexican :/

this discussion is about Japan, and not asia.



Japan is probably the fourth greatest boxing nation ever, and kickboxing under 70 kg is pretty much run by japanese. Takeru, Takei, Koya, Noiri are all hovering around being in the top 10 p4p right now.

 

[Thorgrim]

I’ve heard Matt Hughes, Ken Shamrock and Bas say that they felt the Japanese weren’t very physically strong. May be due to the lack of weight cutting in their culture.

 

[Orochimaru 大蛇丸]

this discussion is about Japan, and not asia.



Japan is probably the fourth greatest boxing nation ever, and kickboxing under 70 kg is pretty much run by japanese. Takeru, Takei, Koya, Noiri are all hovering around being in the top 10 p4p right now.

Mhm, you do have some points I was unaware of, it's easy to forget about lighter weight classes. Why do you think they do so poorly in MMA?

 

[beastman]

Wish Aoki's prime would have been in the UFC.

 

[Yodsanan]

Mhm, you do have some points I was unaware of, it's easy to forget about lighter weight classes. Why do you think they do so poorly in MMA?

30 Million people in Japan watched the boxing fight between Murata vs N‘Dam 2 on national television. GGG vs Murata will probably even break that record.

K1 last event drew 3million on the online platform it was on. 500k watched UFC 200 on the same platform. numbers for domestic mma events are even lower.



boxing and k1 are just more popular in Japan and more lucrative career paths. That’s were the talent pool is deep.

 

[compressed]

They just aren't tuf enough.