Yushin Okami Planning September Return, Eyes Rematch With Anderson Silva
Middleweight contender Yushin Okami (23-4), who was forced out of a UFC 98 bout against Dan Miller last month with a torn ligament, expects his next fight to take place in September.
“I’d torn my ligament around the end of April,” Okami told UFC.com. “I really wanted to fight (against Miller), but the doctor had stopped me. He told me I would recover by June if I sit still. Currently I’m focused on upper-body training, and by July I will be back to my usual regimen. I want to get back into the Octagon, if possible, to fight in September.”
Despite the injury, Okami remains the top 185-pound contender and is expected to be the next challenger for middleweight champ Anderson Silva (24-4) should he win his September return against an opponent to-be-named. Silva next fights in August in a light heavyweight contest against Forrest Griffin, but is expected to return to 185-pounds for a title defense later this year or in early-2010.
Okami defeated Silva via disqualification in their first meeting in January 2006 due to an illegal kick. Okami has gone 9-2 following the win, losing only to Jake Shields and Rich Franklin while picking up notable wins over Mike Swick, Jason MacDonald, and Evan Tanner. “Thunder” was last in action in December at UFC 92, defeating Dean Lister via unanimous decision.
Meanwhile, Silva has won 10-straight fights, including a record 9-straight UFC wins, to cement his status as the world’s top middleweight and one of the best pound-for found fighters.
“The records say I won but I really lost the match. But I believe because of this fight I’ve grown stronger. The next time I fight him things will be different. I am confident of that,” Okami concluded.
[Pictured: Yushin Okami]
Tags: Anderson Silva, Yushin Okami
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For all the obstacles this guys had in the past couple of years i realy hope he gets the win he needs to challenge silva. My question is, does the UFC want Okami fighting silva again. They know that the spider only has so many fights left on his contract and I doubt they want one of them to be against a completely unknown fighter(to the casual fans that is)when a bout against the winner of marquart-maia or bisping-hendo would obviously be much more appealing. At the end of the day I realy just dont see what Okami thinks he can offer Anderson. I think a return match against a healed up cote or even sonnen would be good.
It’s still a guy that “beat” Silva. As Dbiz likes to point out when I talk about Fedor, a loss is a loss. Fedor wanted to face Kohsaka again and brutally beat the guy until the doctor ended the fight(which in Japan is something). Plus Okami has only loss to Jake Shields and Rich Franklin in the last few years. He’s not flashy but he wins, so you know he’d bring his best and get after it. So the more important question is why not?
I would love to see Okami fight Silva again. Okami would for sure come to fight and not lay on his back hoping for Silva to slip and land on a triangle like Leites hoped for.
slip and land on a trianlge lol nice, thats probably what his game plan was.
I’m thinking that with only so many fights left on Spider’s contract, a relative unknown like Okami has little or no chance of signing a re-match, especially in light of the fact that Silva’s next 2 opponents will be mega-popular Forrest Griffin and the winner of Bisping/Hendo from the TUF finale. I have to believe that Dana is banking on promoting Bisping [if he can get past Hendo] and Silva for the title somewhere in Britain down the road. A guy like Okami will be on the outside looking in for at least another year unless circumstances change.
Exactly dude. As much as Okami might deserve the shot i just dont see it happening. Anderson is only going to fight a couple more times and i highly doubt it will be against “Thunder”. I actually think Anderson will fight again at 205 before his career is done espeacially if he beats forrest. Even if he doesnt maia will likely get the title shot before Okami does.