There was a time when reality television was registered high on the list of potential fads about to break then vanish. Nevertheless, what once appeared to be a passing trend grew to become a ratings powerhouse. Fast forward 20-plus years and the pop culture landscape has become laden with programs based in “reality.” The term […]
There was a time when reality television was registered high on the list of potential fads about to break then vanish. Nevertheless, what once appeared to be a passing trend grew to become a ratings powerhouse. Fast forward 20-plus years and the pop culture landscape has become laden with programs based in “reality.” The term […]
In the lead up to their first fight some twelve years ago, Ken Shamrock promised to beat then light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz “into the living death” at a pre-fight press conference. It was a confusing, horrendously-delivered threat that not only drew an uproarious reaction from Ortiz, but set the precedent for such future Ken quotes as “You got kicked. By a kick.” and “I am very confident this fight can go either way.”
Over a decade later, it appears that Shamrock has finally made good on that promise, albeit through a far more convoluted means than actually beating Ortiz in a fight. We all know that a neck injury forced Ortiz out of his fight with Rampage Jackson last October, leading to the cancellation of Bellator’s inaugural pay-per-view in the process, but according to Bjorn Rebney, there’s a possibility that we will never see Ortiz step foot in the cage again. Again. As he told MMAWeekly:
When I initially got on the phone with the doctors, and Tito announced to us that he had fractured his neck, that was and is the primary concern. There’s not a substantive answer at this point to whether he’s going to come back.
We’re having discussions with him. The key was to get 120-percent healed. It’s an unsettling conversation to have a specialist in the field of neck injuries to tell you that with the right kind of drop on the head, or the right kind of impact on the spine, paralysis could be a result. That’s never a good conversation: A) for a world class althete, but B) it’s never a good conversation for the person in my position charged with putting that person inside of a cage to fight against top tier competition.
At this point, you kind of have to feel bad for Ortiz, don’t you? All the poor bastard wanted was one (delusional) last shot at a (Bellator) glory, and now he’s worse for the wear than he’s arguably ever been in his career. If this isn’t a sign that he should have stayed retired and never married a porn star, I don’t know what is.
(For reference.)
In the lead up to their first fight some twelve years ago, Ken Shamrock promised to beat then light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz “into the living death” at a pre-fight press conference. It was a confusing, horrendously-delivered threat that not only drew an uproarious reaction from Ortiz, but set the precedent for such future Ken quotes as “You got kicked. By a kick.” and “I am very confident this fight can go either way.”
Over a decade later, it appears that Shamrock has finally made good on that promise, albeit through a far more convoluted means than actually beating Ortiz in a fight. We all know that a neck injury forced Ortiz out of his fight with Rampage Jackson last October, leading to the cancellation of Bellator’s inaugural pay-per-view in the process, but according to Bjorn Rebney, there’s a possibility that we will never see Ortiz step foot in the cage again. Again. As he told MMAWeekly:
When I initially got on the phone with the doctors, and Tito announced to us that he had fractured his neck, that was and is the primary concern. There’s not a substantive answer at this point to whether he’s going to come back.
We’re having discussions with him. The key was to get 120-percent healed. It’s an unsettling conversation to have a specialist in the field of neck injuries to tell you that with the right kind of drop on the head, or the right kind of impact on the spine, paralysis could be a result. That’s never a good conversation: A) for a world class althete, but B) it’s never a good conversation for the person in my position charged with putting that person inside of a cage to fight against top tier competition.
At this point, you kind of have to feel bad for Ortiz, don’t you? All the poor bastard wanted was one (delusional) last shot at a (Bellator) glory, and now he’s worse for the wear than he’s arguably ever been in his career. If this isn’t a sign that he should have stayed retired and never married a porn star, I don’t know what is.
But what does this mean in regards to the likely substantial contract Ortiz signed with Bellator, who have never exactly been keen on letting an employee go quietly into that good night?
