NOTE:Okay, the video won’t let us embed it to start at the 35:00 mark, so you’ll just have to go there yourself.
What you see above is the complete video of PRIDE Shockwave 2005, an event that featured Fedor Emelianenko, Wanderlei Silva, Mirko Cro Cop, Dan Henderson, Mark Hunt, Kazushi Sakuraba, Takanori Gomi — should we keep going? alright, then — Minowaman, Ricardo Arona, Aleksander Emelianenko, Hayato Sakurai, Giant Silva, James Thompson, Zuluzinho, Murilo Bustamante, Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett and a main event between two Olympic judokas (Hidehiko Yoshida and Naoya Ogawa) that reportedly earned both men $2 million.
It might have been the most talent-rich MMA card in the history of the sport, and if you have seven hours to watch the whole thing, go for it. But we’ve cued it up to one moment in particular: A six minute tap-dancing presentation that leads directly into PRIDE’s traditional taiko drums and fighter introductions. That’s right, I said tap-dancing. And the crowd loved it!
The spectacle of PRIDE couldn’t possibly be sustained. (I wonder what the total fighter payroll was that night, including Yoshida and Ogawa’s $4 million?) But it’s nice to remember that for one moment in time, in one part of the world, MMA looked like this. PRIDE was wild, unpredictable, a feast for the senses, and willing to try anything to please its fans.
Or as one reddit commenter put it: “Yeah. I mean, the UFC has some videos, lights, and music which are cool and all but Pride choreographed entire fight cards.” LOL…
NOTE:Okay, the video won’t let us embed it to start at the 35:00 mark, so you’ll just have to go there yourself.
What you see above is the complete video of PRIDE Shockwave 2005, an event that featured Fedor Emelianenko, Wanderlei Silva, Mirko Cro Cop, Dan Henderson, Mark Hunt, Kazushi Sakuraba, Takanori Gomi — should we keep going? alright, then — Minowaman, Ricardo Arona, Aleksander Emelianenko, Hayato Sakurai, Giant Silva, James Thompson, Zuluzinho, Murilo Bustamante, Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett and a main event between two Olympic judokas (Hidehiko Yoshida and Naoya Ogawa) that reportedly earned both men $2 million.
It might have been the most talent-rich MMA card in the history of the sport, and if you have seven hours to watch the whole thing, go for it. But we’ve cued it up to one moment in particular: A six-minute tap dancing presentation that leads directly into PRIDE’s traditional taiko drums and fighter introductions. That’s right, I said tap-dancing. And the crowd loved it!
The spectacle of PRIDE couldn’t possibly be sustained. (I wonder what the total fighter payroll was that night, including Yoshida and Ogawa’s $4 million?) But it’s nice to remember that for one moment in time, in one part of the world, MMA looked like this. PRIDE was wild, unpredictable, a feast for the senses, and willing to try anything to please its fans.
Or as one reddit commenter put it: “Yeah. I mean, the UFC has some videos, lights, and music which are cool and all but Pride choreographed entire fight cards.” LOL…
Highly touted Japanese star Rin Nakai has signed with the UFC and will debut in her native land when she takes on former Strikeforce champion and UFC title challenger Miesha Tate. The fight announcement was first made on UFC Tonight on Fox Sports 1, but MMA Junkie followed up and confirmed the fight with the […]
Highly touted Japanese star Rin Nakai has signed with the UFC and will debut in her native land when she takes on former Strikeforce champion and UFC title challenger Miesha Tate. The fight announcement was first made on UFC Tonight on Fox Sports 1, but MMA Junkie followed up and confirmed the fight with the […]
After a month of rumors, it’s finally official: Heavyweight sluggers Mark Hunt and Roy Nelson will be trading bombs in the main event of UFC Fight Night 51, which is slated to take place September 20th at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
The only drawback to this guaranteed slobberknocker is that the event is expected to air on Fight Pass, which means that most of us North American types won’t see it live, and will have to settle for the GIFs that hit the Internet later. Ah well. The Great and Powerful UFC has a plan, and we must always trust in it.
