Why doesnt Japan have more high level talent like Sakuraba?

[brackis1]

Neither here nor there.

PEDS: Neither here nor there
Leggings: Game changer
lol

 

[Mr Wings]

Theories:

-Their camps don’t have a big weight cutting culture, so they’re not fighting as heavy as their opponents from say America, where wrestling had a huge impact on weight cutting.

-Obviously the UFC isn’t signing as many Japanese fighters as they are American fighters, so they’re not getting the same chance to build a career and blossom as a fighter.

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

His dad is Japanese dawg

His dad wasn't in the cage, he was, so he represented Brazil and not Japan. Out of curiosity, does Lyoto even speak Japanese?

In terms of why there aren't a lot of top level Japanese fighters, Japan doesn't have a lot of poor people, and people with better choices generally don't go into MMA. You see the same thing in Europe, a good social safety net and free education gives people better options than getting punched in the head to make a living.

 

[mmaday4day]

Aoki has lost every time he faced someone really legit: eddie, Giblert, Ben. I doubt he would have had a great career in UFC. Kyoji is the only one that was really legit, think it’s because he trained under a legit Karate master. But thats kind of my point, theres alot of martial arts schools in Japan why isnt there a ton of Kyojis running around the UFC?

Who is "Giblert"?

 

[VolkHan]

MMA there isn’t anymore as popular as it was during Pride days.
Also their elite fighters arr fine training in their home country and fighting in promotions based in the region like One and Rizin

 

[MoPho]

Kanako Murata is a Japanese strawweight fighting on the UFC prelims tonight. She has some potential. Sakakibara (Rizin CEO) thinks she'll become the champ.

 

[Sleepdancer]

Kid Yamamoto (RIP), Gomi, Aoki, Imanari (still fighting lol), Sakuraba, Hideo Tokoro, Genki Sudo, many more. Even if Japan never had the greatest of all time contenders, they sure had some entertaining legendary fighters that I'll remember forever.

 

[CerebralKnievel]

Who is "Giblert"?

Spoiler

 

[The Senator]

Who is "Giblert"?

 

[CTE_Fan]

Wand killed all of them

 

[Chosen]

I think part of Korea's ability to produce better MMA fighters is that military service is mandatory there and everyone is exposed to marital arts through that whether they have an interest in it or not. Gotta be ready in case that enemy from the north decides to try some shit.

As an anecdote I went to school with some Koreans during my high school days. Each one of them liked to scrap. What was great is that none of them were bullies and if you were friends with them they never hesitated to stick up for you. Great people.

Great analysis about Korean men having mandatory Military service. A great read this was.

 

[KID Yamamoto]

Kai Asakura is very very good.

 

[machadojj]

Kid Yamamoto (RIP), Gomi, Aoki, Imanari (still fighting lol), Sakuraba, Hideo Tokoro, Genki Sudo, many more. Even if Japan never had the greatest of all time contenders, they sure had some entertaining legendary fighters that I'll remember forever.

Sakurai is imo one of mmas goat

 

[MCS]

Many reasons, but Pride was the biggest org and they there haven't found such success promoting since then. Dream and the others right after were an attempt to keep it going, but too few cared. They didn't really have the best fighters like before, although LW was very good, but they lacked a promotion carrier like Saku. Dream's Saku was Aoki. Big difference. And no Wand or Nog or Fed.

Then this ONE stuff is maybe purposely trying to cater to Asian market. It is basically Shooto of the past. Which is basically the open mat stuff you watch on Eurosport for Westerners. Different category of MMA and the Western push is very much lacking. Pride had that.

 

[Blanqa Blanqua]

Wand killed all of them

lolol

 

[Anoose]

You would think that a place that has such history with martial arts and that was the very center of MMA for so long would have much more fighters in the upper echelon, but from HW to FlW Japanese fighters are rare in the UFC.

I think the Japanese and other East-Asian fighters have a lot against them now that the rest of the world has caught up in skill.

MMA is a constantly evolving sport, everything changes constantly, a few years ago wrestlers dominated the top ten, now its mostly strikers, now everyone is trying to imitate the Dagestanis grip on the ground, I don't know much about Japan, but I know that traditionally they are reticent to change because tradition and yada, yada, yada... Then you add how traditional martial arts are in Japan and it makes it worse, they are left behind and are constantly catching up.

A lot of people here say that they just stay in Japan to make more money, I'm sure that is true to some extent, but to make serious money you need to be in the UFC, you would think that if the goal of Japanese fighters is to make money they would be interested in making it to the UFC and climb the ranks, that just doesn't happen. They stay in Japan to make good money sure not as good as Conor McGregor, but better than being a Journey Man in the UFC and ending up like Diego Sanchez.

Japanese promotions are constantly and sometimes openly in bed with the Yakuza, what kind of fighters do you think the Yakuza promotes? Kazushi "The Legend" Sakuraba, didn't even train and drank and smoked sometimes hours before walking out(which makes what he did even more impressive.) MMA in Japan has it's roots in pro-wrestling, the Yakuza and by extension the Japanese don't treat MMA as a sport so much as entertainment. Despite being one of the most dominant nations in Martial Arts in the Olympics, you don't see Japanese ex-Olympians competing in MMA very often, or not as often as you would expect. Ex-Olympians don't meddle with the Yakuza and traditional Martial Arts are big enough of a deal for them to have a cushy job post Olympics. There goes the best athletic potential of the country, not to mention the amazing skill. If a kid in Japan is good at Martial Arts (the traditional ones that permeate the culture) he is encouraged to become an Olympian, not a fighter.

Then there is the jet-lag, then there is how expensive it is to train in the US where the best coaches are, etc...

All of this combined makes the truly elite fighters from East-Asia, not as good as they could be and not as numerous as you'd expect from a country like Japan.

TL;DR Japan =/= USA, UFC == USA corp.

 

[Naoya#1]

They go to boxing or kickboxing.

MMA is pretty much ded in Japan.

 

[TheBulge]

Sakuraba beat BJJ grapplers in a primitive era of MMA, and most of his big wins soon after has had people questioning the authenticity of the fights. Furthermore when the fights looked legit, he was brutally beaten to within an inch of his life over and over again.

So Japan probably has produced more Sakuraba's in modern times, they just did as good as he would have today. Which isn't very good.

 

[blaccbeard]

Because the Yakuza doesn't have any power in the UFC so they can't pay people to job to Sakuraba lol.

 

[Mesos]

Who is "Giblert"?

he doesnt know lol,

basically its a joke on Gilbert Melendez name. Some announcer guy messed his name up before I think and it kind just stuck now lol