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By: Anwar Perez, MMATorch Columnist
This is the first part of a two part series in looking at the death of Japanese MMA and the casualties of its heroes outside of Japan. The second part will deal with the resurrection of Japanese MMA, and what advantages and disadvantages it has when competing against the rest of the world.
When it comes to the fight between Chris Leben and Yoshihiro Akiyama, the story coming out of UFC 116 is that Leben pulled off the nearly impossible. Fighting twice within two weeks (first against Aaron Simpson), Leben won both fights in impressive, come from behind fashion. Another twist of fate concerning this bout is that this fight indeed proved that so-called Japanese MMA is dead.
Leading up to the fight, Akiyama was adamant in showing that Japanese MMA was relevant in today’s MMA.
As was the case (and similar fate) when Shinya Aoki was saying the same things leading up to his fight against Gilbert Melendez in Strikeforce, Akiyama was proven wrong.
In every instance of an established Japanese MMA star coming over to the United States to face off against opponents in their weight class, it seems that each time they have been proven wrong. They are simply in no way on the same level as their American counterparts.
Shinya Aoki lost via an ugly unanimous decision against Gilbert Melendez in which Aoki looked lost, and was noticeably out-classed by the Strikeforce lightweight champion. He claimed that if he lost, it would be the death of Japanese MMA. Obviously, that wasn’t the case since Akiyama was vocally representing the cause for his fight with Wanderlei Silva, who was replaced with Chris Leben after Silva suffered an injury during training.
If you look back at the top stars of Japanese MMA coming over and facing “our” fighters (in reference to US based fighters), you will see a noticeable difference between them. Takanori Gomi recently made his debut for the UFC back in March against Kenny Florian, and not only did he look like a shell of his former self (Gomi was at one point the number one lightweight in the world), but he also looked like a fighter that did not belong in the same building as Florian.
Gomi was submitted by Florian, and drove another nail in the coffin for Japanese MMA. Gomi previously “lost,” almost four years to the time of that match, against another American fighter, Nick Diaz, while fighting in Pride. Though the decision was overturned to a no-contest due to marijuana use on the part of Nick Diaz, barring any performance enhancing drugs Diaz still beat him.
Speaking of Nick Diaz, he recently defeated another Japanese hero in Hayato Sakurai. This was in the Dream organization, and Diaz submitted Sakurai via arm-bar. This is just another example of a foreign fighter coming to Japan and dominating another one of Japan's MMA heroes.
Caol Uno recently returned to the UFC within the last year, but like his brethren, he was unable to do much against the competition here. He posted an 0-2-1 record in his return, most recently losing to Gleison Tibau via TKO.
Kazushi Sakuraba is an MMA legend no matter how you look at it. He is known as the “Gracie Killer” for taking out Royce Gracie and any other member of his family (save for recent opponent Ralek Gracie). He is the prototypical Japanese MMA star. In fact, he may be the reason that there is such a thing as Japanese MMA to begin with.
But he too, met an unfortunate fate against another skilled foreigner in the form of Wanderlei Silva. Silva was still coming into his own, but against Sakuraba, he broke the Japanese legend down not once, not twice, but three times. This is a point where you can see that MMA in Japan was falling behind the rest of the world.
To be fair, Japanese MMA gave birth to the careers of many foreigners not Japanese born. Due to the Pride organization, and its ascension towards being the top MMA organization in the world opposite the UFC, they were able to attract many foreign fighters of higher caliber than their Japanese brethren. Dan Henderson, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Bob Sapp, Mirko Cro Cop, Wanderlei Silva, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria, Fedor Emilianenko, and many more were able to make names for themselves due to their popularity in Japan, and ironically, at the expense of many homegrown Japanese fighters.
Like any country that represents itself through sports competition, Japan has a deep, rich history when it comes to MMA. The problem lies in the fact that so do many other countries, such as Brazil and the United States. For Japanese MMA to climb back towards the top of the echelon of MMA, and be recognized (along with its fighters) as a force to be reckoned with, an internal revolution within the Japanese culture of the sport needs to take place, and the need to rise and be at the level where the rest of the world is already at.
RELATED STORY: UFC NEWS: Chris Leben discusses his victory over Yoshihiro Akiyama, wants to coach The Ultimate Fighter opposite Wanderlei Silva: [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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