Gomi's place in LW history

One of the trail blazers to helping LW emerge as a heralded division. Gomi carried the torch in prides division, BJ was ufc's LW stalwart.
 
wake_me said:
Nick Diaz subbing him with a gogoplata, while high as a kite
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Although really that doesn't look so bad in retrospect does it with Nick's run at WW afterwards, Gomi breaking his face shows you the power he had.

What people forget with Gomi as well is that the Pride Bushido run wasn't the start of his elite career, he debuted way back in 1998 and by the early 2000's in Shooto was ranked as high as #1 at LW, albeit in a very disorganised division. By 2007 he was almost a decade into his career so his form starting to decline isn't really that unexpected.

Very early in his UFC run he showed some patches of his old form KO Tyson Griffin but they have kept him around to trade on his name for years since, he's clearly nothing like the fighter he was.
 
He was the greatest during his era. You gotta respect that. Def a legend. In his physical prime he was quick, strong and would put a beating on one of your favorite Lws. Had a Granite chin too. The punishing body shots, KO overhands/hooks, vicious knees...he'd just beat you to a pulp. cant really hate on the guy. im watching gomi vs jens pulver right now lol. his footwork was nice, had good countering ability.
 
YOLOGOGOPLATA said:
I agree that UFC results are a huge factor when it comes to how a mixed martial artist is remembered, but why do you think that makes him nowhere near any all time great lists, especially since he was clearly washed up? Is it his level of competition in PRIDE? Or the fact that his game may not be as suited for the current state of MMA as it was when he was in his prime? I respect your opinion just curious what you think.
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Think of any truly great person in any sport, even when you are on the downside of your career. I think about baseball players, football players, etc. Think boxing. When Evander Holyfield faced Tyson, he was expected to be smashed because he was coming off a really sad loss, and a mysterious heart ailment. This was certainly not the condition he'd always expected to face the great Mike Tyson. However, he rose to the occasion and dominated Tyson.

Think Nate vs. Conor. Nate only had two weeks to prepare, certainly not the ideal circumstance. Nevertheless, he excelled due to his greatness. Gomi has had numerous opportunities to do that, and has failed at almost every turn. In face, he has been woeful most of those times. I have no ax to grind... Ten years ago, I would've said he was the greatest (2nd greatest) myself!
 
YOLOGOGOPLATA said:
Takanori Gomi is my personal favorite LW of all time
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Piece of Sheet said:
Top 5 soon to be top 10
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knspiracy said:
Fucken legend. I feel sorry for people who can't agree..
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What do you guys think of Kyoji Horiguchi? I feel like he's the next Gomi coming from Japan.
22 fights already, blatantly talented, beat everyone in the UFC except DJ, killing it in Rizin now too.

giphy.gif
 
He was fun as fuck to watch, but noobs will say he's shit cos of his UFC run only.
Top 10 all day long
 
Gomi was a beast, top 5 for me. But as time goes on, less of the new fans know about his Pride days and new fighters like Tony come along and surpass him.

War Gomi!
 
BETtrman said:
Gomi was a beast, top 5 for me. But as time goes on, less of the new fans know about his Pride days and new fighters like Tony come along and surpass him.

War Gomi!
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My man. I'm a relative noob compared to most of the posters on this site... so don't lose hope in the new generation discrediting his accomplishments! That being said I'm also an extremely big sports nerd(like embarrassingly so), so once I got into mma about 3 years ago I did a tremendous amount of research in order to educate myself on the previous 25 years of fighters that I wasn't able to watch live. I'm sure there are others like me out there, and Gomi's legacy will live on. I'm glad you mentioned Tony because in my opinion he is like the second coming of Gomi (with an admittedly better ground game). Would be a treat if they were able to fight while in their primes
 
dr. john lee said:
Think of any truly great person in any sport, even when you are on the downside of your career. I think about baseball players, football players, etc. Think boxing. When Evander Holyfield faced Tyson, he was expected to be smashed because he was coming off a really sad loss, and a mysterious heart ailment. This was certainly not the condition he'd always expected to face the great Mike Tyson. However, he rose to the occasion and dominated Tyson.

Think Nate vs. Conor. Nate only had two weeks to prepare, certainly not the ideal circumstance. Nevertheless, he excelled due to his greatness. Gomi has had numerous opportunities to do that, and has failed at almost every turn. In face, he has been woeful most of those times. I have no ax to grind... Ten years ago, I would've said he was the greatest (2nd greatest) myself!
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Mannnn.... I'm disappointed that I can't argue with a single thing you said. I've never thought of it that way. You are totally correct in saying that almost every all time great in any sport has had a flash of their prior greatness while they were in the twilight of their career. the only conclusion I can be brought to is that Gomi's mental toughness was lacking once his physical abilities began to decline. But dude please don't compare him to Nate Diaz, I'm a Nate fan but he is nowhere near the fighter Gomi was, and he wasn't that far off his prime when he beat Conor.
 
maybe the second best LW ever, his fights with Pulver, Ishida, Azaredo 1 and Kawajiri are classics, I´ve been a fan forever the guy in his prime was a beast
 
I just did some math and Gomi lost his last 5 fights in a combined 9min9sec.

That Maestro Kim and Jon Tuck are apart of that isn't great.
 
He's highly underrated because most of his best work was outside the UFC, and he had some losses at the end of his career, but he's badass
 
Danespina said:
I just did some math and Gomi lost his last 5 fights in a combined 9min9sec.

That Maestro Kim and Jon Tuck are apart of that isn't great.
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Damn man. I shed a tear reading your post lol. As much as I love him and as great as he was in his prime, idk if any fighter has had their skills fall off a cliff as dramatically as Gomi
 
Pakman said:
agree



good post, I think for me he's #2 but can't hate on Frankie, RDA or Eddie. I think Bendo and Melendez should get more love too. Even guys like Aoki too.
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LOL. Just LOL. You nostalgics never cease to amaze me.
 
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