After a month of rumors, it’s finally official: Heavyweight sluggers Mark Hunt and Roy Nelson will be trading bombs in the main event of UFC Fight Night 51, which is slated to take place September 20th at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
The only drawback to this guaranteed slobberknocker is that the event is expected to air on Fight Pass, which means that most of us North American types won’t see it live, and will have to settle for the GIFs that hit the Internet later. Ah well. The Great and Powerful UFC has a plan, and we must always trust in 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.”
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.
If it wasn’t for his cauliflower ear and your knowing how a person gets such a proud deformity, Shinya Aoki is the type of fighter you’d never suspect was, in fact, a fighter, just from looking at him or speaking with him outside of training or competition. To the untrained eye, Aoki looks like just another Tokyo hipster or backpack kid — slight in frame, stylish, with thick-framed glasses.
Sure, he’s got a gravely, action-hero voice but it delivers extremely humble words, for the most part. Shinya Aoki always appeared to be a mild-mannered, soft-spoken person from the interviews I’d seen of him over the years.
As he sits in a conference room in a Tokyo high-rise on this rainy late December afternoon, nothing I see on the surface changes that perception. For a half hour, Aoki is warm, engaging, quick with a smile and nervous laughter.
In just over one week’s time, however, Aoki will be in a ring, attempting to snap another man’s arm in half. The only reason he will not is because the opponent will smartly tap out before his limb breaks.
Like many great fighters, Shinya Aoki flips a switch, so to speak, from Clark Kent to a kind of malevolent Superman when it comes time to compete. Not only has the ordinarily calm and friendly Aoki not hesitated to break the bones and tear the ligaments of opponents, throughout his career, he also isn’t above standing over their prone bodies and flipping them the bird, as he did to Mizuto Hirota in 2009.
The submission wizard and MMA veteran of over forty professional fights, knows exactly when he makes that shift from civilian to ruthless warrior.
“From the moment I get in line to make my entrance [to the cage or ring],” he says. “That’s when it switches.”
Aoki’s psychology going into a fight is simple and logical. In fact, it is the mindset one could easily imagine would develop in any other skinny teenager who started doing martial arts. Aoki may have developed into one of the world’s best fighters, but when he steps onto the mat, all that is on his mind is survival.
“When I’m out in normal street clothes, I’m a regular person,” he explains. “When I get in the ring, I’ve got to turn on that animal instinct. I’ve got to become a survivor. That’s what switches in my head.”
(“I’m honored that anyone would watch me fight, but my goal isn’t to appeal to people.” Photo via MMAWeekly)
If it wasn’t for his cauliflower ear and your knowing how a person gets such a proud deformity, Shinya Aoki is the type of fighter you’d never suspect was, in fact, a fighter, just from looking at him or speaking with him outside of training or competition. To the untrained eye, Aoki looks like just another Tokyo hipster or backpack kid — slight in frame, stylish, with thick-framed glasses.
Sure, he’s got a gravely, action-hero voice but it delivers extremely humble words, for the most part. Shinya Aoki always appeared to be a mild-mannered, soft-spoken person from the interviews I’d seen of him over the years.
As he sits in a conference room in a Tokyo high-rise on this rainy late December afternoon, nothing I see on the surface changes that perception. For a half hour, Aoki is warm, engaging, quick with a smile and nervous laughter.
In just over one week’s time, however, Aoki will be in a ring, attempting to snap another man’s arm in half. The only reason he will not is because the opponent will smartly tap out before his limb breaks.
Like many great fighters, Shinya Aoki flips a switch, so to speak, from Clark Kent to a kind of malevolent Superman when it comes time to compete. Not only has the ordinarily calm and friendly Aoki not hesitated to break the bones and tear the ligaments of opponents, throughout his career, he also isn’t above standing over their prone bodies and flipping them the bird, as he did to Mizuto Hirota in 2009.
