Japanese MMA

In 2007 Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, purchased Pride Fighting Championships.

The plan was simple—take control of their biggest rival and run the organization themselves. They'd corner the market on MMA by owning the two biggest promotions at the same time.

But there was a problem.

The previous owners had ties to the Yakuza. When this information became public, the company began to lose sponsors, television deals and public acceptance. The company began hemorrhaging money which lead to the eventual sale.

When Zuffa bought Pride, they bought Pride's problems too.

With no Japanese company willing to sponsor the promotion, it was hard to get the money together for a show. When no channel would air anything they put together, it became impossible.

Pride was eventually folded into the UFC in October 2007, marking the death of the organization and one of the worst investments that Zuffa ever made. 

Now, in 2012, people still talk about Pride and how great the organization was. There are still discussions about how the company shouldn't have been folded and how it never should have been sold.

There are even people who think that the end of Pride meant the end of MMA's greatest era.

Those people are living in the past.

Pride has been dead for nearly five years. In that time, the UFC has exploded, putting on more fights, more shows and jumping to one of the biggest broadcasting networks in the world.

It's safe to say MMA is doing just fine.

To those who still claim Pride is the best, take a look at Japanese MMA today. Dream (or Zombie Pride to some) is still alive, but barely, as are Pancrase and Shooto, while Sengoku died quietly last year.

If Pride hadn't sold and folded into the UFC, it wouldn't have fared well. It would have slowly crumbled without sponsors or just flat out ceased to exist with its talents spread randomly throughout the world.

Zuffa's purchase was a fitting end for the organization. It gave its fighters a chance to continue on and keep fighting. It also brought the biggest names in MMA together and let them finally meet.

While Pride will be remembered by MMA fans for a long time, it is time to stop being nostalgic. It is time to accept the truth and move on.

Pride is dead.

If you have absolutely no idea about Katsunori Kikuno by now, you're missing out on one of the most underrated lightweight fighters in any combat sport, let alone MMA.

Kikuno is the classic example of a true "martial artist in MMA," taking his two bread-and-butter disciplines, Judo and Kyokushin Karate, and blending them with a Sanchin Dachi stance that many traditionalists will recognize as a stance seen in the Okinawan Karate style of Uechi-ryu.

This combination creates a highly unorthodox fighting style that essentially showcases the traditional martial arts in the modern world of MMA and has achieved consistent success throughout Kikuno's serious pro MMA career.

Words can only do so much justice to Kikuno's style. But, we're going to let you hear a few vulgar syllables about what might have been one of Japanese MMA's best fights of 2011.

Yes, Japan took a big hit when it fell victim to a series of earthquakes that inspired the "Fight For Japan" theme of DREAM's 2011 schedule, but it scored big with Kikuno going head-to-head with 154-pound kickboxer and cosplayer Yuichiro "Jienotsu" Nagashima in a bout that was simply a classic to watch.

The bout was a Mixed Rules bout, with the first round being fought under kickboxing rules and the second round being under MMA rules, and neither disappointed.

Both men were knocked down in the kickboxing round, but Kikuno demonstrated why they call it "mixed martial arts" when he got the back of Nagashima in the MMA round, took Nagashima down and flattened him out before commencing onward with the "bobble-head beatdown" of the 17-4 kickboxer with the 3-2 MMA record.

We missed our shot at seeing another "Kikuno Crescent" this time out, but we got ourselves a look at one hell of a fight for sure.

Needless to say, anyone that missed Kikuno vs. Nagashima at DREAM's New Year's Eve 2011 event not only missed the real showstopper of the card, but they also may have missed one of, if not the best fight of 2011 in Japanese MMA.

It may not have been Dan Henderson vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, but for Japanese MMA aficionados and MMA fans alike, this bout was somewhere among the best fights in the world in 2011, one of the best fights in the Japanese MMA scene for 2011, and arguably one of the most fitting bouts to feature as we prepared to close 2011 and welcome the year of 2012 in combat sports. 

Japanese MMA proved it was alive and well with the showing of DREAM's New Year's Eve 2011 show, titled "Genki Desu Ka!! Omisoka!! 2011" and translated as "How are you! New Year! 2011."

No, seriously, that's the translation of DREAM's latest "Fight For Japan" event, which for those of you fluent in Japanese is expressed as "元気ですか!! 大晦日!! 2011."

Anyway, UFC 141 got all the media hype and attention before the lengthy nine-hour fight card, but those who were able to watch the card in any fraction of its entirety laid witness to one of the most electrifying cards of 2011, and one of the two most fitting ways to close out the year 2011 in MMA.

