Here
we go. I began this series in 2012, so it has now been 14 years and it
can be nostalgic to look back. From last year’s list, Kazuki Aimoto went
on to fight for Rizin, and I will bring Yuji Ephoevi-Ga back if he has
good wins this year. Enjoy!
Nagai
showed a nice mix of takedowns and striking leading up to his September
fight against Shoji Saito, who is known primarily as a striker. Nagai
finished Saito with a rear-naked choke and unified the Shooto
bantamweight titles. He does need to further improve his striking, but
he has only just entered his 20s and will have a good future.
Yanagawa
pulled off the biggest upset in Japanese MMA in 2025 when he knocked
out Rajabali Shaidullaev’s training partner, Kalybek Arzykul Uulu, on
December 21. He has varied striking and a good ability to read his
opponent’s movements and set up finishes. Yanagawa has asked the UFC to
give him a chance, even if it is on short notice.
DEEP’s
prospect this year is Sugiyama, who was a NKB (kickboxing) champion
before he made his MMA debut. He defeated Haruo Ochi in his third fight
after just eight months of MMA training. Both fighters had knockdowns in
the fight, which was a competitive one. At just 20 years old, Sugiyama
clearly has a lot of potential. DEEP may do a strawweight grand prix,
and there are other potential rivals for Sugiyama such as grappler Sukai
China, so the strawweight division should continue to take shape.
Shooto has Kazusa Kurobe as a strawweight prospect as well, so this year
should be a good one for young prospects.
In
November, Minami defended his Gladiator bantamweight title against
Rukiya Mukai, who is known for his aggression and explosiveness. Minami
found holes in Mukai’s game and repeatedly took him down, then pounded
him out for the TKO finish. Minami is Gladiator’s best young prospect
now.
Fight start at 5 hours 21 minutes 52 seconds
Big thanks to Robert Sargent (MMA Rising) for English editing.
This
is the annual list of Japanese prospects for 2025. Arisa Matsuda did
not face strong opponents in 2024, but if she fights against stiffer
competition this year then she will be back on the next list.
When
Aimoto made his debut, I did not pay a lot of attention to him at that
time. He did not have a martial arts background and began training with
friends in tunnels or at parks. He doesn’t have a particular long-term
gym yet, but he has improved his record to 7-0. I’m not sure how well he
will fare against tougher opponents if he maintains his current
training style, but I suspect that he will land himself in Rizin in the
future if he can keep winning.
Having
just turned 19 years old, Suzuki is a striker from Paraestra Hachioji,
where former Rizin champion Chihiro Suzuki used to train. He is used to
training with other strikers and has knocked out five straight
opponents, including two within the first minute. Along with our next
entry on this list, Suzuki is one of the best young prospects in the
lightweight division.
Like
Suzuki, 20-year-old Yoshimura is another bright young lightweight
prospect. Three of his victories have come via first-round TKOs and his
only defeat was as a result of an illegal grounded knee strike. With his
aggressive striking style, taught to him by Kenji Osawa, we will see
Yoshimura competing for a major promotion in the future.
Ephoeviga’s
2024 campaign was highlighted by a knockout win over Emmanuel Sanchez
in August. He then won Shooto’s Pacific Rim lightweight title in
November and will defend it against Shinsuke Nishio this month. I would
like to see Ephoeviga matched up against more foreign opponents to test
him, but we will see him in a larger promotion.
Minami
has a Goju-ryu karate background and had a good record, but he wanted
to be able to strike the head and so he chose to switch to MMA for his
career. Minami knocked out Temuulen Algirmaa in July, which was
important for him because he defeated an experienced foreign opponent so
early in his career. He will aim to win a Gladiator title and that
would catch the attention of a major promotion.
Kimura
was a Nippon Kempo champion. Yusaku Nakamura is the best-known MMA
fighter with that martial arts background, but Nakamura credits Kimura
as being on a much higher level than him in terms of Nippon Kempo skill.
In MMA, Kimura has quickly knocked out all four of his opponents so
far, with his longest fight lasting only 76 seconds. My evaluation for
Kimura’s potential is high.
Big thanks to Robert Sargent (MMA Rising) for English editing.
Arisa
is a former professional baseball player who is now known for her
undefeated MMA record. She first brought attention to herself when she
defeated Mika Nagano in 2022. Arisa’s sprawl allowed her to stop Mika’s
takedowns and she was effective with her own ground and pound when she
got Mika down.
In
2023, Arisa fought Machi Fukuda for the DEEP JEWELS interim strawweight
title. Arisa sprawled well in the first two rounds and bloodied Machi’s
nose with punches. Machi won the third round with her grappling, but
Arisa took a split decision for the belt. She will gain more attention
with her title this year.
