Top 10 - Greatest Japanese Fighters in MMA

Hotora86 said:
No love for Sexyama?
yoshihiro-akiyama-300-300.jpeg
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I heard he's Vietnamese.
 
Kid had the highest peak. Arguably the best around at one point, but then the wrestling and the aftermath. For greatness (competition, longevity, achievements, etc):

1) Saku by far. He's THE guy from there
2) Gomi because of reign
3) Sakurai for being the man at one point and doing good later on. Did well above his natural weight.
4) Aoki for having a long run among the top LW's. And for creativity.
5) Uno for starting earlier than almost all on the list and maintaining a good level even past his prime
6) Kawajiri for longevity and ironmanning
7) Kid for high peak
8) Funaki for pioneering and being one of the top fighters and teachers of the fairly early days. BAS!

There's a gap after these 8, imo.
 
Oscaraps said:
Isn’t he Korean ? I might be wrong ..
Yea sakuraba is for sure number one, heck you can make the argument sakurai and Goni are ahead of aoki
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Yes, he's half Korean and Korean born.. The reason he has the name Akiyama is that he wanted Japanese citizenship which apparently entails that you take a Japanese surname.
 
Again Kazuo Misaki footwork was so good that Henderson looked all sorts of lost agaisnt him...
Kazuo Misaki at 35 years and the end of his career finally moves to WW to face Paul Daley at Strikeforce.
Kazuo Misaki footwork was so good he turned DALEY into to a WRESTLER.... He outclassed Daley so bad, made Daley back pedal all night and fear exchanging punches...
Paul Daley fearing of trade punches and doing WRESTLING! That at the twilight of his career, finally fighting in a division that would make him standout and he looked smaller than Daley too.
And for a change a Japanese actually OVERPERFOMING at the US.
 
Misaki is legit one of the most underrated fighters in mma history.
 
1. Saku
2. Minowaman
3. Yoshida
4. Gomi
5. Sakurai
6. Misaki
7. Aoki
8. Kid Yamamoto
9. Uno
10.Fujita
 
GalegodoVeneno said:
Kazuo Misaki has a pretty great win agaisnt Henderson (MW GP Champion), another competitive match agaisnt him, starched Akyiama, won agaisnt Phil Baroni, Patino, Daley, Nakamura, Shoji, Herman. Won the MW GP as a replacement agaisnt Kang... Besides Sakuraba and Aoki, he has the greatest wins of this guys.
And he could have be a WW if he cutted weight.
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He was a WW for the last few fights of his career. Misaki has to top a list of most underrated fighters for sure.
 
House Adams said:
Okami has to find a place on this list.... Also, and I know I’ll the Saku supporters will want to tar and feather me... But Both Gomi and Aoki probably achieved more in a deeper more talented division.. And it’s not that I don’t love me some Saku.. I just think guys that are able to be argued as some of the best LW’s of all time, and the talent they faced and beat over their careers, put them just a fraction above Saku... In my humble opinion.. He’s definitely top-3, no doubt... Just think it can be argued... He definitely gets bonus points for fighting at HW when he could have made 185lbs / 183lbs with no problem... Guys a straight Legend and a killer.. Gods don’t make them any tougher then Saku.
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Yeah they probably have, Saku is really more a fighter you view like Bas or Frank, albeit his success crossed more into the truly evolved era of the sport beating the likes of a young Rampage.
 
OldBoy91 said:
He was a WW for the last few fights of his career. Misaki has to top a list of most underrated fighters for sure.
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True, i still am fucking impressed by the way he put Daley in his place on the feet, as i described in a post above, true elite, a little bit of weakness agaisnt wrestlers, but did some impressive shit.
 
Man Okami should be forgotten, nobody in japan cares about a high classer hug machine, dude is sucesfull for sure, but this is japan we talking, a bunch of guys daring to be great and facing challenges and breaking their faces for mma history... This dude is probably a embaressment for them.
Fuck his boring ways.
 
TheWalrusNo9 said:
1. Saku

- IMO the most talented fighter to ever come out of Japan. His natural weight class by today's standards would be WW. He fought LHWs and HWs for the vast majority of his career. He would've easily handled Hughes, Miletich, Trigg & Lawler. I would personally favor him vs GSP as well. Thats the top WWs of his prime.

2. Gomi

- Possibly the most "decorated" fighter out of Japan. His 2004-2005 was the best streak of any LW in history. He had insane natural gifts and one can only imagine his peak had he truly took training seriously and evolved.

3. Kyoji Horiguchi

- Was hard to place him above his mentor Kid, but he surpassed him terms of accomplishments. Kyoji is extremely young and has a long career ahead of him. That being said he has already accomplished a ton and has shown an elite level of athleticism and technique. He isn't smashing cans either and would easily be a top 3 FlyW in the UFC right now.

4. Kid

- Easily the most naturally gifted fighter in BW/FlyW history and possibly out of any weight class. He never met his full potential due to injuries and taking a long break from MMA to pursue a medal for wrestling in the 2008 Olympics.

5. Hayato Sakurai

- Similar to Gomi in terms of just needing to train harder and more disciplined. Even so he was an elite WW and has some insane wins on is record.

The 5 above are the best by a large margin. Aoki, Fujita, Misaki, Funaki & Yoshida can fill out the list in any order.
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MCS said:
Kid had the highest peak. Arguably the best around at one point, but then the wrestling and the aftermath. For greatness (competition, longevity, achievements, etc):

1) Saku by far. He's THE guy from there
2) Gomi because of reign
3) Sakurai for being the man at one point and doing good later on. Did well above his natural weight.
4) Aoki for having a long run among the top LW's. And for creativity.
5) Uno for starting earlier than almost all on the list and maintaining a good level even past his prime
6) Kawajiri for longevity and ironmanning
7) Kid for high peak
8) Funaki for pioneering and being one of the top fighters and teachers of the fairly early days. BAS!

There's a gap after these 8, imo.
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Better lists than OT IMO
 
Fujita was an human being that rocked Prime Fedor

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give the guy a slot in that list
 
NandoMoura said:
1 - Shinya Aoki
2 - Kazushi Sakuraba
3 - Takanori Gomi
4 - Kid Yamamoto
5 - Genki Sudo
6 - Hayato Sakurai
7 - Satoru Kitaoka
8 - Masakatsu Funaki
9 - Kyoji Horiguchi
10 - Caol Uno
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Aoki is too high on list, he is talented particularly in grappling and has a few good ones maybe most notably Alvarez but Sakuraba has wins over household names and/or UFC champions like Vitor Belfort, Royce, Renzo, Rampage and Randleman.

Gomi is higher than Aoki too, Gomi is not a top Japanese fighter—he is a top LW of all time.

You also forgot Yuki Kondo, a perennial, multiple Pancrase champ during his prime, he qualified himself to fight for Tito’s UFC LHW title then worked his way back to a matchup for Wanderlei’s Pride LHW (“MW”) title. He fell short to the 2 reigning kingpins of that era but he won his way into those title fights.
 
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