Combined W-L-D of Japanese fighters in the UFC is...

[m0353]

Yeah, and you all flamed me when I asked "who is Kid Yamamoto?"

Whatever happened to THAT guy anyway? Oh yeah...

I hope you're joking.
The UFC signing Kid when they did was no different then when Wandy returned to the UFC after Pride. High expectations, but on the downside of their careers.

 

[Bovlowski]

I thought TK had a win in the UFC?

 

[Ghost in the Shell]

What is there to appreciate? He ruins fights with how he doesn't attack and he is just incredibly good at holding people down. Everyone knows this. If Yushin would just attack, even if they were just pillow fist shots, he would be a lot more appreciated and liked.

Did you see his last fight before Saturdays? It doesn't sound like you did.

 

[Yeast**]

The UFC rarely signs the top guys in their prime from Japan.

The trade winds also make the flight to the US pretty rough on all Asian fighters especially when they're not used to it (anyone remember how lethargic Stun Gun looked at UFC 88), and unified rules don't suit the style they've typically trained for -- the few top-game oriented guys we've seen in the UFC from Asia in general have done quite well (Stun Gun, Okami, and Uno during his first UFC run have all performed well).

 

[XRaided]

Agreed. Also, they don't cut as much weight and aren't as athletic as other fighters. People saying "well the best haven't...blah, blah, blah..." are delusional. Caol Uno and Gomi came over and go destroyed. Japanese fighters are (for the most part) overrated.

lol gomi was going life and death with tony hervey and losing fights to kitaoka and golyaev when the ufc signed him, clearly on the downswing.

caol uno had close fights with penn and pulver in his first ufc stint, beat top LWs in edwards and thomas. he was on the decline in his second stint, robbed vs fisher, drew with camoes and got finished by tibau.

 

[GroundNPouter]

I think the main reason a lot of Japanese fighters don't do so well is because they continue to confine themselves to the little bubble of japan's MMA scene. They have created this culture where they don't involve anyone else outside of japan. Its silly. It would be like fighters from the northeast never leave that area to train and don't seek any outside help.

Their training is just so far behind the rest of the MMA world now because of it.
Then you look at Okami who has completely committed himself to actually winning and training in a competitive environment and hes a top 5 fighter.

Japanese Xenophobia is real. It's not just mma. It's everything.

They know the ramifications of not running the british away when they had the chance.

 

[Ghost in the Shell]

lol gomi was going life and death with tony hervey and losing fights to kitaoka and golyaev when the ufc signed him, clearly on the downswing.

caol uno had close fights with penn and pulver in his first ufc stint, beat top LWs in edwards and thomas. he was on the decline in his second stint, robbed vs fisher, drew with camoes and got finished by tibau.

The Tibau fight should have never happened.

 

[AP_RESURRECTION]

47-78-2 1NC (Pre and post Zuffa)

37-63-2 (Post Zuffa)

Yushin Okami has the most wins out of any Japanese UFC fighter with eleven, followed by Caol Uno who has three (tied with Takanori Gomi).

Okami, Uno, Hayato Sakurai, Yuki Kondo, Kenichi Yamamoto are the only Japanese fighters to fight for a UFC title, Okami and Uno are the only ones to do so after Zuffa had purchased the UFC.

Kazuo Takahashi was the first Japanese fighter to win in the UFC.

Kazushi Sakuraba, Caol Uno and Kenichi Yamamoto are the only Japanese fighters to win a UFC tournament.

Fun fact, both draws are Caol Uno (draw with BJ Penn at UFC 41 and Fabricio Camoes at UFC 106).

i personally find that asian fighters who are successful at the ufc are bad asses big time - they could always just fight in the small leagues if they wanted, but they come to the ufc, fight guys who cut a ton of weight etc and still are successful

those guys, like a gomi, okami, stun gun, kz, etc. etc are someone who has really pulled asian mma forward and also proved themselves on the highest level

guys like gomi who have fought the diaz's etc. in the world who are clearly legit (as opposed to only tested in asia) and still do well, even if they lose a lot, still bring their country forward just by competing and being a badass

 

[Which Doctor]

....Beat Fedor.


:icon_chee:icon_chee:icon_chee

 

[Which Doctor]

I thought TK had a win in the UFC?

Well he was arguably the best character to use in the first UFC video game.

 

[Kinger85]

honestly surprized it's even that high. Most of the Japanese fighters that come aren't really UFC worthy, and those that are usually come a year or two or three after their prime.

 

[MMAsFinest]

Agreed. Also, they don't cut as much weight and aren't as athletic as other fighters. People saying "well the best haven't...blah, blah, blah..." are delusional. Caol Uno and Gomi came over and go destroyed. Japanese fighters are (for the most part) overrated.

Uno fought Penn to a draw and most LWs get destroyed by someone eventually.

 

[boron gracie]

Yeah let's sign Yamamoto when he is on the downside of his career.

I believe he was still top10, ufc also signed omigawa when he went on a run in japan and was top10, urushitani was top5, aoki/kawajiri were top3/top10 when they fought for zuffa, hioki, gomi, sakurai was ranked top2-3 when ufc brought hin to fight hughes, imo ufc tried to sign any ranked japanese fighters.

 

[unoshowtenuno]

Agreed. Also, they don't cut as much weight and aren't as athletic as other fighters. People saying "well the best haven't...blah, blah, blah..." are delusional. Caol Uno and Gomi came over and go destroyed. Japanese fighters are (for the most part) overrated.

