Yuya Wakamatsu: The Ultimate Longshot

One Championship “A New Era” on Sunday in Tokyo offers several compelling matchups, though few consider the pairing of former Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight titleholder Demetrious Johnson and Yuya Wakamatsu to be one of them. Viewed by most as a sacrificial lamb for the debuting “Mighty Mouse,” Wakamatsu has no intention of going along with the plan.

Wakamatsu’s path to mixed martial arts seems non-traditional for a youth from a Japanese seaside prefecture. As a child, he did not study traditional Japanese martial arts like kenpo or aikido. The 24-year-old Kagoshima, Japan, native was an aggressive kid who often found himself in fistfights with other children, making the flyweight’s moniker of “Little Piranha” all the more fitting. Because of these encounters at school and on the street, he instead turned to a martial art popular in many western cultures: boxing.

“I started boxing because I wanted to be stronger when I fought,” Wakamatsu told Sherdog.com.

By the time he moved 800 miles away to Tokyo in his late teens, he added jiu-jitsu to his repertoire of burgeoning fight skills. For a youngster who did not appear to have a particular focus in life -- outside of brawling -- turning his natural talents into a proper vocation made a lot of sense to him.

“Seeing champions from all over the world, I started to think I wanted to be one of them and earn a lot of money [fighting professionally],” Wakamatsu said. “My family was happy that I finally had a serious dream I wanted to achieve.”

Wakamatsu’s pro career started at the age of 20, and he stumbled out of the blocks, losing his debut to Yuto Sekiguchi via armbar in under three minutes. However, he recovered from that setback and notched nine straight victories over the next two and half years. The impressive run of success netted him a flyweight title shot at Pancrase 293 in 2018, just five days before his 23rd birthday. However, the Tribe Tokyo MMA representative fell to Senzo Ikeda by technical knockout in the fifth and final round. During his 10-fight run with Pancrase, he turned himself into one of the organization’s top flyweights, winning eight of his nine bouts by knockout. The stint in one of Japan’s top regional proving grounds earned him a contract with Asia’s most prominent MMA brand, One Championship, as well as a spot on the main card of its “Conquest of Heroes” event in September. Unfortunately for Wakamatsu, he encountered more adversity, and his introduction to One Championship also resulted in a setback -- a unanimous decision loss to veteran flyweight Danny Kingad. The defeat on the biggest stage of his career to that point was a tough pill to swallow.

“Right after the fight, I thought maybe I won, because I got a knockdown,” Wakamatsu said. “I felt that I let everyone down, and it was a very difficult moment for me.”

Despite a losing effort, there were positives to take from the fight. Unlike his three-minute debut loss in 2015, he performed well. Wakamatsu applied his boxing acumen to drop Kingad halfway through the first round, and the bout remained highly competitive throughout. Kingad’s grappling proved to be the deciding factor in the victory. Yet in the unpredictable world of MMA, Wakamatsu’s disappointing debut actually manifested into one of the biggest opportunities in his short career.

When the news broke in late 2018 that Johnson would be joining the One Championship roster, the idea of his fighting someone of Wakamatsu’s experience and someone who was coming off of a loss seemed remote. However, they ended up as two of the eight men taking part in the promotion’s flyweight grand prix, meaning that, despite his disappointing failure, life ended up playing out better than Wakamatsu could have hoped.

“Now I get the chance to fight Johnson, so I think it all worked,” he said. “I’ve been following Johnson since I started MMA, same with the UFC. I’ve always been watching.”

A longtime admirer of Georges St. Pierre, Wakamatsu understands the gravity of what is in front of him at the Ryogoku Kokugikan. He will enter the cage with one of the greatest fighters of all-time, a man who has lost just once in the last seven years. When told about his booking with “Mighty Mouse,” his response was that of someone who did not expect to be facing a legend so soon.

“My mind went blank because of how surprised I was,” Wakamatsu said. “I’m just focused on enjoying this moment, to enjoy it and not run away. I actually feel thankful, because it’s moments like this that can really change someone’s life.”

At the forefront of any scouting report on Johnson are his exceptional speed and world-class grappling. Wakamatsu recognizes grappling is not his greatest strength and knows that Johnson will likely have considerable advantages there. However, he has made it a primary focus of this camp, something he had not previously done.

“I focused a lot on my ground grappling techniques, which I never really did in the past,” Wakamatsu said. “Though I’m not very good with ground grappling, I feel that there is not much difference between us when it comes to MMA grappling. When it comes to striking, I think I have the upper hand.”

Wakamatsu does not plan to hedge his bets on beating Johnson with just his standup. Does he believe he can upset the former flyweight king and shock the world?

“Without a doubt,” Wakamatsu said. “I think the moment I can get any kind of attack it will be the beginning of the end.”