Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Japanese Fighters

8. Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto

Unsurprisingly, Yamamoto's placing on this list was all over the place. One respondent had him as high as fourth. A few left him off entirely. Personally, I had him ninth. While I was a fan of his personality and consider Kid's untimely 2018 death due to cancer to be a true tragedy, I always felt he was a little overrated as a fighter. A powerfully built 5-foot-4 man whose prime was spent at lightweight, Yamamoto began as a very good wrestler who soon developed potent striking, including a devastating right cross. The trouble is, both his wrestling and striking had limitations and flaws, even for his time. Yamamoto often struggled to get the takedown, even against a kickboxer with a journeyman MMA career like Ian James Schaffa, who beat up “Kid” for two rounds before being caught with a big right hand. In terms of striking, Yamamoto was overly reliant on that right hand, often looking clumsy and out of his depth when he couldn't land it, lacking other strikes and skills. Still, other than a loss via cut to Stephen Palling early in his Shooto career, Yamamoto went undefeated en route to a record of 17-1 with one no contest. His competition was far from the best, but there were some good names in there, too. Yamamoto defeated Caol Uno, still a very skilled, tough fighter in 2005, via doctor stoppage. He then had a showdown against endlessly entertaining and creative Genki Sudo, winning via first-round knockout. He also beat Bibiano Fernandes via decision, though the future One Championship star was just starting out in MMA at 1-1 and nowhere near the fighter he would later become.

“Kid” ended this period of success by defeating Rani Yahya via soccer kicks. Yahya had just turned 23 and was already very good, but again, years removed from his prime. After this, Yamamoto suffered a major knee injury and when he came back, he wasn't the same. Despite still being relatively young at 32 years old, the former champion went an ugly 1-5 with one no-contest to end his career, beginning with a split decision loss to Joe Warren, who was only 1-0 in MMA at the time. To be fair, this losing streak also coincided with a notable increase in competition, which is part of why it's hard to precisely evaluate Yamamoto's career. He was certainly great in his prime, but perhaps not as much as some believe.

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