Helping the excitement level of the Fight For Japan card was DREAM's inaugural Bantamweight Grand Prix, which saw former WEC and quietly released UFC bantamweight Antonio Banuelos advance past Masakazu Imanari to face Bibiano "The Flash" Fernandes, who defeated Rodolfo Marques.

Banuelos and Fernandes met in the finals later that night after respective decision victories, with Yusup Saadulaev waiting in the wings if neither man could compete, but Saadulaev's highlight-reel slam over Hideo Tokoro would be the only appearance of the Russian prospect on the card.

Fernandes scored the first round TKO by showing vast improvements in his striking arsenal, and landed a left high kick followed by a two-punch combination that shook Banuelos enough to cause him to slip while backing up and fall victim to some heavy ground and pound, giving Fernandes the final win of his GP stint and the DREAM bantamweight championship. 

Though often associated with the Nova Uniao Jiu-Jitsu Academy, which has housed Marques as well as UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo, former SRC featherweight champion Marlon Sandro, and rising UFC bantamweight Renan Barao, Fernandes trained with the Revolution Fight Team for a time prior to the announcement of the DREAM Bantamweight Grand Prix and relocated to Matt Hume's AMC Pankration for the duration of the Grand Prix.

One year to the day that Hiroyuki Takaya defeated him for the DREAM featherweight title, Fernandes is back on the top with a roughly predicted 12 pounds of bantamweight hardware around his waist, and as we break ourselves into 2012, Fernandes will only ascend further and further until the day comes when he is finally UFC-bound.

Mike Schiavello believes he has a gift.

For the fans that have tuned into HDNet to see any of the recent Dream MMA or K-1 kickboxing shows, Schiavello has demonstrated a very unique storytelling ability.

The Australian native is one of the fastest commentators in MMA history. His color commentators are often heard laughing during the middle of a broadcast.

“God given gift of quick-wit,” Schiavello said. “I’ve been doing this for 16 years—always the same style. It’s a lot of experience.”

Over the past few years, Schiavello has made his name in the U.S. He is the lead announcer for HDNet. He has covered a variety of smaller promotions in the U.S., but his specialty is the Japanese fight scene.

In his career, Schiavello has called over five thousands fights.

“I’ve commentated so many fights it’s hard to pick a favorite,” Schiavello said, when asked for his most memorable matches. “For K-1, I’m going to go with Masato vs. Souwer at Budokhan Hall in 2007. Sammy Schilt vs. Peter Aerts was amazing.”

“For MMA, I love Hatsu Hioki vs. Marlon Sandro in Sengoku’s end of year show last year.”

Unfortunately though, the major Japanese fight scene has not been anywhere near as popular is it was in the early 2000’s. Gone are the massive sell-outs for Pride FC.

“The local shows are flourishing at the moment,” Schiavello said. “The big shows not so much. K-1 is in trouble. They owe a lot of money. On the other hand, Dream has real entertainment.”

Schiavello is clearly a big fan of Dream—even though the organization is not drawing anywhere near as well as Pride did. Rumors about Dream’s demise have recently circulated.

“Dream is a great show from a TV perspective,” Schiavello said. “I think there is potential there. I think they will do several more cards.”

The fall from prominence for K-1 is what has caused people to think the same future is on the way for the MMA promotion.

“I don’t think Dream has a problem—It’s FEG,” Schiavello said, referring to the organization that oversees K-1. “Real Entertainment handles Dream. They are still paying their fighters on time. They’re still drawing big crowds.”

As long as Dream is attracting people to the arenas, Schiavello will be the person calling the action for U.S. fight fans.

His somewhat bombastic style of calling the action filled with one-liners has caused many onlookers to believe his style would also be suited for pro wrestling.

Schiavello sees some similarities and some differences.

“They’re both live spectacles,” Schiavello said. “They are both a combat style of entertainment, but the biggest obvious difference is the MMA is real and pro wrestling is not.”

“You can’t schedule anything in mixed martial arts. It’s not pro wrestling. You don’t know the storylines.”

Recently, former pro wrestlers Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley have made the switch to the cage. Lesnar credits his past history with World Wrestling Entertainment for teaching him how to be a star.

Schiavello feels that more fighters should follow the former UFC heavyweight champion’s lead.

“MMA fighters can learn from pro wrestling on how to better market themselves,” Schiavello said.

However, for someone to become a successful announcer like Schiavello has, he offers much simpler advice.

“Practice, practice, practice. Pay your dues.”

