Why aren't the Japanese more succesful in MMA?

[Straightcross]

Martial Arts is such a huge part of their culture and so is discipline and hard work which should be the perfect recipe for a great MMA career. They dominate in Judo at the olympics but that's basically it. Schools over there even have Judo/Boxing clubs and even boxing and wrestling are pretty big in Japan. Yet their greatest fighter is Sakuraba who had no discipline at all and spent more time smoking and drinking than training

Guys like Shinya Aoki,Okami and Horiguchi just seem to fall short for the top and they also seem to age pretty badly (see Gomi)

 

[igorunso]

Wasted generations in fake martial arts. Great Judokas make enough money in Asia to deny a switch to mma.
The potential will come with the next generation.

 

[CaloLutadores]

Isn't this like a 1000th post about this already on sherdog?

 

[Fstepp]

Martial Arts is such a huge part of their culture and so is discipline and hard work which should be the perfect recipe for a great MMA career. They dominate in Judo at the olympics but that's basically it. Schools over there even have Judo/Boxing clubs and even boxing and wrestling are pretty big in Japan. Yet their greatest fighter is Sakuraba who had no discipline at all and spent more time smoking and drinking than training

Guys like Shinya Aoki,Okami and Horiguchi just seem to fall short for the top and they also seem to age pretty badly (see Gomi)

Too respectful, honorable and too little killer instinct and aggression due to culture.

Lower test and lesser fast twitch muscles compared to the competition.

There are exceptions of course, but in general.

 

[MEAN357]

Think they're just in a lul. Long history of good fighters but they haven't really produced one ina while.. Horiguchi prolly the best they have atm. They have a couple of decent boxers atm tho. Could be a cultural thing. Mf'ers crazy polite over there and its a fairly first world country with alotta other ways to succeed. Japans no longer a hot bed for MMA so it's probably more of a pipe dream. IMO need a lil bit of poverty in order to produce the killer instinct needed in fighters.

 

[whougonnacall]

They are sucessful in mma you literaly listed on of the greatest ever mma fighters and hes japanese
They have a good few mma orgs doing just fine

 

[LouisBolanos]

The scandal and death of Pride FC and the various natural disasters in the years that followed crippled their MMA infrastructure and general public interest in the sport.

 

[Straightcross]

Too respectful, honorable and too little killer instinct and aggression due to culture.

Lower test and lesser fast twitch muscles compared to the competition.

There are exceptions of course, but in general.

too little killer instinct and aggression? have you seen those motherfuckers in WW2? they made the Germans look like saints. Japanese soldiers were some of the most ruthless soldiers in all of history.

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

they also seem to age pretty badly (see Gomi)

Alcoholism and being a professional athlete don't mix

 

[Shcooby Dooby Doo]

too little killer instinct and aggression? have you seen those motherfuckers in WW2? they made the Germans look like saints. Japanese soldiers were some of the most ruthless soldiers in all of history.

Don't expect too many people here to know facts like this. Many here probably thought USA ended WW2 flying in on eagles.

 

[Fstepp]

too little killer instinct and aggression? have you seen those motherfuckers in WW2? they made the Germans look like saints. Japanese soldiers were some of the most ruthless soldiers in all of history.

Things changed with their aggression after Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

They had to become a economical and technological superpower instead.


If the Japanese could have brought their Unit 731-mentality to the Octagon today things would be different.

 

[DeathByCaranos]

Don't expect too many people here to know facts like this. Many here probably thought USA ended WW2 flying in on eagles.

Everyone knows America has the best eagle troop division in the world.

 

[waldywaldy]

Yet their greatest fighter is Sakuraba who had no discipline at all and spent more time smoking and drinking than training

One can smoke & drink AND have discipline. Dude trained like a maniac. He was the consensus P4P #1 for a while there ffs.

 

[Ilovepizza]

most of them dont give a fuck about mma.

 

[horc00]

Too respectful, honorable and too little killer instinct and aggression due to culture.

Lower test and lesser fast twitch muscles compared to the competition.

There are exceptions of course, but in general.

The lesser fast twitch muscles is a stereotype that's been used to death. East Asians pretty much dominate the Olympics weightlifting lower weight classes. Sure, they're mostly Chinese, but Chinese and Japanese are genetically similar.

My take on this
- Martial arts is not a viable career option for them
- Less advanced training techniques
- Not big into weight-cutting to gain an advantage
- Generally smaller built. Casuals like to watch bigger guys slug it out

 

[Bluesbreaker]

It's not really a big sport in Japan anymore. Smaller talent pool means less chance of top fighters. Historically though, they've had a P4P #1(Sakurai), #1 LW(Gomi) and #1 all-time beloved fighter(Sakuraba), not to mention all the Shooto guys in lighter weightclasses who were #1. Generally speaking too, they have fewer heavy fighters/people, so they fight more in lower weightclasses.

Horiguchi is a stud though. There's no shame in being the second best at flyweight when DJ is there.

 

[Supereem]

The lesser fast twitch muscles is a stereotype that's been used to death. East Asians pretty much dominate the Olympics weightlifting lower weight classes. Sure, they're mostly Chinese, but Chinese and Japanese are genetically similar.

My take on this
- Martial arts is not a viable career option for them
- Less advanced training techniques
- Not big into weight-cutting to gain an advantage
- Generally smaller built. Casuals like to watch bigger guys slug it out

Different culture as well, less emphasise on winning and more emphasise on entertainment and spiritual crap.

It’s also a fact that they perform better in Japan.

 

[Jarvan]

Martial Arts is such a huge part of their culture and so is discipline and hard work which should be the perfect recipe for a great MMA career. They dominate in Judo at the olympics but that's basically it. Schools over there even have Judo/Boxing clubs and even boxing and wrestling are pretty big in Japan. Yet their greatest fighter is Sakuraba who had no discipline at all and spent more time smoking and drinking than training

Guys like Shinya Aoki,Okami and Horiguchi just seem to fall short for the top and they also seem to age pretty badly (see Gomi)

The best light weight kick boxers in the world, right now, are majority Japanese.

Japanese are no joke in boxing either, not to mention kyokushin.

Decent in wrestling.

MMA isn't the only martial art.

 

[BrainCandy]

Japan produced a lot of top fighters when the biggest promotion was in Japan. Now that the biggest promotion is US based, they don't give a shit. I also suspect that most Japanese fighters have no experience with weight cutting, which makes most of them undersized when they come to the UFC.

Seriously, look at a list of the all time best Japanese MMA guys and then notice how many of them fought for a title in the UFC. I can only think of Uno and Okami off the top of my head. Virtually every great Japanese MMA fighter fought their best years and best fights in Japan.

 

[winterbike]

From what I've seen, Japan has a terrible training culture. Way too much volume and no understanding of what actually makes athletes grow. Can't throw a guy? Drill the throw 10 000 times!!! And do 100 push-ups a day so you "become stronger". Need cardio for badminton? Run 50K a week. All grind, no specificity or common sense. Given how mentally tough they can be, it's a lot of wasted potential.

* What makes the One Punch Man training joke so good is that it's actually how a lot of Japanese athletes train.