5 Fighters You Need to Watch
Aug 19, 2008
While some of you may see the brief reprieve we’re enjoying from a
whirlwind last few weeks of high-profile throwdowns as a bit of
welcome rest for the weary, you’re all wrong. Yes, every last one
of you.
Now is the time to discover the fighters you’ve been ignoring, parked in front of your screen researching the next generation while selling your less-than-essential organs for rare fight tapes.
Luckily, I’ve done most of the work for you, finding five of the
most pugilistically inclined superstars in the making of whom
you’ve probably never heard. In the event you’re familiar with
these guys, just smile and nod for the sake of everyone else.
Yoshiyuki Yoshida (Pictures)
In a division backlogged with wrestlers, Yoshida (10-2) sticks out as a fascinating example of the stylistic synthesis that plays out when talent meets technique. A judoka by trade, Yoshida doesn’t seem to miss the traditional gi one bit, as his arsenal of throws has made him a nightmare inside the clinch.
That’s to be expected, and Yoshida’s success lies with talents that remain shrouded in rumor and hearsay for the average fan. While most fans got to see Yoshida show off his excellent jiu-jitsu against Koppenhaver at UFC 84, “Zenko” has some savage ground-and-pound still waiting to be put on display in the Octagon.
One former fistic great familiar with Yoshida’s ground-and-pound exploits is Akira Kikuchi (Pictures), whose own hopes of UFC greatness were dashed in brutal fashion by Yoshida in the GCM Cage Force welterweight tournament; the event played a key role in netting Yoshida a UFC contract.
If knocking a former Shooto champion into retirement isn’t enough to get you interested in Yoshida, I sincerely hope you enjoy watching the men’s Olympic handball quarter-finals instead. They’re on tape delay by the way. If you want to be up to date on all things Yoshida in time for his tilt with fellow judoka Karo Parisyan (Pictures) at UFC 88 on Sept. 6 in Atlanta, track down the smash-mouth goodness listed below:
Required Viewing:
GCM Cage Force 4: Yoshida vs. Kikuchi
GCM Cage Force EX “Eastern Bound”: Yoshida vs. Matt Cain (Pictures)
GCM Cage Force 2: Yoshida vs. Katsuya Inoue (Pictures)
Jake Rosholt
If you’re not familiar with Team Takedown yet, Jake Rosholt may be the guy who ends up getting everyone on the same page.
One piece in an army of elite collegiate wrestlers who Team Takedown has banded together with the purpose of launching them all to the top of the sport, Rosholt (4-0) stands out as their most decorated member with three Div. I national wrestling championships.
Of course, we all know black belts and trophies carry about the same weight inside a cage as a scary pre-fight interview. What makes Rosholt stand out is his preternatural talent for the sport. A natural striker who has taken to jiu-jitsu with shocking ease, Rosholt’s wrestling pedigree is the glue that holds everything together, although he often prefers using his wrestling to deport his opponents from the land of the conscious.
Now signed to World Extreme Cagefighting as a middleweight, Rosholt will take on Danilo Villefort at WEC 36 on Sept. 10 in Hollywood, Fla., and with all the talk of an impending, multi-divisional annexation by the UFC, it may only be a matter of time before Rosholt is carrying the Team Takedown banner into the self-described Super Bowl of MMA.
For further confirmation of Rosholt’s Megatron-level credibility, lie, cheat and steal to get your mitts on the matches below:
Required Viewing:
Extreme Fighting League: Rosholt vs. Chad Jay
High Roller Productions “Fight Night”: Rosholt vs. Jeremiah Caves
Masakatsu Ueda (Pictures)
Imagine being one of the best fighters on the planet in your weight class and still maintaining the anonymity of a random Hollywood extra. That’s what unbeaten Shooto champion Masakatsu Ueda (Pictures) deals with as one of the world’s premier bantamweights.
Unlike our previous unknowns, Ueda’s all but married to invisibility. He toils across the Pacific while peers like Miguel Torres (Pictures) rocket to superstardom under the WEC banner. It’s tragic considering Ueda’s a preposterous talent blessed with spectacular wrestling ability and the kind of submission savvy you would never expect from a guy who makes his living with the takedown.
It goes without saying that Ueda (8-0-1) jumping aboard an American-bound flight would be a boon for the sport, but, like many Shooto stalwarts, he appears to be a part of the promotion’s present and future.
While we’re left to dream of the day Ueda makes his way to the land of fried chicken and Fox News, it doesn’t mean you can’t jump aboard the bandwagon now by updating your Shooto library:
Required Viewing:
Shooto “Back to Our Roots 7”: Ueda vs. Atsushi Yamamoto (Pictures)
Shooto “Back to Our Roots 4”: Ueda vs. Takeya Mizugaki (Pictures)
Shooto “Back to Our Roots 2”: Ueda vs. So Tazawa (Pictures)
Jorge Santiago (Pictures)
Forget everything you know about Jorge Santiago (Pictures).
Getting high kicked into “bolivion” by Alan Belcher (Pictures)? It never happened. Dropped in a heap by Chris Leben (Pictures)? No, good sir, I know not of what you speak.
The truth is that the Jorge Santiago (Pictures) with whom we became familiar once upon a time in the UFC is a thing of the past, replaced by a fighter that resembles him in appearance and little else.
Once a surefire bet to come up short at the absolute worst moment possible, Santiago now seems fueled by a career full of disappointments and marked his rebirth with a stunning display of dominance at the Strikeforce “Four Men Enter, One Man Survives” middleweight tournament in 2007.
Ridiculous event naming aside, Santiago (17-7) won the tournament in about the time it takes a normal human to lace up a pair of boots. If that seems long to you, then take that sentence as confirmation of your lacking dexterity. Sorry I had to be the one to break it to you.
To make up for the disappointment, check out some of Santiago’s finest moments thus far. You may develop a healthy fear for this American Top Team middleweight:
Required Viewing:
Strikeforce “Four Men Enter, One Man Survives”: Santiago vs. Trevor Prangley (Pictures)
Art of War 3: Santiago vs. Jeremy Horn (Pictures)
Bodog Fight “Clash of the Nations”: Santiago vs. Andrei Semenov (Pictures)
Donald Cerrone (Pictures)
Try to take this last one with a grain of salt, but whatever you do, don’t take it with hydrochlorothiazide.
Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone can tell you all about the misadventures involved with that particular diuretic, as he went from blue chip lightweight prospect to the latest member of the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s suspension list following his WEC debut against Kenneth Alexander (Pictures) in September 2007.
An easy 54-second submission win for Cerrone (8-0), the bout was declared a no contest after he tested positive for the banned diuretic. An eight-month suspension was the price Cerrone paid for his weight cutting follies.
Now seemingly vindicated after a successful return to the WEC that saw him pick up another submission win and, more importantly, a clean drug test, Cerrone will battle former lightweight champion “Razor” Rob McCullough (Pictures) at WEC 36 on Sept. 10 in Hollywood, Fla.
Don’t sleep on Cerrone while everyone else hypes McCullough; the effortless submission slickness that he brings to the table is a rare sight that should be appreciated at every turn. Here are some reference quality examples of Cerrone’s handiwork:
Required Viewing:
GCM Cage Force 3: Cerrone vs. Yasunori Kanehara (Pictures)
Ring of Fire 28 “Evolution”: Cerrone vs. Ryan Roberts
Now is the time to discover the fighters you’ve been ignoring, parked in front of your screen researching the next generation while selling your less-than-essential organs for rare fight tapes.
Advertisement
Yoshiyuki Yoshida (Pictures)
OK, so choking out Jon
Koppenhaver (Pictures) isn’t exactly the most impressive
accomplishment in the world -- especially when you consider
Koppenhaver’s real gift lies in the realm of anti-social blogging
-- but Yoshiyuki “Zenko” Yoshida remains a criminally
underappreciated commodity.
In a division backlogged with wrestlers, Yoshida (10-2) sticks out as a fascinating example of the stylistic synthesis that plays out when talent meets technique. A judoka by trade, Yoshida doesn’t seem to miss the traditional gi one bit, as his arsenal of throws has made him a nightmare inside the clinch.
That’s to be expected, and Yoshida’s success lies with talents that remain shrouded in rumor and hearsay for the average fan. While most fans got to see Yoshida show off his excellent jiu-jitsu against Koppenhaver at UFC 84, “Zenko” has some savage ground-and-pound still waiting to be put on display in the Octagon.
One former fistic great familiar with Yoshida’s ground-and-pound exploits is Akira Kikuchi (Pictures), whose own hopes of UFC greatness were dashed in brutal fashion by Yoshida in the GCM Cage Force welterweight tournament; the event played a key role in netting Yoshida a UFC contract.
If knocking a former Shooto champion into retirement isn’t enough to get you interested in Yoshida, I sincerely hope you enjoy watching the men’s Olympic handball quarter-finals instead. They’re on tape delay by the way. If you want to be up to date on all things Yoshida in time for his tilt with fellow judoka Karo Parisyan (Pictures) at UFC 88 on Sept. 6 in Atlanta, track down the smash-mouth goodness listed below:
Required Viewing:
GCM Cage Force 4: Yoshida vs. Kikuchi
GCM Cage Force EX “Eastern Bound”: Yoshida vs. Matt Cain (Pictures)
GCM Cage Force 2: Yoshida vs. Katsuya Inoue (Pictures)
Jake Rosholt
If you’re not familiar with Team Takedown yet, Jake Rosholt may be the guy who ends up getting everyone on the same page.
One piece in an army of elite collegiate wrestlers who Team Takedown has banded together with the purpose of launching them all to the top of the sport, Rosholt (4-0) stands out as their most decorated member with three Div. I national wrestling championships.