If a fighter becomes injured, or is unable to compete, it’s what’s called tolling. The contract basically stops until such time as the fighter can compete. And when the fighter can compete and is 100-percent cleared then everything reignites and starts up again. It’s almost like time stops as the fighter recuperates from an injury or gets to a position to where he can compete again.
Tito and I have got to sit down, work through it, talk about it, and if he is going to get back inside the cage, which is a distinct possibility, figure out what the best launch pad is and how he’d want to do that and what makes sense.
Translation: “We should have never signed this injury-prone dinosaur to begin with, but now that we’ve thoroughly fucked ourselves, at least we have him on lockdown until the day he dies (a.k.a the Ric Flair Clause).”
Tito, I say this out of respect and general concern for your well-being: Do not step back into the cage. You have nothing left to prove, and will only be knocking additional years off of your life if you do. You have children to think about, for Christ’s sake. But if you really need the money, well, I hear Call a Champ is the future for former UFC champions looking to make a quick buck.
I got off the Oedo subway line from Shinjuku station at the Kiyosumi Shirakawa stop and waited for a few minutes to meet up with my guide for the night, Stewart Fulton. Stewart is a Scottish ex-pat who has lived in Tokyo for over a decade. He’s also a professional fighter and has bled and sweated with some of the best fighters in all of Japan.
On this Friday night, Stewart is taking me to the gym of the man UFC president Dana White has said is the best fighter to have ever come out of Japan — Yushin Okami. Uncle Dana may very well be right about that.
Stewart has told me that I can train with the group of select professional fighters that Okami will lead tonight but also warned me that it is a sparring day and that they go hard. After three straight days of hard grappling at other schools in Tokyo, I’m fine with sitting through tonight’s session as a spectator and leaving with my head still attached to my body.
I wonder out loud to Stewart what kind of mood Okami will be in tonight. He hasn’t done many interviews since being cut by the UFC. Okami’s release shocked some observers since he is still clearly a top middleweight. Surely, it shocked Okami as well. Who knows how eager he’ll be to talk about the topic.
Luckily, there are plenty others to discuss. Namely, training.
Stewart tells me that over the years he’s been amazed that Yushin has never appeared to be injured during training. Injuries happen constantly in training and fighters are almost always nursing several of them that vary in severity.
“I’ve never noticed him favoring an injury during practice,” Stewart tells me.
“Either he doesn’t get hurt or he’s very good at not showing it.”
I got off the Oedo subway line from Shinjuku station at the Kiyosumi Shirakawa stop and waited for a few minutes to meet up with my guide for the night, Stewart Fulton. Stewart is a Scottish ex-pat who has lived in Tokyo for over a decade. He’s also a professional fighter and has bled and sweated with some of the best fighters in all of Japan.
On this Friday night, Stewart is taking me to the gym of the man UFC president Dana White has said is the best fighter to have ever come out of Japan — Yushin Okami. Uncle Dana may very well be right about that.
Stewart has told me that I can train with the group of select professional fighters that Okami will lead tonight but also warned me that it is a sparring day and that they go hard. After three straight days of hard grappling at other schools in Tokyo, I’m fine with sitting through tonight’s session as a spectator and leaving with my head still attached to my body.
I wonder out loud to Stewart what kind of mood Okami will be in tonight. He hasn’t done many interviews since being cut by the UFC. Okami’s release shocked some observers since he is still clearly a top middleweight. Surely, it shocked Okami as well. Who knows how eager he’ll be to talk about the topic.
Luckily, there are plenty others to discuss. Namely, training.
Stewart tells me that over the years he’s been amazed that Yushin has never appeared to be injured during training. Injuries happen constantly in training and fighters are almost always nursing several of them that vary in severity.
“I’ve never noticed him favoring an injury during practice,” Stewart tells me.
“Either he doesn’t get hurt or he’s very good at not showing it.”
********
Yushin is dressed in spats and a long-sleeved rash guard but doesn’t mix it up with the other fighters tonight. Tonight, he is Coach Okami and, stop-watch in hand, he leads two straight hours of drilling and sparring for the other five pros in the room.
