Japanese fighters in USA

Highnoon

I was watching MMA Live on ESPN the other night. The one were they spoke abour Aoki and Melendez. I'm seriously paraphrasing here but - The question was something about MMA in Japan being on a slide, the level of talent in decline, using Aoki poor showing against Melendez as the example. Franklin McNeill said it wasn't that Japanese fighters were inferior (not his exact words) but rather that they weren't used to the rules in America. My question is what are the rule differences that make the switch so difficult for Japanese fighters?

I would love to see more of them in the UFC and Strikeforce so here's hoping they can adapt soon, Or is that just an excuse and the fact is that against European/Brazilan/American fighters they just can't compete?

On a side note - does anyone know if WEC (under the umbrella of UFC) will ever become available on ESPN?

Kieran81

if you ask me its not the rules the japs have a problem with, its the scoring system. they seem to have bother when there opponent comes with a strategy that can get them a decision , like the way fighters enter a fight trying to win 2 rounds to 1... hardy was down by 3 rounds vs gsp and basically gsp could play it out to the end with an attitude of if i dont get caught its my fight...thats not saying he did , just saying he could think like that. whereas the japanese show up to finish the other guy not get a decision , and the pride scoring system was viewed on the whole fight not who won the most 5 minute sections, which must make fighters think differently about having a fight won entering the later stages

rovert

Match making in the US is much more competitive than in Japan where fighters a largely protected over there due to nationalism and the health of the sport being so precarious for the last few years. So as a result the standard of Japanese MMA is that much lower in my opinion.

I think for the sake of the discussion that a distinction has to be made between PRIDE and post-PRIDE fighters.

Professey Chin

Its a lot of things so i'll go through as many as I can think of.

Most Japanese promotions take place in a ring so this would be a major advantage to their general fighting style (much more judo/jiujitsu fighters compared to americas wrestlers). In cages a wrestler can negate a lot of grappling ability by simply crushing them against the cage and stopping them from shifting their hips. In rings they'd just be reset to the middle and it allows a grappler like Aoki to go back to work.

The scoring system comes into play aswell.The US use boxings 10-9 system per round but in Japan the fight is scored as a whole.No actual scores per se, 1 fighter is just declared the winner by each judge.
They also score differently.Their 1st point of call is who tried to finish the fight more so just controlling someone on the ground and throwing the odd punch to look like your staying active isn't good enough.Fighters are also penalized by the yellow card system.A fighter who repeatedly stalls is given a yellow card which takes away 10% of their purse if I remember right.

The other things would be a lot of them simply don't cut any weight.They fight at their walk around weight unlike most americans whod walk around about 15 pounds above their weigh in weight at least. And since they can wear gi's and grappling tights they can have more grip when people get sweaty(see Aokis magic pants)

I think they'll learn to adapt to the cage now that Dream uses it the odd time but as for the wrester favoured scoring in the US, that needs serious revision IMO

pablohoney87

Ultimate Chin wrote: »

.

The scoring system comes into play aswell.The US use boxings 10-9 system per round but in Japan the fight is scored as a whole.No actual scores per se, 1 fighter is just declared the winner by each judge.
They also score differently.Their 1st point of call is who tried to finish the fight more so just controlling someone on the ground and throwing the odd punch to look like your staying active isn't good enough.Fighters are also penalized by the yellow card system.A fighter who repeatedly stalls is given a yellow card which takes away 10% of their purse if I remember right.

I think that scoring system was just prides and has been done away with. As for the yellow card i think thats been done away with too. It used to be used in pancrase and was carried through up until a couple years ago but i dont think they use it anymore.

Professey Chin

pablohoney87 wrote: »

I think that scoring system was just prides and has been done away with. As for the yellow card i think thats been done away with too. It used to be used in pancrase and was carried through up until a couple years ago but i dont think they use it anymore.

Sorry.My mistake about the yellow cards
The judging system is still the one used by Dream.Sengoku im not too sure about

pablohoney87

Ah k. Anytime i watch the commentry is always in japaneese so i neva really hear much bout the scoring system.

Professey Chin

pablohoney87 wrote: »

Ah k. Anytime i watch the commentry is always in japaneese so i neva really hear much bout the scoring system.

I watch the HD Net feeds.Always entertaining

calex71

pablohoney87 wrote: »

As for the yellow card i think thats been done away with too. It used to be used in pancrase and was carried through up until a couple years ago but i dont think they use it anymore.

Still in use and long may it continue, a 10% purse deduction for stalling or not engaging after being warned is a great incentive to fight

ALso I like that in Japan they don't score the take downs highly unless they do something with it.

Money is another thing, it's cray in Japan or at least it was havent checked pay outs recently but a fight in Japan used to be much more profitable for a fighter.

calex71

Ultimate Chin wrote: »

I watch the HD Net feeds.Always entertaining

Mike Schavello is brilliant

Professey Chin

calex71 wrote: »

Mike Schavello is brilliant

Need him with Bas though.I wanna kick Mezger in the nipple

calex71

Ultimate Chin wrote: »

Need him with Bas though.I wanna kick Mezger in the nipple

Guy hasn't been on in a while though has he?, no bad thing

Professey Chin

calex71 wrote: »

Guy hasn't been on in a while though has he?, no bad thing

Dream 12 was his last one so not that long ago.Now to run away from killing this thread