Why are there so few prominent MMA fighters from Japan.

MJI

Maybe its a dumb question, But I wonder why the country that created many martial arts such as Judo, Karate, Jujitsu, etc do not feature much at all in MMA.

I would think that there would be allot of mixed martial artists from Japan considering it's part of their history. Why is it that they produce so few MMA stars?

Tigger

MJI wrote: »

Maybe its a dumb question, But I wonder why the country that created many martial arts such as Judo, Karate, Jujitsu, etc do not feature much at all in MMA.

I would think that there would be allot of mixed martial artists from Japan considering it's part of their history. Why is it that they produce so few MMA stars?

MMA is not UFC nor is cage fighting MMA
http://www.tapology.com/rankings/747-the-all-time-greatest-japanese-fighters-in-mma-history

DrPhilG

Japan has an undoubted history of martial arts, but we are at a stage where you need to cross train. Many top fighters start out training in MMA now rather than transitioning in from another discipline.

Maybe with traditional martial arts being so strong in Japan, that holds them back from being successful in something so modern and different as MMA?

dave1982

I think corruption has lot to do with hardly no mma in Japan....I think

Axwell

dave1982 wrote: »

I think corruption has lot to do with hardly no mma in Japan....I think

This is more the reason of why mma events arent as popular in Japan as oppose to fighters leaning mma and coming to fight in organisations like the ufc. The Yakuza are the main reason for the down turn in mma events in Japan going back a few years now.

As for fighters themselves i think as was said previously theres more of a cross fighting style needed to properly be considered a mixed martial artist and due to the heritage and background of a lot of the martial arts in japan fighters are still too focussed there on single styles and mastering them than looking at more western styles and embrassing those to give them more depth in the cage and be true mixed martial artists.

Depp

Axwell wrote: »

This is more the reason of why mma events arent as popular in Japan as oppose to fighters leaning mma and coming to fight in organisations like the ufc. The Yakuza are the main reason for the down turn in mma events in Japan going back a few years now.

As for fighters themselves i think as was said previously theres more of a cross fighting style needed to properly be considered a mixed martial artist and due to the heritage and background of a lot of the martial arts in japan fighters are still too focussed there on single styles and mastering them than looking at more western styles and embrassing those to give them more depth in the cage and be true mixed martial artists.

this kinda gets into it a good bit explains it really well

Mellor

Sudo, Uno, Gomi, and Okami were decent imo.
Aoki is a wizard. Sakaraba is a legend.

alex.middleton

bruce lee is in the ufc game atleast..

Axwell

alex.middleton wrote: »

bruce lee is in the ufc game atleast..

Whats that got to do with anything, he was born in California and his heritage is Chinese not Japanese.. :rolleyes: