UFC 126 Results: Norifumi 'Kid' Yamamoto and What Nobody Has Realized About Him

The events of UFC 126 are now written into MMA history. Vitor Belfort was vanquished with an epic front kick, Forrest Griffin proved too much for Rich Franklin, and Jon Jones dominated fellow prospect Ryan Bader and even earned a title shot.

Many important events occurred that night but one has gone unnoticed: The virtual death of Japanese MMA.

Earlier in the night, on an undercard bout which aired on the UFC’s facebook page, Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto was thoroughly outworked by Demetrius “Mighty Mouse” Johnson. Fans that came late to the sport may not realize the significance of this fight.  Yamamoto was once considered to be one of the best fighters in the world, specifically at featherweight.

While some may state that Yamamoto’s loss was due to the fact that he was fighting outside of his normal weight class, they would be overlooking the fact that “Kid” debuted at bantamweight in May 2010; this was not his first rodeo at bantamweight.

Also, Yamamoto lost to American Greco-Roman wrestling star Joe Warren, who would later become the Bellator Featherweight Champion, in the quarterfinals of Dream’s featherweight tournament.

The writing has been on the wall since then, and it is only becoming clearer: Japanese MMA is on life support.

For proof, one needs to look further than the status of Japanese fighters within the UFC.

“The Fireball Kid” Takanori Gomi was, for many years, considered to be the best lightweight on the planet. He was a dominant fighter, losing only to BJ Penn, Joachim Hansen and Marcus Aurelio (although Gomi was submitted by Nick Diaz via gogoplata at Pride 33, Diaz failed his drug test and the fight was made a no contest).

Gomi would have a brief slump but would then pull himself back together and make it to the UFC. In Gomi’s UFC debut, he was choked out by Kenny Florian.

Perhaps it was Octagon jitters? Perhaps it was jet lag?

In his next fight, Gomi would knockout Tyson Griffin. Griffin had never been knocked out before.

Clearly it was Octagon jitters and jet lag in Gomi’s first UFC performance!

Three months later, “The Fireball Kid” was dominated and submitted by perennial gatekeeper Clay Guida.

Clearly it wasn’t Octagon jitters or jet lag causing his loss to Guida and clearly it wasn’t those things causing his loss against Florian either.

The fact of the matter was that Gomi was, and perhaps still is, overrated. One of the stars of Japanese MMA could not dispose of a mere gatekeeper in the UFC.

Another fading star of Japanese MMA is Yoshihiro Akiyama. Like most Japanese fighters, Akiyama came to the UFC riding a wave of hype. The Judoka touted a 12-1-2 record upon his entrance into the UFC with wins over Denis Kang and Melvin Manhoef.

Akiyama first fought Alan Belcher in a fight that ended in a controversial split decision in which Akiyama was awarded with the win.

Akiyama would eventually drop two straight. The first was a submission loss to Chris Leben and the second, a lopsided decision loss versus Michael Bisping. While Leben and Bisping are skilled fighters, they are not champion material. Again, a Japanese star failed to live up to the hype and could not compete in the UFC against mid level fighters.

There are other Japanese fighters such as Shinya Aoki, Michihiro Omigawa and Kazuhiro Nakamura that were not able to cut it outside of Japan.

While Aoki only fought once in the United States, for the Strikeforce organization, his decision loss to Gilbert Melendez was decisive. Aoki was just unable to deal with the size and wrestling of his opponent.

The other two, Omigawa and Nakamura, have lost all of their fights in the UFC.

Simply put, no Japanese fighter has come to the UFC and been successful.

But what about Yushin Okami?

Okami is a different story. Out of the 31 fights in his career, 16 took place outside Asia, 12 of those 16 were in the UFC. This gave Okami a chance to acclimate to the higher level of competition found abroad. That is why he is so successful today and, until recently, was slated to fight Anderson Silva for the middleweight championship.

Interestingly, the death of Pride had a hand in creating Japanese MMA’s current difficulties. After Pride’s demise, much of the top competition moved to the UFC. This vacuum in talent was never truly filled by the stars of the Dream organization.

With a vast amount of high level competition gone, the baseline amount of skill in the Japanese MMA scene has rapidly diminished; being successful in Japan does not require as much skill as being successful in the world's other MMA hotbeds, namely the United States and Brazil.

Is there hope for Japanese MMA?

Yes, there is some hope in the form of a fighter named Tatsuya Kawajiri. Kawajiri recently beat Josh Thompson, former Strikeforce lightweight champion, and is rumored to be facing current Strikeforce lightweight champion, Gilbert Melendez.

If Kawajiri manages to best Melendez, it is possible that Japanese MMA will be a force once more. But if he loses, it could sound the death knell for the credibility of Japanese fighters in the west.