What I learned from Melendez-Aoki.

[F l i c k e r]

Japanese fighters need to stop fighting in a ring if they, at some point, plan on fighting in the UFC. That is what I honestly learned from that fight.

They all do good when fighting in a ring, then switch to a cage and it's like they don't know where the fuck they are. Gomi looked lost in a cage 2x already, Aoki looked lost in the cage, Uno faught in a cage before but never had any real success. Genki Sudo doesn't count because he is retired and was awesome regardless.

If you think about it the only Japanese guys who come over to the UFC from Japan that actually have some degree of success participated in Cage Force. Yushin Okami, Yoshiyuki Yoshida. I don't count Sexyama because he only faught once.

I honestly don't know how Dong Hyun Kim(Korean tho) has success in the cage but he pulls it off masterfully. Stun Gun IS a dope ass nickname. His elbow game is vicious, may I say more vicious than KenFlo's???

But that's what I learned. They better switch their **** up if they want success in the major leagues. Your best pitch can't be a 84mph fastball and expect to do well against the Yankees batting line up. Ya feel?

--------------------

Also, was Melendez using Nick and Nate's stand up style? Atrocious.

[$Bullsfam$]

They just need better training camps. Also some of them need to cut too. Like Yoshida should be at 155. Uno should be at 145 but they don't believe in weight cutting for some reason, most asian fighters fight nothing more then 5 or pounds over their walking around weight.

Okami if he had better training partners would be a beast but he's remained the same and kept just neutralizing opponents with wrestling which is what he probably does in camp every day, nobody to really push him. Glad the Chael lost happened though, looks like it brought the beast out of Okami. Shinya needs to work on kickboxing or Muay Thai. I feel like he has so much potential but won't reach it because he's satisfied with just being a sick grappler so he'll never be the best.

Sexyama is the man though. Be on the lookout for him!

[F l i c k e r]

I agree with you. It looks like 155 has out-grown Uno, he is too small to be participating at that weight(width/thickness).

Okami is a boss, he had Chael say in an interview that he never wanted to fight Okami again. That big a statement after training with him, after he beat him.


You like Sexyama too? I had that gif of him checkin himself out in the big screen during his fight with Belcher.

[Dice]

Okami is a boss, he had Chael say in an interview that he never wanted to fight Okami again. That big a statement after training with him, after he beat him.

Never believe the words of a pacific northwestern republican

[F l i c k e r]

Never believe the words of a pacific northwestern republican

lol, thats why I believe him. He shouldn't have the character to say something like that.

[Left2theliver]

I agree, to an extent. I feel like it's a big mixture of things. I feel that a lot of these guys don't have MMA as their number 1 priority, which is why they don't succeed as much, whereas in the U.S. and other countires these guys train 8 hours a day 5-6 days a week...a lot of the guys in Japan train only 4 hours a day 5 days a week. It's just not enough. Also, yes, they need to start fighting, or at least, train inside a cage. that was Aoki's problem. Kawajiri, Gomi, and Aoki i know all cut weight. But guys like Sakurai need to start doin that.

[jakkups]

Watching the fight didn't teach me anything new about Aoki other than he's a little whiner at times, but it more or less reinforced what I thought prior to the bout.

The cage had very little, if nothing at all to do with the fight. The cage wasn't the reason he was getting outstruck, out-wrestled and generally outdone in every aspect. Skills pay the bills, and Aoki needs some serious work. The only thing he didn't have going for him was the extra friction he gets from those funky pants of his.

As I have said about Aoki before he get's stumped for ideas when he can't implement those submissions because the guy across from him is of equal ability in that area (not so much in the application of subs but in defending them). His takedowns are pretty weak to begin with and the sad thing was that Gilbert isn't exactly the best wrestler out there yet had no problems keeping Aoki at bay for 25 mins. His standup game is. . . well I don't think you can even say he has one.

This isn't the early days of MMA when a one-dimensional guy like him could easily beat a fellow one-dimensional guy, you need to back that up with an all-round game for the most part. Aoki only has himself to blame for that, when you create a team consisting of primarily grapplers who can't strike for **** then you can only go so far. Get some new training partners and work your ass off. We already know what he's good at, but it's what he's not good at which is gonna be his downfall if he doesn't work at it.

[TheNegation]

They just need better training camps.

This is basically what it comes down to.

A lot of Japanese fighter don't have well rounded training camps.


More specifically they need to train more wrestling and they can't come into fights undersized. Because a lot of NA fighters compliment their skills with size and strength advantages.

A strong and skilled fighter will always beat the skilled fighter.