Why doesnt Japan have more high level talent like Sakuraba?

[djason1988]

Was watching Sakuraba highlights. He was a good fighter and his grappling abilities are legendary at this point. Why does mma talent from Japan suck so much now though? It makes no sense, they have a ton of martial arts schools and mma is making a comeback.

Its rarity these days to even see a Japanese fighter in the UFC. If you look at Korea recently they have produced way more UFC fighters that had solid careers. Hell its even looking like China is gonna start producing more high level talent.


It really makes no sense

There's been several mostly correct answers, but I'll put them in one post.

MMA is pretty much dead in Japan. Further still, wrestling and bjj are also rarities there, 2 vital skills for mma.

Insular culture leads to lack of newer training techniques and weight cutting doesn't really exist for them.

Many of the top Japanese fighters end up signing with One or Rizin.

 

[Blayt7hh]

I think they have quite an insular training culture which doesn't help. I don't see very many Japanese fighters training abroad and I don't think there are too many foreign coaches coaching in Japan

This. Plus I think the country has largely lost interest in the sport over the last 13 years

 

[fortheo]

Besides most decent japanese fighters fighting in other orgs like ONE.
I would take an educated guess and say its their training culture. Very traditional with a lot of respect for Karate and Judo over more modern systems that constitute MMA. Also no training abroad and no imports of "western" styles.
Also a lot of Bullshido still around.

Considering japan has one of the better lighter weight boxers in the world, they pretty clearly have imported western styles (boxing) and done very well with it. They also have great wrestlers and submission grapplers as well. I imagine that MMA just isn't as big there and there's not a plethora of good MMA gyms there, which is a shame

 

[Bilzerian]

Naoya Inoue is a consensus top 5 pound for pound boxer

Tenshin and Takeru are consensus top 5 pound for pound kickboxers

tbh nobody cares that extremely small midgets class even under 125lbs division except Japan. Who care? That's the reason they prevail since they are only one who really compete for

 

[campbecc]

It's a numbers game. Japan's population is only so large.

Dagestan's population is less than one fortieth that of Japan.

 

[Istryker]

They exist. But they in ONE

 

[Xuh]

Japan is a somewhat small population and they don’t have as big of a wrestling or boxing culture

they're one of the best wrestling countries in the world (win lots of mens golds in the lighter weight classes and their women's team is the best in the world by miles) and they win lots of boxing medals (amateur) and belts (pro) in the lighter weight classes. Just go to wiki and look at who holds the belts right now.

I remember reading in the 90s that Japan had won more golds in the lightest boxing class at the olympics than any other country, I assume that's still true.
all the above has been true for decades but ppl here still post the opposite as 'fact' whenever this topic comes up, go figure.

As for population it's about 125 million, not that far off the population of Russia really (140 million)

Therefore I have no choice but to grade your post FFF, triple fail.

 

[lukeuidswords]

tbh nobody cares that extremely small midgets class even under 125lbs division except Japan. Who care? That's the reason they prevail since they are only one who really compete for

Not true. Mexico and Thailand are massive players in the divisions as well. You don't watch boxing.

 

[lukeuidswords]

Yes but think about this South Korea has half the population of Japan. Yet Korean fighters are doing better in UFC than Japanese fighters. Thats what the problem is, it makes no sense especially since Japan has such a strong martial arts history and culture. Plus they had Pride which was a huge MMA promotion

Korea has no ranked UFC fighters and no domestic scene, viewing this subject through only who is doing well in the UFC is reductionist and won't give you a full or accurate picture

 

[Jose Beehive]

Why doesnt Japan The Planet have more high level talent like Sakuraba?

 

[Bilzerian]

Why didnt they just have him win all the time then if they have to fix his fights?
I seem to recall Sakuraba was a MW in a promotion without a MW div and had to fight HW's and LHWs all the time.

Took alot of balls to do that. Seems like the act of a pampered darling who needs his fights fixed...dont you??

Yeah his skill were REALLY disproved when he lost to Crocop and Wanderlei,guys who outweight him by 50 lbs

SAKU admitted he didn't wanna fight against HW big guys such as Crocop, Wand, Igor, Arona at all. None of them were same weight category with Sakuraba obviously. But he was pushed to fight them continuously by Takada, instead of introducing in new weight class. And all that Drum clown Takada-san suggested him was just 2 more Japanese Chanko Nabe pot everyday to gain more weight, to be heavier like Sumo wrestlers usually do. That's the reason why he decided to move to K-1 Heros after brutal beating from Arona fight. Poor Saku. PRIDE and Mr Yakuza Sakakibara owe CTE big to him

 

[HHJ]

SAKU admitted he didn't wanna fight against HW big guys such as Crocop, Wand, Igor at all. None of them was same weight category with Sakuraba obviously. But he was pushed to fight them continuously by Takada, instead of introducing in new weight class. And all that Drum clown Takada suggested him was just 2 more Japanese Chanko Nabe pot everyday to gain weight, to be heavier like Sumo wrestlers usually do. That's the reason why he decided to move to K-1 Heros. Poor Saku. PRIDE and Yakuza Sakakibara owe serious CTE to him

Yoshida said similar things about his own career.

 

[Blazmo]

Not true. Mexico and Thailand are massive players in the divisions as well. You don't watch boxing.

Not helping your case bruh.

 

[Blazmo]

they're one of the best wrestling countries in the world (win lots of mens golds in the lighter weight classes and their women's team is the best in the world by miles) and they win lots of boxing medals (amateur) and belts (pro) in the lighter weight classes. Just go to wiki and look at who holds the belts right now.

I remember reading in the 90s that Japan had won more golds in the lightest boxing class at the olympics than any other country, I assume that's still true.
all the above has been true for decades but ppl here still post the opposite as 'fact' whenever this topic comes up, go figure.

As for population it's about 125 million, not that far off the population of Russia really (140 million)

Therefore I have no choice but to grade your post FFF, triple fail.

UK alone has 7 champions to Japan's 6. Ours are at weights more than a very few countries care about too.

 

[HHJ]

Horiguchi is my motherfuckin DAWG

 

[jptmma]

because A-level Japanese athletes play baseball...

 

[lukeuidswords]

Not helping your case bruh.

Mexico is the boxing nation of the world. Thailand has an incredibly competitive amateur system and a storied history of olympic medallists. Why do people who dont know shit about boxing insist on talking about boxing?

 

[lukeuidswords]

UK alone has 7 champions to Japan's 6. Ours are at weights more than a very few countries care about too.

Why do you say "UK alone" like there hasn't been a massive economic boom around boxing in this country since the Froch/Groves rematch in 2014, Britain is a boxing superpower and anyone that follows the sport knows this, not a good example

 

[Patrick Jane]

Shoot style pro wrestling is more of a niche nowadays.

 

[Hotei]

The sport is dead in Japan and pro wrestling is not as big as it used to be... talent pool and training facilities are just not there.