Tokitaka
is known for being a former featherweight King of Pancrase champion. He
dropped down a division in 2023 and faced Yasuhiro Kawamura at Pancrase
340. Tokitaka escaped from a leg scissors choke from Yasuhiro and
finished him with an arm-triangle choke to become bantamweight King of
Pancrase.
We
first featured Yuji in last year’s prospects list. He received an
opportunity to fight for Combate Global with Abema TV support, which is a
rare opportunity abroad for a Japanese fighter early in their career.
Yuji TKOed Geralbert Castillo in that fight and finished 4-0 overall in
2023.
Kyoma
is only 17, but he has already scored two knockouts as a pro fighter.
The DEEP flyweight division has many talented fighters, and Kyoma is
still young in his career and life, but he plans to win the DEEP title
before he turns 20. He is from the same gym as Hiromasa Ougikubo and Rei
Tsuruya.
This is the annual prospect list series for 2023. This edition has six prospects from Shooto, Pancrase, DEEP and Fighting Nexus.
Current
Japanese MMA organizations can offer direct communication to fans with
fight videos. This has especially been true with Mikuru Asakura's
YouTube popularity, so this is the best time to enjoy a Japanese MMA
rookie’s videos.
Rei
was included in last year’s list, but he has not yet been picked up by a
major organization. He chose Pancrase to build his career because he
wanted stronger opponents, and he beat Satoru Enomoto to win the
flyweight King of Pancrase title. Rei has become one of the faces of
Pancrase, but he will surely land himself a spot in a major organization
soon. His hope is to sign with the UFC, but he also has an interest in
facing John Dodson, who fought at Rizin's NYE event.
Wataru's
2022 ended with a TKO win against Kiyotaka Shimizu. That fight
impressed me. Kiyotaka is a veteran who has had many fights against big
name flyweights. Wataru's TKO of him was only Kiyotaka’s second KO/TKO
loss in his long career. Defeating Kiyotaka at such a young age
automatically placed Wataru on my rookie list.
Takeji
was known from the grappling scene where he was a rival of Kleber Koike
(Kleber was the winner of this rivalry, though). This year, he beat
Sora Yamamoto, who is one of the young up-and-comers in Rizin. The win
earned Takeji the Fighting Nexus featherweight title. Takeji’s main
focus is on jiu-jitsu, and I am curious whether he may have better
jiu-jitsu than Rizin’s featherweight roster (except Kleber).
Hiroto
has a Shotokan Karate background. He was the 2019 All-Japan Karatedo
Champion. Hiroto is a gym mate of Japanese MMA star Mikuru Asakura, and
he has adapted takedowns well. He can choose to strike or take opponents
down, and has clever distance making and counterattacks. Hiroto will
next fight Kouya Kanda for the DEEP interim featherweight title.
Ayaka
is from the Japanese MMA gym AACC, which has a reputation for training
and developing female fighters. She surprised many audience members at
Shooto’s first event in 2023 when she KOed durable former champion Mina
Kurobe, who had only been stopped by strikes once before this during her
25-fight career. Ayaka has taken on the hardest route for her career.
Her second fight was against Emi Fujino, which is Ayaka’s only loss, and
then she got her biggest win in only her third pro fight. I think she
will have more big fights soon in her career.
Yuji
scored a TKO win against Tatsuya Tanaka in just 80 seconds at Shooto’s
first event of this year. He won the 2022 Shooto Rookie tournament at
welterweight with that victory. Yuji declared that he will drop to
lightweight, He already showed TKO power at 170, but dropping down a
division will create more of a power advantage and more violence for
sure.
Big thanks to Robert Sargent (MMA Rising) for English editing.
I made Japanese MMA event list at 2009. At 2022 some event born and some are not active now.I feel I need update.I hope you follow those organization with SNS and watching event with PPV. That's why I made this.
Like every year, I am dropping my Japanese prospects series to highlight fighters who are not yet signed by major promotions.
I wrote this last year, but Covid-19 is still a danger for the public health and Rizin mostly cannot use foreign fighters due to the closed border. So, many prospects have recently been picked up by Rizin, but fortunately this year I have found six interesting prospects who've not yet fought for a major organization. That is a pleasant surprise. Please check out these fighters below and enjoy their careers.
Nakamura won the U23 World Wrestling Championships in freestyle, but he lost to future Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Takuto Otoguro and could not make it to the Olympics himself. Nakamura retired from wrestling in 2020 and began MMA training. Last year, the Internet TV streaming website AbemaTV debuted an MMA audition program called "Kakuto Dreamers", and the program's purpose was to identify fighters who deserved a management contract with popular music production company LDH's martial arts department. Nakamura participated in the program even though he had a contract already, and he won that audition and retained his contract. After that, he fought twice for Shooto and showed an impressive ability to finish fights with strikes despite having such a short career. We will soon see him in a major organization.
