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Korean Zombie
I heard he's Vietnamese.No love for Sexyama?
He's both.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
Sorry, you heard wrong.I heard he's Vietnamese.
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
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.
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.
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.He was a WW for the last few fights of his career. Misaki has to top a list of most underrated fighters for sure.
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.
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.
Saku is #1 for sure IMO.
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.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