The submission wizard and MMA veteran of over forty professional fights, knows exactly when he makes that shift from civilian to ruthless warrior.
“From the moment I get in line to make my entrance [to the cage or ring],” he says. “That’s when it switches.”
Aoki’s psychology going into a fight is simple and logical. In fact, it is the mindset one could easily imagine would develop in any other skinny teenager who started doing martial arts. Aoki may have developed into one of the world’s best fighters, but when he steps onto the mat, all that is on his mind is survival.
“When I’m out in normal street clothes, I’m a regular person,” he explains. “When I get in the ring, I’ve got to turn on that animal instinct. I’ve got to become a survivor. That’s what switches in my head.”
That reality, that essence of what martial arts is for, is often forgotten amidst the sportsmanship and high-level skills pro fighters typically demonstrate. But martial arts are for learning to fight, and learning to fight is to learn to survive attack. The physical conditioning, the inner peace, all of those things which one hopefully also gets from martial arts training are there to serve the end purpose — survival.
Aoki, evidentially, has never forgotten that. It doesn’t always make for classy behavior or sportsmanship, but so far, Aoki has survived.
The attitude may be also be partially due to how he first began fighting MMA. In 2003, Aoki was training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Judo when his instructor told him that he had a fight coming up.
There wasn’t a discussion. This wasn’t the first step in a well-planned career of a blue-chip athlete. Shinya was thrown into the deep end to see if he could keep his head above water with the sharks.
“I don’t remember a lot of details of my first fight,” he says.
“It was back in 2003. I do remember that I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare, though. They told me, ‘you’re going to fight. Get ready.’”
That was it. Backed into a corner where he would eventually make his career, Aoki thought in black and white terms.
“All I put in my head was, ‘I have a fight. Let’s go.’ I didn’t have time to think ,” he explains.
“From the start I’ve always been able to make that mental switch when it was time to fight.”
Aoki won that fight. He’s won just about all of his fights.
The submission fighter has lost some big ones, though. Losing to top-ten American fighters like Eddie Alvarez (whom Aoki has also beaten) and Gilbert Melendez is certainly nothing to be ashamed of, but losses can still wreak havoc on a professional athlete’s psyche.
Questions about what those losses say about him as a fighter could have easily gotten into Aoki’s head and made him a less-confident, less active and less successful fighter. Instead, Aoki has managed to rebound well after every loss.
His approach to dealing with losses is characteristically simple and, really, genius.
“I think like a baseball pitcher,” Aoki details.
“If a pitcher faces a batter and that batter gets a home run off of him, he lost that one but the pitcher still has to prepare for the next time he faces that guy. That’s how I look at fighting. Each time I face an opponent, if I lose to that opponent that just means I have to train to become better if I face him again.
“That’s how I mentally prepare. Each opponent is a challenge at a specific time. If I lose to them, I just have to be ready to face them the next time.”
Most fighters can’t disassociate themselves from past selves effectively enough to work past the demons of loss, improve and do better the next time out. It was one of former two-division UFC champion Randy Couture’s biggest strengths as a competitor.
One of the most significant losses of Aoki’s career wasn’t even a fight of his, however. When the Pride Fighting Championships folded, it shocked the young fighter and changed his world.
To Aoki, being a Pride fighter was the definition of being a professional fighter. When asked how, why and when he decided he would make fighting his full-time career, Aoki time and again simply cites the moment he was offered a contract with Pride eight years ago.
“Eight years ago, I was a police officer,” he remembers.
“Here in Japan, it was hard to make a living as a fighter so I needed another career. I became a police officer to support myself and because I thought it would be a good job for keeping myself in shape anyway.”
Aoki didn’t see much action as a cop, however, because he only stayed on for a few months before Pride – then the largest MMA organization in the world – came calling. That’s when he decided to give up everything else and train and fight full-time.