Of course, we all know black belts and trophies carry about the same weight inside a cage as a scary pre-fight interview. What makes Rosholt stand out is his preternatural talent for the sport. A natural striker who has taken to jiu-jitsu with shocking ease, Rosholt’s wrestling pedigree is the glue that holds everything together, although he often prefers using his wrestling to deport his opponents from the land of the conscious.
Now signed to World Extreme Cagefighting as a middleweight, Rosholt will take on Danilo Villefort at WEC 36 on Sept. 10 in Hollywood, Fla., and with all the talk of an impending, multi-divisional annexation by the UFC, it may only be a matter of time before Rosholt is carrying the Team Takedown banner into the self-described Super Bowl of MMA.
For further confirmation of Rosholt’s Megatron-level credibility, lie, cheat and steal to get your mitts on the matches below:
Required Viewing:
Extreme Fighting League: Rosholt vs. Chad Jay
High Roller Productions “Fight Night”: Rosholt vs. Jeremiah Caves
Masakatsu Ueda (Pictures)
Imagine being one of the best fighters on the planet in your weight class and still maintaining the anonymity of a random Hollywood extra. That’s what unbeaten Shooto champion Masakatsu Ueda (Pictures) deals with as one of the world’s premier bantamweights.
Unlike our previous unknowns, Ueda’s all but married to invisibility. He toils across the Pacific while peers like Miguel Torres (Pictures) rocket to superstardom under the WEC banner. It’s tragic considering Ueda’s a preposterous talent blessed with spectacular wrestling ability and the kind of submission savvy you would never expect from a guy who makes his living with the takedown.
It goes without saying that Ueda (8-0-1) jumping aboard an American-bound flight would be a boon for the sport, but, like many Shooto stalwarts, he appears to be a part of the promotion’s present and future.
While we’re left to dream of the day Ueda makes his way to the land of fried chicken and Fox News, it doesn’t mean you can’t jump aboard the bandwagon now by updating your Shooto library:
Required Viewing:
Shooto “Back to Our Roots 7”: Ueda vs. Atsushi Yamamoto (Pictures)
Shooto “Back to Our Roots 4”: Ueda vs. Takeya Mizugaki (Pictures)
Shooto “Back to Our Roots 2”: Ueda vs. So Tazawa (Pictures)
Jorge Santiago (Pictures)
Forget everything you know about Jorge Santiago (Pictures).
Getting high kicked into “bolivion” by Alan Belcher (Pictures)? It never happened. Dropped in a heap by Chris Leben (Pictures)? No, good sir, I know not of what you speak.
The truth is that the Jorge Santiago (Pictures) with whom we became familiar once upon a time in the UFC is a thing of the past, replaced by a fighter that resembles him in appearance and little else.
Once a surefire bet to come up short at the absolute worst moment possible, Santiago now seems fueled by a career full of disappointments and marked his rebirth with a stunning display of dominance at the Strikeforce “Four Men Enter, One Man Survives” middleweight tournament in 2007.
Ridiculous event naming aside, Santiago (17-7) won the tournament in about the time it takes a normal human to lace up a pair of boots. If that seems long to you, then take that sentence as confirmation of your lacking dexterity. Sorry I had to be the one to break it to you.
To make up for the disappointment, check out some of Santiago’s finest moments thus far. You may develop a healthy fear for this American Top Team middleweight:
Required Viewing:
Strikeforce “Four Men Enter, One Man Survives”: Santiago vs. Trevor Prangley (Pictures)
Art of War 3: Santiago vs. Jeremy Horn (Pictures)
Bodog Fight “Clash of the Nations”: Santiago vs. Andrei Semenov (Pictures)
Donald Cerrone (Pictures)
Try to take this last one with a grain of salt, but whatever you do, don’t take it with hydrochlorothiazide.
Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone can tell you all about the misadventures involved with that particular diuretic, as he went from blue chip lightweight prospect to the latest member of the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s suspension list following his WEC debut against Kenneth Alexander (Pictures) in September 2007.
An easy 54-second submission win for Cerrone (8-0), the bout was declared a no contest after he tested positive for the banned diuretic. An eight-month suspension was the price Cerrone paid for his weight cutting follies.
Now seemingly vindicated after a successful return to the WEC that saw him pick up another submission win and, more importantly, a clean drug test, Cerrone will battle former lightweight champion “Razor” Rob McCullough (Pictures) at WEC 36 on Sept. 10 in Hollywood, Fla.
Don’t sleep on Cerrone while everyone else hypes McCullough; the effortless submission slickness that he brings to the table is a rare sight that should be appreciated at every turn. Here are some reference quality examples of Cerrone’s handiwork:
Required Viewing:
GCM Cage Force 3: Cerrone vs. Yasunori Kanehara (Pictures)
Ring of Fire 28 “Evolution”: Cerrone vs. Ryan Roberts
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