Rich Hansen's Take
BLOWTORCH BLOG: Victories by Takanori Gomi and Yushin Okami at UFC on Versus validate the notion of Japanese MMA's decline
Aug 2, 2010 - 11:13:50 AM BLOWTORCH BLOG: Victories by Takanori Gomi and Yushin Okami at UFC on Versus validate the notion of Japanese MMA's decline

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By: Rich Hansen, MMATorch Contributor

Having boned up on Japanese MMA recently, let me play devil's advocate to the notion that last night's UFC on Versus event, and the victories by Yushin Okami and Takanori Gomi, have given new hope for Japanese MMA in the U.S.

I believe that the wins by Okami and Gomi further validate the notion that Japanese MMA is in decline. Both Okami and Gomi won last night by fighting a "western" style of fight. Gomi said so himself immediately after the fight by saying that he won by learning how to fight "American" against Griffin.

Japanese MMA involves little to no wrestling, little to no KO power, little to no weight cutting, and far less scientific approaches to training camps and conditioning.

Wrestling: Okami's sprawl devastated Munoz's game plan. Sure Okami had the better standup, and FAR superior footwork. But had he not been able to sprawl more effectively than Munoz, a fantastic wrestler who just wasn't able to implement his take downs, then Okami would have lost the fight.

KO power: Ryan McDermott brought this up on Fighters and Writers. It is rare to see one punch KO power from any Japanese fighter, except Takanori Gomi. Gomi has always been an atypical Japanese fighter, because he has that elusive KO power. He demonstrated that last night.

Weight Cutting: Okami walks around at over 200 pounds, and looked great last night, as he always does. He was the bigger man, and Munoz is a big 185 lb. fighter.

Camp and Conditioning: Okami said that by the time the bell rang, he knew everything Munoz was going to do, which is part of the reason his timing in the fight was always close to perfect. In Japan, it is rare to have 2-3 months to prepare for a fight, much less 2-3 weeks. Okami used that time to his advantage, and had a fantastic camp. Gomi took the time between the Florian fight and this one to train in a western-style camp for the first time ever, and check out the results.

In conclusion, to my way of thinking, the successes of Okami and Gomi indicate that if a Japanese fighter wants to succeed, they needs to integrate as many western (modern) techniques into their lives as possible. Training in the traditional ways that they have always trained might lead one to become the best in Japan, but that is an increasingly meaningless designation.