Gary Herman is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand.

When it comes to MMA, the casual fan sees it as UFC. For the last six years, the UFC has dominated the MMA world and put itself as the No. 1 promotion in the sport. While 90 percent of fans are watching on Saturday nights when the UFC puts on its show, there is a small percentage of people that stay up from about 2 a.m. until about 6 to 7 a.m. to catch a Japanese event.

Whether the event was Pride, K-1, Yarennoka, DEEP, Shooto, Pancrase, Sengoku or Dream (I've left out One FC until more events are produced), these fans are loyal and will not miss an event.

The year-end show has been a special tradition in the Japanese MMA culture for many years. Fans were treated to legendary fights, whether it was MMA or kickboxing, or whether it was a title fight or a freak show fight.

No matter what, you are always treated to a wonderful show, and something special happens every year.

This year will be no different. After the year end event was in question and many feared it would not take place, it was announced that the event will include bouts that encompass the Dream, K-1 and K-1 Max banners. The event will be titled Fight For Japan: Genki Desu Ka Omisoka 2011. 

This year, two men will put friendship aside and compete for the Dream Lightweight Championship.

Satoru Kitaoka is the greatest fighter in the world that most fans have never heard of. He holds wins over Carlos Condit, Paul Daley, Kurt Pellegrino, Takanori Gomi and Kazunori Yokota. He is known as the "Catch Wrestling Koala Bear" and is one of the greatest grapplers to have ever come out of Japan.

His opponent, Shinya Aoki, is more known by fans in the United States after a couple of fights in Strikeforce. He is also a grappling ace and most recently has been training with Evolve MMA in Singapore working heavily on his stand up. From what has been shown to the public, it is improving tons.

Kitaoka and Aoki are training partners and know each other's game very well. This fight will be a fight for pride and honor, displaying some amazing skills and has all of the potential to be one of the greatest fights to have ever taken place at a year-end event.

This is the fight in which you truly do not care who wins because, at the end of the day, it is the fans that win.

One thing that this fight and event will definitely prove is that JMMA is far from dead and that bigger things are coming.

Fight For Japan: Genki Desu Ka Omisoka 2011 Official fight card

DREAM Lightweight Championship bout:  Shinya Aoki (c) vs. Satoru Kitaoka

DREAM Featherweight Championship bout:  Hiroyuki Takaya (c) vs. Takeshi Inoue

Featherweight bout:  Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazuyuki Miyata

Welterweight bout:  Hayato Sakurai vs. Ryo Chonan

Heavyweight bout: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii

Heavyweight bout: Tim Sylvia vs. Brett Rogers

Women's bout: Megumi Fujii vs. Karla Benitez

Bantamweight Tournament

Bantamweight Tournament Semifinal bout:  Masakazu Imanari vs. Antonio Banuelos

Bantamweight Tournament Semifinal bout:  Bibiano Fernandes vs. Rodolfo Marques

Bantamweight Tournament Reserve bout:  Hideo Tokoro vs. Yusup Saadulaev

Bantamweight Tournament Final: Winner of Imanari/Banuelos vs. Winner of Fernandes/Marques

It seems that DREAM is going to continue to not only put on fights, but keep its tradition of putting on a fight card on December 31.

Luckily, UFC 141, which will headline with former DREAM star Alistair Overeem, will take place one day before its fight card.

Unofortunately, DREAM has decided to do what it always does, which is to turn the sport into a circus with mismatches based on how well they might draw.

DREAM will put on some competitive fights throughout the night, but there will be some exceptions.  Like every year, it will somehow manage to take a great sporting event and give it a more theatrical feel.

This year, one of those fights will be Satoshi Ishii versus Fedor Emelianenko.

Chances are, if you are reading this article, you know who Emelianenko is. It's hard to be an MMA fan and not know about the heavyweight who, until recently, seemed to dominate the MMA pound-for-pound rankings by not having lost in nine years.

He may have only just beaten a faded Jeff Monson after being on a three-fight losing streak, but he is still a tough customer for anyone who might underestimate him.

He is being paired against Satoshi Ishii, who won a gold medal in judo at the 2008 Olympics. Ishii is 24 and has six pro MMA fights. Four of them are wins.

Ishii is impressive in some ways, as he is a brilliant judoka and holds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. His last fight, which was a draw with Paulo Filho, was considered by many to be a robbery which Ishii should have won.

Other than that draw, Ishii only has one other blemish on his record. It was in DREAM's 2009 New Year's fight card against Hidehiko Yoshida.

There was no controversy in the loss.

