Media Why is Japan struggling in the UFC?

[Ube]

Asians have not mastered strength training and weight cutting like Westerners. They are usually outsized in fights by fighters who walk around two weight classes heavier than what they fight at, and temporarily dehydrate for weigh ins. Japanese culture emphasizes intellectual rather than physical pursuits. They honor scientists, engineers, and CEOs more than athletes. Also Japan does not have widespread income disparity. Poverty breeds toughness and killer instinct. You can't help being tough growing up in an American ghetto, Brazilian favella, Russian slum, or Mexican shanty town.

I don’t think you understand how tough and resilient Japanese people are. Read up on it. Plus they’re world class at wrestling, Judo, and Gymanstics and have a prominent distance running culture which require you to be mentally and physically tough, whether or not you’re getting punched in the face. Besides, they do have really good boxers at the lower weight classes.

Although income disparity could be it. Well to do people don’t usually get into mma.

I agree with you on the weight cutting thing. I don’t think they cut much weight and……
I’m just assuming… but… they probably in general really frown upon PEDs.

 

[RockyLockridge]

too much soy, not enough beef

 

[Hellowhosthat]

wrestling isn't really fighting, but boxing i'll give them that. how many combat sports do they suck at though? more than they're good at.

they're getting trashed in their OWN NATIONAL SPORT of sumo by, surprise, Mongolians.

They're at least pretty good at boxing, kickboxing, judo and wrestling.

I wouldn't even call sumo a combat sport really.

 

[Sivo The Ram]

their culture. it is not conducive to building individuality. MMA is an individual sport. their society is not particularly conducive to violence. it's that simple. sure, not cutting weight and whatever, but you have to be an animal in fighting. you have to be like Kid Yamamoto, or Takanori Gomi. these guys wanted to smash your face.

it's like asking why there's so many Samoan fighters when Samoa is WAY smaller than Japan. that's because Samoa's entire culture is built around violence and fighting. you come from a violent warrior society, guess what, you get violent warriors.

....wtf are you talking about. Japan is one of the top combat sports countries in the world. they legit have world champions in boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, judo, karate. i couldnt even name a samoan champion. david tua is probably the best samoan fighter ever and he never became world champion

 

[Tweak896]

Been waiting for a real Japanese champ in the UFC, maybe Horiguchi can pull it off last minute. I feel like they do fine in boxing with size, so it's pretty weird not to have anyone. Well I think it's also stuff like Rizen where they all go, they are very nationalistic. Sort of like how they will basically refuse to buy xbox, but buy nintendo and playstation.

 

[KillerIsBack V2]

what do you mean? Japan has zero UFC champions. Samoans have 2, Robert Whittaker and Max Holloway. Mark Hunt is literally the ONLY non-European K-1 GP winner. they're also overrepresented in contact sports. which is my point. there's more Samoans WILLING to fight than there are Japanese which is why they end up doing better.

this is not just Samoan thing, this is ANY warrior culture. the Japanese get dominated in their OWN NATIONAL SPORT by Mongolians. why? because Mongolians have a warrior culture.

if the question was "Why is there zero Samoan Nobel Prize winners?" my argument would be the same. because they don't give a fuck about that shit the way other cultures do.

I can roughly see the Max thing.

But Rob? Especially with your explication? Cause his grandma(mom side) is Samoan?
Besides, she left and his dad raised him and his brother alone.

Rob is more Australian/European than anything else.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

I love the asian stereotypes by people that know very little about athletics (and I guess genetics).

Japanese people suck at combat sports? Uh...they're legitimately great at combat sports that are more competitive than MMA. They have a gigantic number of world champions in boxing, freestyle wrestling, greco-roman wrestling, judo, kickboxing and a few domestic sports. In the majority of those sports they dwarf the United States despite being 1/3rd their population.

East Asian people also do very well in weight lifting and gymnastic sports, so the guy that said something about them lacking strength is talking out their ass lol.

Theyre not doing good in MMA because they only recently started to take it seriously. It's just a show there, most famous JMMA fighters do not train in a calculated manner. It's only this recent generation which is very young where guys are starting to do that.


