Yushin Okami: Is Okami Still a Top-10 Middleweight?

After suffering back-to-back losses for the first time in his career, the pressure was definitely on Yushin Okami to walk away from UFC 150 with a victory.

Buddy Roberts is unknown by the vast majority of MMA fans, and if Okami didn’t come out and crush him, his days near the top of the division were over.

Fortunately for Okami, he was able to get the job done Saturday night.

In a vintage “Thunder” performance, Okami took his opponent down and beat him up over and over again, earning the stoppage in the second round.

The win puts Okami back on the right track in a middleweight division that is overflowing with title contenders, and he’ll likely face a decently big name in his next fight.

So where does Okami land on the middleweight ladder?

Probably a bit higher than a lot of people expect.

Okami has been one of the most underrated fighters in the UFC for a long time now, and he has wins over Mark Munoz and Alan Belcher to prove he can defeat top-level competition.

With an 11-4 UFC record, Okami has proven to be one of the best middleweights in the world over the last six years, and of his four losses, three have come at hands of Anderson Silva, Chael Sonnen and Rich Franklin.

Michael Bisping, Vitor Belfort and Chris Weidman are well above Okami in the rankings at this point, but Okami seems to fit right inside the bottom half of the top 10 alongside guys like Belcher and Brian Stann.

After suffering two straight losses prior to this win over Roberts, expect Okami to have to defend his turf against fighters trying to jump into the top 10, (like he failed to do against Tim Boetsch).

But if he earns a few more wins, Okami will quickly find himself back in the top five in the division and could eventually earn himself another middleweight title shot.