Stewart wasn’t lying — they go hard in sparring. A number of times, fighters clearly get their bells rung but don’t back down. Afterwards, the training partners still smile and joke with one another as well.
Yushin is stern when giving instructions but seems happily engaged in this role. He tells us that he’s held that position of group leader for about five years.
All of the fighters are around Okami’s age but it’s clear they have respect for the top-ranked middleweight.
After practice, with Stewart as our interpreter, I ask Okami about coaching, what he’s got next and how prepares for fights. First off, is it true that he doesn’t really get injured?
Okami laughs and says that luckily, right now he doesn’t have any major injuries.
“I get injured just as much as anyone,” he says.
“But, no, I don’t have any big injuries now at all. There’s no secret to staying healthy. I make sure I get taken care of. If it’s a small injury, you just work around it and keep getting stronger in other ways.”
When pressed, Yushin does allow that a lot of effort goes into staying in shape. For Okami, as is the case for boxing great Bernard Hopkins and UFC hall of famer Randy Couture, not having an off-season is key.
“I do take care of what I eat all year round,” he says. “Even if I’m not fighting in the near future, if it’s quite a ways away, I don’t take any time off. There’s no off-season. It’s pretty much consistent training.”
That approach has served the 32-year-old well throughout his career and is likely his best chance at getting back on the winning track in this uncertain time for him. Okami has won three out of his last four UFC fights but was still cut after losing last September to Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza.
Now, Yushin waits to see who and where he’ll fight next in the WSOF. His UFC release is clearly not a topic he enjoys talking about as he looks towards the future, but he does admit to being shocked by the move.
“At the time I was shocked,” he says. “But the only way is to move forward…All that matters are my actions from here on out.”
Okami has trained a bit in recent years in America with the likes of former opponent Chael Sonnen. As he talks about fight preparation in his own Tokyo gym, Yushin says that his goal is to combine the best elements of America-style training with Japanese methods for himself and the teammates he leads here.
“In Japan, training is a daily thing,” he says. “What you do in a day is important. But, in the States it seems like what matters most is what you can do in a week. That’s one of the main things I’ve brought over here – how to plan your training out over a week, rather than just think about what you’re doing that day.”
Here in his Tokyo gym, Okami is trying to create a new, hybrid way of training. “Basically, I want to take the good points of what I’ve learned in America and the best parts of what I learned here in Japan and mix them,” he says.
“It’s an amalgam of what I’ve learned in both countries.”
Okami also says that, though he wants to himself return to the U.S. for more training camps, whether he does for his next one will depend on who he fights next. Also, the ultimate goal is to eventually re-create the well-rounded training environments he’s experienced in America, here in Tokyo.
“I have been helped a lot by training in America and I do want to return there,” he says.
“It depends on the opponent but I do want to train there again with people who have helped me a lot. I also want to bring more of that atmosphere to Japan so I can have camps like that here in Tokyo.”
After seeing the hard sparring he facilitated, it isn’t a surprise to learn that Okami believes what makes Japanese training special and unique has a lot to do with a simply love for going hard.
“The strong point for Japanese fighters and training comes from a long time ago,” he explains.
“The Japanese are crazy about training. We just go at it. It’s always been there. Having said that, having to train at different gyms for different skills — I’d rather it be in one place like it is in the States.”
Yushin Okami the fighter may have years yet left on his accomplished competitive career. However, one can’t help but look forward a bit and be excited at the prospect of his leading the next generation of Japanese MMA coaches.
Like all career fighters, “Thunder” Okami has learned a lot about fighting over the decades. Unlike most of them, however, he’s already eager to share that knowledge with others to help create new champions.
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Just last week the talk was all about fights for Brock Lesnar should he return to the UFC. While it’s interesting to ponder, the talk skipped a major part of the equation: Lesnar actually coming out of retirement. Sure, people are weighing in on it all over the place and very few seem to think […]
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With the UFC staging more events than ever in 2014 while spreading out globally, it would seem that before long every weight class will be bursting with talent, like coffers overfilled in a candy store. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a time when any fighter would be forced to compete in a specific weight class. […]
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