This thread actually shows you how little people here know about combat sports. I legitimately think most people here are clueless to how many boxing champions Japan has, and probably know little about the sport (wrestling is a given that people here know nothing about it).

 

[Doctor Grudge]

To answer it quickly - their training sucks ass for most of their history. When Gen Z and Alpha hit their primes, they will likely be big contenders.

 

[NoSmilez]

It isn't just the weight cut. These guys don't cross train with each other and it is hard to bring in foreign trainers to Japan. They also lack game planning and cage tactics. They just show up and "fight". It doesn't work for the harder UFC matchups. They will end up losing decisions.

I think they have better boxers, kickboxers, wrestlers and BJJ practitioners than the Koreans. At least they had a head start. The Japanese don't work together and try to exchange ideas. The Koreans will try to cross train with each other when they reach the UFC stage.

 

[theincognito]

Too one-dimensional. Rei Tsuruya, an elite wrestler, looked like a UFC 1 tier fighter with his desperate takedown attempts and complete lack of skills to do anything else against Joshua Van.

Most likely, this is from a lack of elite gyms in Japan. The only decent Japanese fighters I can think of in the last 20 years have been the few that went elsewhere to train (Okami, Horiguchi, etc).

 

[Lycandroid]

Japanese fighters have also consistently been given unfavorable matchups through the entire history of the UFC. There has never been a Japanese prospect given then O'Malley, Mcgregor ect approach.

There is a long history of Japanese stars coming to the UFC and given a matchup that is stylistically to their clear disadvantage.

 

[Fury]

Dagestan where do resources get allocated to MMA?

Oligarchs, Russian government via wrestling programs

Also, Magomedov before his arrest

 

[CatchtheseHands]

It's because most of them don't bother to train outside of Japan and don't really fight outside of Japan really either. The ones that do tend to be the most successful outside of Japan like Gooch.

TLDR: Japanese MMA is in too much of a vacuum.

 

[Blastbeat]

I wouldn't even call sumo a combat sport really.

that is an extremely bizarre take. of course sumo is a combat sport. what the hell else would it be?

 

[Hellowhosthat]

that is an extremely bizarre take. of course sumo is a combat sport. what the hell else would it be?

Pushing.

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, but if it is a combat sport it's the least applicable one to MMA I would say.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

Pushing.

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, but if it is a combat sport it's the least applicable one to MMA I would say.

You should probably watch sumo if you're going to comment on it. It uses a lot of the same techniques that Judo does.

I mean its in its name, its wrestling. So of course it is a combat sport.

 

[SJP_SevenLaker]

I somehow feel dumber after reading this thread.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

You should probably watch sumo if you're going to comment on it. It uses a lot of the same techniques that Judo does.

I mean its in its name, its wrestling. So of course it is a combat sport.

Fair enough, a guy I train BJJ with actually competes in it and invited me to go along with him and have a go. Maybe I'll give it a try.

 

[El Panteron]

their culture. it is not conducive to building individuality. MMA is an individual sport. their society is not particularly conducive to violence. it's that simple. sure, not cutting weight and whatever, but you have to be an animal in fighting. you have to be like Kid Yamamoto, or Takanori Gomi. these guys wanted to smash your face.

it's like asking why there's so many Samoan fighters when Samoa is WAY smaller than Japan. that's because Samoa's entire culture is built around violence and fighting. you come from a violent warrior society, guess what, you get violent warriors.

Didn't have to scroll at all to find the stupidest post, thank you for keeping it efficient.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

Tbf other than central Asian countries and Dagestan where do resources get allocated to MMA? It's a very self made sport in most places.

Their governments have well made infrastructures and colleges dedicated to people competing in combat sports.

In Japan, you study until like 8 PM, and your parents will ask why youre not studying more if you do sports after 8 PM.


Japan is just way behind in having good MMA schools. MMA was barely treated more seriously than bar fighting by its athletes. Train like a hobbiest, don't diet, show up and fight. FUSSR training is much more calculated and organized.