It's baaack! This is the 2017 edition of the annual Fighters to Watch For series.
Yoshitaka
Naito is excluded from this year’s list because he fought for One FC
and won their world title, but will we see his long-awaited match
against Mitsuhisa Sunabe? I hope so. Tatsumitsu Wada competed for Rizin
and defeated Kai Kara-France, so I left him off of this prospects list
as well.
Since UFC Fight Pass has added Shooto and Pancrase, I think that you'll enjoy this list even more than before.
Ishiwatari's
2016 campaign was defined by avenging his loss to Jonathan Brookins. He
defeated Brookins in spite of Brookins missing weight, which is worth
more than an average win. Ishiwatari was continuously taken down and
lost a decision to Brookins in their first fight, but he defeated his
overweight opponent with sprawls in the rematch that showcased his
improved takedown defense.
Tamaru
earned his biggest career win in 2016 against Yasuhiro Urushitani. He
did not allow Urushitani to use his striking pressure and submitted
Urushitani with an armbar. Even though Urushitani is in the twilight of
his career and declared that he will retire after his next fight, Tamaru
needed just one round to become the fastest man to ever finish him.
Kanbe
battled injuries throughout 2016, but he did engage in a semi-brawl situation with Jarred Brooks. I look forward to major promotions
building strawweight classes so that they can face each other.
Mizuki
continued her winning streak with three finishes in 2016 before
suffering a knee injury. She is not yet in the UFC rankings due to being
outside of the organization, but we all know she should be in there.
Mizuki's
little brother scored his biggest win to date in 2016 when he defeated
Yuya Shibata, who is a former DEEP title challenger. Of course, the
Inoue siblings are best known as strikers, but Naoki has used his
excellent submission skills to finish seven of his nine professional
opponents, and remains unbeaten.
Suzuki’s
lone fight in 2016 ended in a first-round submission victory over
Seok-Yong Kim. We need to see him compete for higher stakes this year.
Hopefully the rumored Rizin Flyweight Grand Prix picks him up.
Kurosawa
captured Shooto gold in 2016 when he defeated Ryuto Sawada again. He is
a teammate of Yoshitaka Naito, who is One FC champion. I expect
Kurosawa to face international opposition this year, which will
hopefully help to develop and showcase atomweight competition around the
world.
Even
though she lost to Rin Nakai, Murata is still very early in her MMA
career. I do not think that she was in the best physical condition
against Nakai, and I expect that she will face appropriate opponents in
fights that allow her to develop her skills this year.
Big thanks to Robert Sargent (MMA Rising) for English editing.
We're back with the 2016 edition of Fighters to Watch For.
The most pleasant thing from last year's list was Hisaki Kato's knockout of Joe Schilling in Bellator. I mentioned Kato in the 2015 list and he was quite unknown beforehand due to the fact that his fights in HEAT were not well-known. I personally believe that I contributed to increasing his recognition.
Hisaki Kato is now in Bellator, so he is excluded from this list. Ayaka Hamasaki (Invicta champ) and Yuki Motoya (Rizin) should get attention without my inclusion, so I excluded them this year. I hope you enjoy watching rookie fighters grow like I do.
Matsushima debuted in February and he fought five times in 2015. He finished all of the fights and four of them ended in the first round. He has not had any competitive fights yet, and I want him to have good striking training because I think there is danger if he can't get a proper striking coach. Other than that, he is physically the best rookie since Kyoji Horiguchi.
See video of his slam KO in PXC: and his KO in Shooto:
While Motoya had a no contest in Rizin, Wada had two fights against Korean fighters in 2015. He has not recently faced quality opponents in Japan besides Motoya and Ogikubo. He will face Jae Nam Yoo at Deep: 75 Impact.
Ishiwatari suffered an injury early this past year. He fought Victor Henry in December and it was Japanese MMA's Fight of the Year. He has been unable to win against some of the elite opponents in his career, but I still want to see him in the major MMA scene because his fights are almost always very entertaining.
Kanbe was crowned as the Pancrase light flyweight champion this past year with a one-sided beating of Yukitaka Musashi. He needs to change divisions now since Pancrase adopted the unified weight classes. I'm looking forward to watching him face the champion in a different weight class.
In 2015, Naito beat younger strawweight fighters like Ryuto Sawada, and I previously named Sawada as a fighter to watch out for. Naito is always looking for takedowns and ground and pound to set up submissions, and he engages in fun scrambles during fights. I hope he appears in a major promotion to help build a new division. He has the gimmick of "Nobita," which is derived from the famous manga character "Draemon."
Mizuki had a rough 2015 with a loss against Alexa Grasso and a difficult fight against Emi Fujino. She began 2016 with a win against Lacey Schuckman, but I hope that she improves her physical power and wrestling.
Suzuki is not well-known as a prospect because he fights for Grachan, which has a small fan base, but his win against Shooto ranker Yosuke Saruta definitely gave him recognition in the JMMA world. He was crowned as Grachan champ in September. I hope he will face other organizations' champions in order to further elevate his status.
Kurosawa was knocked out by Junji Ito and Sawada was submitted by Yoshitaka Naito in 2015, but both are young and talented. Sawada is only 20 and Kurosawa is 22.
Kanako Murata
Murata has not yet debuted in MMA, but she is the first Japanese female athlete with such a high amateur status to convert to MMA. She had a wrestling match against Saori Yoshida and almost won the match before losing it in the late stages. Of course, I don't know how well she can adapt to MMA, but I can't hide my anticipation.
