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View Full Version : KID Yamamoto Making Strikeforce Debut; A Fall From Grace



marcelt
17-04-2010, 21:23
http://cdn1.sbnation.com/images/placeholders/profile/tiny.v11567.gif by D.W. (http://www.sbnation.com/users/D.W.) on Apr 17, 2010 12:29 AM EDT (http://www.headkicklegend.com/2010/4/17/1427324/kid-yamamoto-making-strikeforce) in DREAM (http://www.headkicklegend.com/section/dream) http://cdn3.sbnation.com/images/icons/comment.v1599.png
http://cdn3.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/352320/8836-warren-vs-yamamoto_large.jpg (http://cdn0.sbnation.com/imported_assets/432793/8836-warren-vs-yamamoto.jpg)
Joe Warren dashed the return of KID Yamamoto, who has been on a downward spiral the past few years.

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KID Yamamoto is an odd case, as after bowing out of the Japanese fight scene due to injury for a year as well as seeing his share of problems stemming from marijuana possession (an absolute no-no in Japan) and his stunningly beautiful wife leaving him. The damage this did to KID Yamamoto's star power was immense, but not nearly as bad as a string of losses since his return. His return to action was in May of 2009 against Joe Warren. Warren was still very much an unknown outside of being an Olympic wrestler and everybody's money was on KID Yamamoto to plow through him and continue on to dominate the DREAM Featherweight GP. Then Warren soundly defeated Yamamoto. K-1 then gave Yamamoto a gimme fight against Jae hee Cheon, only nobody told Cheon he was supposed to lose as a left hook crushed Yamamoto in the first. Yamamoto took the rest of 2009 off to train and regain his composure, of course, the problem was Mesnori Kanehara from Sengoku didn't get the script and was able to soundly defeat KID by decision.
There has been speculation as to KID Yamamoto's future, and this comes out of left field from [URL="http://www.mmafighting.com/2010/04/16/strikeforce-notebook-kid-yamamoto-jacare-souza-fights-target/"]Ariel Helwani (http://cdn0.sbnation.com/imported_assets/432793/8836-warren-vs-yamamoto.jpg) from the Strikeforce weigh-ins tonight.

* Japanese star Kid Yamamoto is expected to make his Strikeforce debut on May 15 against Federico Lopez. The fight is not officially signed, but sources say it is close. The fight would be contested at 135 pounds. As of right now, the fight isn't expected to air on Showtime.
There is a lot to digest about this. First, the positive is that Yamamoto will be fighting at 135lbs, which is a much more natural weight class for him to compete in. Due to necessity he has been fighting at 145 and even as high as 155, but Yamamoto was always a very small Featherweight and will be much more at home at Bantamweight. The other positive is Yamamoto fighting in the U.S. can turn out very well for him and help turn his career around. Yamamoto while Japanese and the son of a Japanese Olympian grew up in Arizona. So America won't exactly be foreign to the english-speaking Yamamoto. With his career stalled in Japan currently, racking up a few higher-profile wins in the United States can only be good for him.
Now, of course this is all in theory. It will be difficult to get high profile wins in Strikeforce when Yamamoto will apparently not be airing on Showtime. This goes back to a previous point, that Strikeforce has no clue how to promote Japanese fighters (http://www.headkicklegend.com/2010/4/16/1425813/baka-survivor-shinya-aoki). Shinya Aoki on CBS while KID Yamamoto will be on a dark match on a Showtime card is absolutely beyond belief, as their star power is nowhere on the same level. Even with Yamamoto's problems and disappointments, he is still one of the biggest Japanese draws in a post-PRIDE world for MMA. The only other name that comes to mind post-Kazushi Sakuraba in martial arts is recently-retired K-1 MAX fighter Masato. On New Year's Eve the highest rated segments involved KID Yamamoto in the DREAM vs. SRC series, Masato's retirement and the Yoshida vs. Ishii bout. Shinya Aoki's fight was aired during the last half hour block after the Masato fight and was the lowest rated portion of the show.
This is without a doubt not how anybody expected KID Yamamoto to make his American debut. This is with a whimper and not a bang. The talk a few years ago was that the fight that needed to happen was KID Yamamoto vs. Urijah Faber, one of the biggest dream bouts of the past few years that it looks like will never happen. Zuffa and FEG could never come to terms to make the fight happen, with both sides wanting more than the other could offer.
Strikeforce is making a mistake here, even with Yamamoto on a 2-fight losing streak in MMA. Yamamoto could be the easiest of all the Japanese fighters from DREAM to promote. His fighting style is exciting and entertaining, with 12 of his 17 wins coming via brutal knockouts and two via submission, there is basically no such thing as a dull KID Yamamoto fight. On top of that, unlike most of the other Japanese fighters from DREAM, Yamamoto grew up in the United States and speaks english, as well as integrated a lot of "American" attitude and style into his persona which helped make him such a big star in Japan.
To try to help those who aren't as aware of how strange this situation is, imagine if Brock Lesnar had a very public divorce, got busted for steroids, got injured and came back to lose two tough fights. Then imagine if Brock Lesnar were to go to Japan and open up a SRC card against a no-name, it would come off as sheer insanity to any UFC fan.

Hendy
17-04-2010, 21:26
Top voor Strikeforce! Blijft een spectaculaire vechter die Kid..

Jeru
17-04-2010, 21:44
Was altijd top, maar de laatste tijd was het toch minder. Hij wilde volgens mij de Olympische Spelen van 2008 halen voor worstelen en raakte geblesseerd. Daarna toch niet echt potten kunnen breken.