Usami won the Seidokaikan junior title twice and had six boxing titles while still in high school. He also participated in "Kakuto Dreamers" and won his audition match. After that, he fought for Shooto and VTJ and scored two finishes with strikes like his teammate Nakamura. I am curious about his skills on the ground, but I have a feeling that he will perform well in a major organization.
Uda trains under Naohiro "Chokugeki Gamon" Mizuno in Uwajima city, and he is a rare example of a prospect who has developed from the Shikoku island region where there is a smaller population. He beat Kiyotaka Shimizu by decision after scoring a knockdown. Tatsuro Taira, who also beat Shimizu, was just signed by the UFC. So I wonder what will happen in Uda's future.
Tsuruya is the son of Hiroshi Tsuruya, who developed the Paraestra Chiba network that produced talents like Hiromasa Ougikubo. He won the Abu Dhabi world pro jiu-jitsu championship while still in primary school, and he placed second in Junior Olympic wrestling during high school. Tsuruya fights for DEEP, and he has yet to meet a challenging opponent, but his talent is obvious in my eyes. He will go on to a major organization at some point in the future.
Saika challenged Takasuke Kume for the King of Pancrase lightweight title in December. He knocked Kume down with a right uppercut and almost finished him with hammerfists, but Kume survived and he submitted Saika with an armbar in the second round. Despite the loss, I think that Saika showed in that match that he is capable of fighting his way to Rizin.
Nishikawa's recent choices in a fight posed a challenge for me and how I view MMA because he attacked from bottom position and still managed to win an important match. Nishikawa fought Shooto champ Yuki Kawana, and he scored a TKO by continuously punching from the bottom. That goes completely against the current MMA trends and strategies. After that fight, Shinya Aoki critiqued Nishikawa's choice to fight from the bottom. Nishikawa's next fight was against Kazumasa Sugawara. Nishikawa took Sugawara's back and won with a rear-naked choke, but his right eyelid was swelling up and it closed. After that fight, Nishikawa apologized for his performance but also challenged Shinya Aoki. That made Aoki angry, who threw an elbow to Nishikawa like a pro wrestling stunt.
Yamato Nishikawa vs Kazumasa Sugawara
I think that, if Nishikawa fights against Aoki, his attacks from the bottom will be tested. While I don't think that he would be favored against Aoki, I admit that he broke the stereotype that I had in my mind for how a style could be used to win a fight in MMA. So, there is a possibility that he would still fight with that kind of imagination. Also, his win against Kawana was for the Shooto lightweight title, making Nishikawa the youngest Shooto champ ever at age 18 (now 19).
Big thanks to Robert Sargent (MMA Rising) for English editing.
This annual series looking at Japanese MMA
prospects is back. With the Covid-19 situation, Rizin could not use
foreign fighters and so Japanese prospects were easily picked up by the
promotion. However, some others still remain, and they are waiting on
fans like you to confirm their talents and to enjoy watching their
careers develop. As always, I have excluded fighters who moved on to the
UFC, Bellator, Rizin and One.
Ryota
Matsune’s student at Paraestra Okinawa, Tatsuro Taira, has recently
shown significant improvement in his career. In November, he defeated
Kiyotaka Shimizu, who is known as a good veteran fighter. Taira was not
only better at grappling but also won in striking, which is normally
Shimizu's strongest area. Okinawa rarely produces well-known MMA
fighters, aside from Matsune and Mitsuhisa Sunabe. Now that Matsune and
Sunabe are back there and have started a gym, that trend should change.
Taira has declared that he wants to go to the world's top promotion, the
UFC. However, during this pandemic situation, going to Rizin first
could be a wise choice.
This
past year, Saika won the interim lightweight King of Pancrase title.
Not only that, he finished opponent Genpei Hayashi with a scary one-shot
uppercut. Saika wants to fight against Takasuke Kume, who is the King
of Pancrase champion, but also declared that he would like to compete
for Rizin.
Izawa
has a strong background in wrestling and judo, but the fact that she
beat DEEP Jewels champ Miki Motono in only her second MMA fight still
shocked me. She landed right body kicks over and over against Motono and
was able to control the distance well. By avoiding most of Motono's
jabs and straight punches, Izawa showed how capable she is when it comes
to MMA striking. Izawa stated that she wants a title rematch against
Motono and plans to take the championship. Later on, she wants to be in
the world's top organization, the UFC.
Seika Izawa vs Miki Motono
Big thanks to Robert Sargent (MMA Rising) for English editing.