Big thanks to Robert Sargent (MMA Rising) for English editing.
Here
is the 2015 edition of Fighters to Watch For. Michinori Tanaka and
Uruka Sasaki landed themselves a spot in a major organization (UFC) last
year. There is, of course, a few new faces this time around and we have
more fighters with clean records. How I evaluate is based upon who won
against whom, but if a specific performance convinced me, I’ve done a
more risky pick. I hope that, with this list, hardcore MMA fans will
take note of who are JMMA's up-and-comers.
Motoya's
2014 was an active one and perfect for what he wanted. He avenged a
loss against Tatsumitsu Wada and won his first international fight
against former RFA champ Matt Manzanares. He used a variety of kicks to
make his movements harder to read and his front kicks stopped
Manzanares's pressure. Motoya is the most highly-touted rookie who
remains in local Japanese promotions and he will soon move on to fight
in a major organization.
Wada
lost his DEEP flyweight strap against Motoya this past year, but his
year-end performance against Ryuichi Miki defined him as a top-three
Japanese flyweight. Wada is known for his boxing skills and often
continuously jabs his opponents. Not only that, he avoided Miki's
strike-takedown combinations and finished Miki with a rear-naked choke.
Ogikubo's
year was all about winning the VTJ flyweight tournament. He had a
competitive fight against Takeshi Kasugai, but after that he choked out
Kana Hyatt and showed positional grappling superiority against Czar
Sklavos. Ogikubo asked for a fight against Yuki Motoya, but his injury
prevented the fight.
Ando
signed with One FC and his wins against Rafael Nunes and Zorobabel
Moreira both ended with finishes but in different ways. He choked Nunes
and tapped him out, then fought a striking battle against the
huge-framed Moreira. Ando forced Zoro to fight passively after
pressuring him and, with Zoro’s mind weakened, Ando finished him with a
body shot.
Nakahara's
2014 did not go well because he did not have an opportunity to fight.
He was supposed to face Honggang Yao, but the fight was scrapped because
Yao missed weight. When I think about Nakahara’s record and improvement
curve, he remains here on this list.
Kato
is not yet well-known, but he is the current HEAT middleweight champion
and also a Daidojuku champion. HEAT is a Nagoya-based organization, so I
haven't watched his fights yet, but from his record and quick finishing
times he should be seen as at least a top-three Japanese middleweight.
Another reason why I am interested in him is his Daidojuku skill. The
first Japanese fighter in the UFC was Minoki Ichihara and he had no
solution against Royce Gracie's grappling, but after all of these years
of MMA evolution, perhaps Daidojuku can contribute to major MMA's style
diversity? That's not a pure fighter evaluation, but I am interested in
him for such a reason, too.
Ayaka's
2014 was about testing herself in a new division. She dominated former
Jewels featherweight champ Naho Sugiyama in striking and on the ground,
then fought and defeated Mei Yamaguchi. We can expect that she will soon
fight in the U.S. since she did not participate in the DEEP Jewels
featherweight GP, which is being held in her new division.
Mizuki's
2014 did not go how she had wanted. She missed weight in the finals of
the DEEP Jewels lightweight GP and lost by DQ even though she submitted
Emi Tomimatsu. She avenged her “loss” against Tomimatsu in her next
fight to become Deep Jewels featherweight champion. Mizuki next fought
Karolina Kowalkiewicz at Invicta FC 9, but her precision striking was
not favored against Karolina's volume of strikes. She will begin 2015
against Alexa Grasso at Invicta FC 11. Mizuki is still only 20 years
old, but she needs to develop more physical strength to give her
precision striking more value.
Kanbe
may not be expected to be on this list because he is so early in his
career at 18 years old, but his dominance over opponents with his
grappling made me convinced that he needed to be included here. Kanbe
trains at Alliance Square and is a grappling-based prospect at the
moment. His strong point is obviously his ground game, but we know that
current fighters in major promotions can't rely too much upon grappling.
Alliance Square’s coach, Tsuyoshi Kosaka, knows how to build MMA
talent, so I think that Kanbe will develop considerable striking skills
but I don't know how far he can go. I think we will someday see him
challenge for a Pancrase title.
Kanbe
is Pancrase's lightest weight prospect. I don't know if he will fight
in the upper divisions in the future, but Shooto's lightest prospect is
Ryohei Kurosawa. His nickname, “Ken Asuka,” is from Karate Manga. His
style is karate, which he began training at age six, but what impressed
me most was his sprawl against the takedowns of Ryuto Sawada, who is a
top prospect.
Ando's
career is too short yet, with only three fights so far, but he was a
top-three wrestler in college. In his third bout, he beat Takahiro
Ashida, who has 16 fights on his record and fought to a split decision
against Miguel Torres. It shows Ando’s potential and what kind of
athlete he is.
Sawada
had a breakout performance after his loss against Kurosawa. He outpaced
and outwrestled Yuki Shojo for the entire fight and ground-and-pound
KOed him. That was surprising for me since Ryuto is small for Shooto’s
flyweight division. He displayed big KO power against Shojo, who only
had one prior TKO loss in his career. Sawada is expected to face
champion Yoshitaka Naito next year.
Big thanks to Robert Sargent (MMA Rising) for English editing.
