Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Japanese Fighters

2. Takanori Gomi

Gomi was my personal pick for No. 1 and he snags second place here to go along with his seventh-place spot on Sherdog's Top 10 for Pride fighters as well as its all-time lightweight Top 10. Starting out as merely an outstanding wrestler, Gomi quickly rose to 14-0 and the Shooto lightweight championship, defeating legendary grappler Rumina Sato for the throne and defending against a debuting Leonardo Santos—who might have made this list if he had started in MMA earlier—Chris Brennan, and Yoshitomi Mishima. He then ran into a roadblock, losing a close decision to then world-class Joachim Hansen and being submitted by B.J. Penn. At that point, Gomi began developing some of the very best boxing in the division to go along with his great wrestling. He reeled off 10 straight wins that saw him become Pride’s only lightweight champion, including a knockout of reigning UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver, a knockout and an easy decision over Luiz Azeredo, a submission of bitter rival and fellow Japanese MMA legend Tatsuya Kawajiri and finally, a win in the finals of the Grand Prix against another lightweight legend in Hayato Sakurai. Gomi then suffered a shocking submission loss to Marcus Aurelio, and while he barely won the rematch via decision, he was already starting to slip from the elite of the division at only 28 years old.

Gomi, like fellow champions Penn and Pulver, found out how cutthroat and quickly evolving lightweight can be. He would still record nice victories every now and then, like a 74-second demolition of Mitsuhiro Ishida, an easy knockout of Duane Ludwig and a 64-second knockout of Tyson Griffin in the UFC, but they were interspersed with losses, often via submission, to very good lightweights, but not those we consider among the best of the sport, like Satoru Kitaoka, Clay Guida, Kenny Florian, Clay Guida and Nate Diaz. By the age of 36, Gomi was fully washed up, embarking upon a six-fight losing streak that was only snapped by a knockout of Melvin Guillard in 2018, after which he has thankfully retired from regular MMA. Yet there is an awful lot to be said for being the absolute best in a division as ridiculously talented as lightweight.

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