Very experienced Rampage Jackson, with a long-standing Japanese fan base takes on a hungry and highly motivated Ryan Bader on Sunday, February 26th at the Saitama Super Arena in UFC 144.
And Yushin Okami will be surely eager to show the fans his strength following his title shot defeat in Brazil.
Looking forward to all the fights on this card.
Main card:
Lightweight Championship Bout: Frankie Edgar vs. Ben Henderson
Quinton Jackson vs. Ryan Bader
Mark Hunt vs. Cheick Kongo
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Jake Shields
Anthony Pettis vs. Joe Lauzon
Preliminary card:
Yushin Okami vs. Tim Boetsch
Takanori Gomi vs. Eiji Mitsuoka(?)
Hatsu Hioki vs. Bart Palaszewski
Norifumi Yamamoto vs. Vaughan Lee
Riki Fukuda vs. Steve Cantwell
Takeya Mizugaki vs. Chris Cariaso
Tiequan Zhang vs. Leonard Garcia
The UFC has just released some exciting news for MMA fans and fighter in Japan.
February 26, 2012, at the mighty Saitama Super Arena. Be there.
We visited Yushin Okami at RJW (Real Japan Wrestling, part of the Wajutsu Keishukai network) where he trains several days a week to interview him and watch him take the MMA class with some of the resident professional and amateur fighters.
RJW is located in a very unlikely spot. A residential area of Tokyo, on a converted floor of a condominium, rather hard to find for anyone unfamiliar with Tokyo or the Japanese language.
February 27, 2011, Riki Fukuda – team Grabaka’s DEEP Middleweight Champion – fought in the UFC for the first time.
The match which went to a judge decision in the favour of his opponent, Nick Ring (Canada), was widely accepted as Fukuda’s win and it has been reported that Dana White has offered to compensate Fukuda with the same purse as the winner.
MMA-in-Japan will interview Fukuda shortly and get his thoughts on
UFC 126 in Las Vegas, Nevada, is headlined by Anderson Silva vs Vitor Belfort. At the weigh ins the crowd seemed to be behind the challenger, Belfort, but the fight itself could shape up to be an epic battle. Both fighters are undoubtedly at the top of the middleweight division so we will have to wait and see on Saturday, February 5th.
This UFC also sees two top class Japanese fighters, Michihiro Omigawa (12-8-1), and Norifumi Yamamoto (18-3-0), who face
Have a look at some of the shots from UFC 122 on Nov. 13, 2010 at the Konig Pilsener Arena in Oberhausen, Germany.
MMA-in-Japan.com would like to congratulate Yushin Okami on his win in the main event and wish him all the best with his fight next year against the winner of Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort.
With Chael Sonnen seemingly out of the running in the middleweight division, Japan’s Yushin Okami is firmly back in the running. Facing Vitor Belfort in UFC 122 in Germany and winning will give Okami a title shot against Anderson Silva.
MMA-in-Japan would like to wish Yushin all the best!
*UPDATE*
Vitor Belfort is apparently getting a title shot before the end of the year and Nate Marquardt steps in to fight Yushin Okami.
Yoshihiro Akiyama fought Chris Leben at UFC 116, which turned out to be one of the most exciting cards of recent times.
Leben took the fight at short notice, Akiyama’s original opponent, Wanderlei Silva, having pulled out unable to fight.
Akiyama displayed superior takedown and grappling skills early in the fight, but had serious trouble knocking out Leben who seems to have a jaw made of steel! Akiyama himself took some quite hard strikes and did not go down but it was clear that his stamina was not what it should’ve been as he entered the second round looking the worse for ware.
Although Akiyama was caught in a triangle choke in the second round and tapped out, the fight was a battle the fans thoroughly enjoyed. See it here.
So, the question is where does Akiyama go from here?
