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In The Blue Corner: Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto
by Tomas Lopez, Team IronLife.com Writer
Ask your average MMA fan who has the best ground and pound and they’ll probably say Fedor Emelianenko, ask them who has the best wrestling and most will say Randy Couture, ask them who the best featherweight in the world is and you’ll hear the name Alexandre Franca "Pequeno" Nogueira more often than not. I certainly wouldn’t argue with any of those answers;  however there is a top tier featherweight out there with frightening ground and pound and Olympic caliber wrestling skills. That featherweight is Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto of Enson Inoue’s Purebred Omiya gym.
If youre the kind of fan who likes his mixed martial artists calm, respectful and classy then Yamamoto most likely wont be joining your list of favorites. In fact, Yamamoto is best known not for his brutal first round destruction of top 10 featherweight Tetsuo Katsuta but for what he did afterwards when he continued to rain down unprotected shots on Katsuta after the bout had been stopped leaving Katsuta with multiple facial fractures. That’s right; Yamamoto literally broke Katsuta’s face. Aside from that bit of unsavory behavior, Yamamoto seems to relish in presenting a thug image, adorning his body with tattoos while keeping a permanent scowl on his face to match them. Despite all that, once Yamamoto is in the ring it becomes  obvious that he may be the most talented Japanese mixed martial artist since a prime Hayato "Mach" Sakurai ruled the roost in the Shooto organization.
In modern MMA competition, it’s a well known fact that the key to success is versatility and Yamamoto brings a scary set of skills to the table. A former Olympic gold medal hopeful for Japan, Yamamoto had to abandon his Olympic dreams after getting into some trouble with the Yakuza, I kid you not. Luckily for Yamamoto, Enson Inoue was able to save him from being permanently detached from any parts of his body. It was Inoue who saw the potential in the freakishly strong and talented wrestler and decided to introduce him to the world of MMA. It was like putting a fish in water as Yamamoto’s natural aggressiveness was in stark contrast to the passive nature of most pure wrestlers who enter MMA.
That natural aggressiveness is the main aspect of Yamamoto’s ground and pound, as opposed to Fedor Emelianenko who prefers snapping out a big shot or two whenever an opportunity opens; Yamamoto simply stands up in an opens guard and starts throwing with frightening ferocity and accuracy. Despite being small even by featherweight standards, Yamamoto has no trouble over powering his opponents and once that happens its game set match thanks to the aforementioned wrestling skills and ground  and pound. However, Yamamoto is more than just a mini Mark Coleman who became infamous for his lack of stamina, submission defense and standup as much as he became famous for wrestling and ground and pound.
Yamamoto is a next generation mixed martial artist who can dominate in more than one aspect of the game. Aside from his scary power on the ground, Yamamoto has tremendous standup as evidenced by his recent KO of Caleb Mitchell as well as submission defense that not even submission stylists such as Jeff Curran have been able to penetrate. A December 14th bout with Shooto champion Alexandre Franca "Pequeno" Nogueira will not only provide that submission defense with its biggest challenge yet but will also easily be Yamamoto’s biggest challenge yet. With a victory, the young phenom will entrench himself as the world’s premier featherweight. It should be noted that whispers of a move to the UFC’s lightweight division have been persistent; perhaps Yamamoto may be the second man in line after Couture to become a legitimate two division champion. Far fetched you say? Sure, but I wouldn’t advise anyone with a leg breaking bookie to bet against the Kid.
* Article by Tomas Lopez, Team IronLife.com Writer.
* Back to Issue #4 Frontpage
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