Yushin Okami vs. Buddy Roberts: What a Win Means for Okami

Yushin "Thunder" Okami returns at UFC 150 to take on unheralded middleweight Buddy Roberts.  

Fun fact before we get started: Okami must like fighting under Ben Henderson and Frankie Edgar, because his last matchup was against Tim Boetsch at UFC 144, a card which the two lightweight studs also headlined. 

Now that that bit of trivia is out of the way, let us turn to Mr. Okami, a force at middleweight who has recently fallen on hard times.  

After clawing his way to a title shot with Anderson Silva, Okami has not been the same.  Anderson literally punched and taunted the fight out of Okami in their matchup, and this loss led him to a fight with Tim Boetsch, a tough, but relatively unknown middleweight. 

After dominating the fight for two rounds, Okami was overwhelmed by Boetsch in what remains one of the most dramatic comebacks in UFC history.  Boetsch blitzed Okami with a series of powerful hockey fight-like uppercuts, sending the Japanese star to the canvas in a heap.

Ouch.

For somebody who was once No. 2 in the division, Okami sure has fallen.  

Now, after his original opponent, Rousimar Palhares, backed out of his UFC 150 matchup with injury, Okami is facing Buddy Roberts, a fighter with little name recognition or accomplishments to boast of.  

Roberts has had one fight in the UFC to Okami's 14, and it was against Caio Magalhaes.  

Who?

Exactly.

The fact that Okami is even fighting Roberts shows just how far he has fallen in the division, and I do not mean this in a way to belittle Roberts.  We have not seen much of him inside the Octagon, so he may very well be the real deal.  It is just that we are so accustomed to seeing Okami take on the Sonnens, Munozes and Marquardts of the world that it is a bit odd to see him facing somebody of Roberts' draw.

Because of this, a win really does not mean anything to Yushin Okami other than that he lives to see another day under the UFC banner.  

Palhares at least has some marketing power and a fabulous ground game to help promote the fight, but Roberts is almost a lose-lose for Okami.  

If he loses to him, he will be on the chopping block.  If he wins, so what?  

The only way Okami can make this fight noteworthy for himself and for his status as a UFC middleweight is if he absolutely destroys Roberts.  

When have we really seen Okami obliterate someone inside the Octagon? I'll save you the Google search: The answer is never.  

Okami is a great fighter, and he is phenomenal on the ground, but he has a reputation for being a decision-first, finish-second fighter, and this trend needs to end tonight at UFC 150.  

If Okami is to do anything for himself against Roberts, he has to either finish him with strikes or a submission, preferably in the first round and preferably the first half of the first round.  

This fight has almost no upside for Okami, and it is a shame to see a once top-10 fighter relegated to such a position, but that is how the fight game goes.  He absolutely deserves this low-profile matchup; he has made his bed with losses, and now he must lay in it.

For Okami, a win over Roberts means only one thing: I still matter, and I deserve another shot to prove myself against the contenders in the division.  

A loss means the opposite, and some walking papers might be in order.

So, while this is arguably the least important matchup of Okami's UFC career based on name value, it is simultaneously also the most important bout, a sad reality for "Thunder." 

This fight is either the best of times or the worst of times for Okami; the decision is his, and it should be an easy one.