Yoshida, who also won a gold medal in judo at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and had mixed success in his MMA career, still had enough experience to beat Ishii, who was making his MMA debut, by unanimous decision.  

Ishii was thrown into a fight he wasn't ready for because it might draw in TV ratings and would get press. It hurt Ishii's career and it might still be something that affects him.

It isn't the first time DREAM has damaged its credibility by making a fight that had more to do with being sensational than being technically sound.

Last year at its 2010 New Year's show, it matched Alistair Overeem with Todd Duffee, who had lost his last fight by knockout and before that had the distinction of having the fastest knockout in the UFC.

His record was just 6-1 at the time with him being 1-1 in the UFC. The fight itself wasn't even close to an intriguing matchup, but both men were massive heavyweights. Duffee was easily dispatched in the first round by Overeem.

This is the same company that, back in 2008, had Bobb Sapp on yet another New Year's card fight in a match with an opponent dressed as Kinnikuman. Kinnikuman is a character from a Japanese comic book about a pro wrestler who wears a mask. Sapp's opponent came into the ring, mask and all, and proceeded to lose by KO in the second round.

Spectacles like these have kept Japanese MMA from being anything more than a comical event mixed with serious fights. Future stars have been sacrificed, joke matches made and mismatches put together just so DREAM could turn a profit.

It has cost Ishii some of his star power and DREAM's ability to really profit with him. It has cost DREAM the chance to be seen as a top MMA promotion.

And it's cost Japan a chance to see high-level MMA.

When UFC 144 does come to Japan, DREAM is in trouble.

And it has no one to blame but itself.

On the heels of Hatsu Hioki's underwhelming and controversial decision win over American George Roop this past weekend at UFC 137 in Las Vegas, a very puzzling question remains in the mixed martial arts world:

Why do most of the best Japanese star fighters fail in the UFC?

With the exception of Yushin Okami, the evidence has been played out time and time again in the history of MMA: ahighly touted Japanese star, in demand as "the best fighter outside the UFC," is finally signed to much fanfare, only to fizzle out and fail without any real success in the UFC.

Here are five main reasons why Japanese fighters fail in the UFC.

Physical Inferiority Complex

When it comes to physical stature, athleticism and strength, Japanese athletes often feel inferior in their physical make-up against the best of the best in the West.

The belief is not that the athletes of the West are technically or skillfully better, but it is believed that they are naturally bigger and stronger and that there is a physical disadvantage going in that must be overcome.

That inferiority complex seeps into the mental side of the fight and confidence becomes an issue. Very rarely do you get physical specimen like Okami coming out of Japan.

UFC-Level Wrestling

A Japanese fighter is rarely a wrestler at his base; he is usually a martial artist turned mixed martial artist who has been training martial arts all his life.

There is no NCAA Division I athlete in Japan with the Dan Gable-like conditioning that many of the UFC athletes start with. Combine that with the more wrestling friendly rules and judging in the UFC, compared to organizations in Japan, and it makes for a lethal mix for Japanese failure.

On US Soil 

Many UFC debuts and events take place on American soil and, again, the Japanese are a regimented, homebody sort who have trouble adapting anytime they go out of the comfort of their own country.

Therefore, Japanese fighters are often a bunch of homers who will do much better in the UFC when the fights take place in the comforts of their own land and culture.

The UFC Show

We have heard many people, including UFC President Dana White, speak about the UFC jitters that can overcome even the best and toughest fighters in their debut fights.

It can—and has—struck star fighters from many organizations. Add the issues above to those jitters and you get one tentative and off fighter.

The Matchups

I have always been a critic of fighters who have dominated and held titles in other organizations flying in and debuting against any top five or better in the UFC. Pecking order dues aside, every fighter should get a warm-up opponent or two in order to get used to everything that a UFC fight entails.

Examples like Hayato "Mach" Sakurai fighting champion Matt Hughes in his debut to Takanori Gomi fighting Kenny Florian are prime examples of an ill-prepared Japanese fighter immediately being thrown to the wolves with no slow build.

Even the best Japanese star who has dominated in his country is no more than a top-10- to top-15-rated prospect in a UFC debut. The evidence is there that Japanese fighters are rare to be a top five in the UFC when starting out or ever, as the UFC fighters are just that good.

Unfortunately, many of them get thrown to the wolves based on dominance over lower-level opponents. They get eaten up and turn tail back to the comforts of the Land of the Rising Sun.

Dwight Wakabayashi is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA and correspondent for MMACanada.net.

Catch him on Facebook and Twitter at wakafightermma.