You're an idiot. Gomi got signed on the downside of his career and Uno was fighting two weight classes above his natural weight.

Kawajiri and Aoki are mid-card at best. Aoki got run out of Strikeforce and Bellator. Kawajiri also got ass-whooped by Melendez and Alvarez.

Kawajiri got his ass kicked?! You're delusional, that was a very competitive fight considering Kawajiri dropped Alvarez.

 

[XRaided]

I believe he was still top10, ufc also signed omigawa when he went on a run in japan and was top10, urushitani was top5, aoki/kawajiri were top3/top10 when they fought for zuffa, hioki, gomi, sakurai was ranked top2-3 when ufc brought hin to fight hughes, imo ufc tried to sign any ranked japanese fighters.

KID was 1-2 in his last when the UFC signed him, his only win being against a nobody. before going 1-2, he was coming off of an 18 month layoff. dude was far removed from the top 10 at that point. gomi wasnt top 10 either, 2-2 in his last 4 with losses to sergei golyaev and kitaoka. both him and KID were only brought in because of their name value. SF wasnt zuffa owned when kawajiri and aoki signed for their fights there.

 

[boron gracie]

KID was 1-2 in his last when the UFC signed him, his only win being against a nobody. before going 1-2, he was coming off of an 18 month layoff. dude was far removed from the top 10 at that point. gomi wasnt top 10 either, 2-2 in his last 4 with losses to sergei golyaev and kitaoka. both him and KID were only brought in because of their name value. SF wasnt zuffa owned when kawajiri and aoki signed for their fights there.

Kid was still ranked high, not top10 because of long layoff( kind of like thiago silva at lhw), he lost a split to olympic level wrestler and a top10 fighter by decisions, lyoto machida was 1-2 in last 3 when he fought jones for belt with a only win over 47 year old couture, machida was still top10. I didnt say gomi was top10. Aoki was ranked #2 pretty much everywhere and kawajiri was perennial top5-6, aoki did fight melendez before zuffa bought strike, spoke to soon here ( kawajiri vs melendez did happen when zuffa owned strikeforce) still their fight showed how biased the rankings were toward fighters fighting in japanese promotions, aoki was #2 and melendez #4-7. Same thing with kawajiri vs melendez/ishida, aoki vs Alvarez 2. Omigawa was top10 when ufc brought him for second time, kenny florian is older than gomi and always been ranked much lower than gomi, and its not like he was in his some super prime when he fought gomi, florian always been that good but fighters fighting in north american promotions always been ranked lower than fighters fighting in japanese orgs.

 

[migessy]

Asians have and will keep getting whooped in MMA, something about their genetics that doesn't give them the Ko power other races have.

 

[Edwin]

Honestly, most of the Japanese fighters in the UFC do not deserve to be in the octagon. They only get in due to name recognition. Its why so many of them lose to virtual unknowns.

No, the thing is that the UFC signs a bunch of no name Japanese fighters and the big name Japanese fighters they've signed has been at a point when they're way past their primes and have been losing fights constantly before being signed.

 

[XRaided]

Kid was still ranked high, not top10 because of long layoff( kind of like thiago silva at lhw), he lost a split to olympic level wrestler and a top10 fighter by decisions, lyoto machida was 1-2 in last 3 when he fought jones for belt with a only win over 47 year old couture, machida was still top10.

KID wasnt ranked high at all, when the UFC signed him in 2010, KID's last relevant win was against yahya, almost 3 years prior.

I didnt say gomi was top10. Aoki was ranked #2 pretty much everywhere and kawajiri was perennial top5-6 until they fought fighter that is signed by zuffa , melendez, aoki did fight melendez before zuffa bought strike, spoke to soon here ( kawajiri vs melendez did happen when zuffa owned strikeforce) still their fight showed how biased the rankings were toward fighters fighting in japanese promotions, aoki was #2 and melendez #4-7. Same thing with kawajiri vs melendez/ishida, aoki vs Alvarez 2.

you realise melendez and alvarez both garnered their rankings by fights in japanese promotions, right? melendez was the #2 guy at LW before ishida and thomson beat him. alvarez was the #2 guy before aoki beat him the first time. it has nothing to do with bias, just common sense. the kawajiri/melendez rematch was signed before zuffa purchased SF.

Omigawa was top10 when ufc brought him for second time, kenny florian is older than gomi and always been ranked much lower than gomi, and its not like he was in his some super prime when he fought gomi, florian always been that good but ufc fighters always been ranked lower than fighters fighting in japanese orgs.

gomi had 20 more pro fights than florian when they fought, age =/= fight age. i don't know if florian was at his absolute peak, but he sure was looking a lot better than gomi. gomi was coming off of a close fight with tony hervey, florian was coming off of one of the best performances of his career against guida.

florian reached the #3-4 spot at one point in most rankings, he was never underrated in terms of rankings.

 

[ImPitPatPuncher]

Asians have and will keep getting whooped in MMA, something about their genetics that doesn't give them the Ko power other races have.

lol Gomi is arguably one of the hardest hitters ever in the lw division

and KID Yamamoto is arguably one of the p4p hardest hitters ever since he KO'd guys in the lw divison while he is a bw and he even has the length to maybe make flyw someday.