When Pride closed down and was sold to the UFC, Aoki’s whole profession was turned upside down. To this day, he has never gone to fight in the UFC like many of his fellow ex-Pride stars, despite even recently being offered a contract with the American company.
“More than anything, I was surprised. I had worked so hard to get there and so I was more surprised than anything,” Aoki remembers of when Pride closed its doors.
Aoki has been a true international fighter since that time, fighting in many different organizations, all over the world. Now, he finds himself in ONE FC, where he is the reigning lightweight champion.
The fighter says that though he loves fan support, he isn’t concerned with not being very well known by Western MMA fans because he’s mostly fought in Asia.
“I’m honored that anyone would watch me fight, but my goal isn’t to appeal to people,” Aoki says.
What Aoki is trying to do is improve on his weaknesses — notably the stand-up striking component of his game. Aoki is the rare breed of Jiu Jitsu fighter that is good enough to be able to do normally suicidal things like pull guard in an MMA fight and still win.
He isn’t content to rest on his strengths anymore, though. That’s why Aoki says he decided to begin training at the Evolve MMA gym in Singapore.
Aoki wanted to learn Muay Thai and so went to the MMA gym most renowned for its Muay Thai training in all of Asia.
“I’ve always been interested in Muay Thai. I’ve known people from Singapore that were very good Muay Thai instructors so I felt like it was the smart choice. I went to the place where people are known for it,” he says.
As for his improvement in striking thus far, Aoki is characteristically humble.
“I feel I’m getting better but there’s always room to improve. I’m never the best. I’ve always got to improve and then I’ve got to show it in each fight,” the fighter maintains.
If Shinya Aoki has any more grand plans or goals for his MMA career, he is keeping those cards close to his chest. If he doesn’t have a desire to go to the UFC and become a recognized world champion, what are his goals, I ask.
“As long as I’m doing what I’m doing, I don’t really have any other goals,” Aoki explains.
As long as he can train and fight, he’s happy, it seems. Aoki’s perspective on life and his career hasn’t even changed with fatherhood, if he can be believed.
The new father says that he keeps his career and his family life separate. So, don’t expect Aoki to spout any of the touchy-feely poem-like statements about how fatherhood has changed his mindset as a fighter that many of his peers have given after having children.
And although his decision to thus far stay out of the UFC and stay fighting in Asia could be construed from the outside as Aoki not willing to consistently fight the best of the best, he certainly isn’t running from any rule-set or regulations. In fact, if Aoki had his way, he says he’d choose to fight in a cage and with just about no holds barred.
Of course, even though Aoki carries an old-world warrior mentality into this century, the rules he fights under are very modern and restrictive. Still, he says he wants to continue to fight under them often and for as long as he can.
The closest career goal Aoki divulges is basically a wish that he be able to ride it ‘till the wheels fall off. Aoki’s goal is the fight.
If he fights, he is happy. How long can he do it for, though? Aoki says he isn’t even beginning to plan for retirement.
“If I take a lot of damage and I feel my body can’t take it anymore, then I’ll quit. Otherwise, I have no time I think of stopping,” he says.
When that time does come, Aoki doesn’t yet know what he’ll do with his life.
“Right now I don’t have any plans for what I’d do after retiring from fighting,” he says.
“But I’ll know when I see it.”
There’s a game still going on. Shinya Aoki is still on the mound, throwing heat and he can’t be bothered with thoughts of what may happen after the 9th inning. For now, all this pitcher is thinking about is the next guy up to bat.
(Melvin Manhoef def. Denis Kang via knee-to-the-body KO, 0:50 of round 1. Fight starts at the 3:44 mark, but we’ve got the video cued up to the *real* action.)
(Shinya Aoki def. Antonio McKee via submission due to eye-punch, 0:24 of round 2)
(Melvin Manhoef def. Denis Kang via knee-to-the-body KO, 0:50 of round 1. Fight starts at the 3:44 mark, but we’ve got the video cued up to the *real* action.)
