“Kid” Yamamoto Off Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery, Likely to Fight at DREAM 14
Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto will not fight at “Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery” on May 15 in St. Loius, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker announced on Thursday, as the Japanese featherweight is instead expected to return to action at DREAM 14 on May 29 in Saitama, Japan.
Yamamoto was scheduled to make his Strikeforce debut against Federico Lopez on the preliminary card of the Showtime-televised event, but has instead been tapped to fill a DREAM 14 event that recently lost it’s planned light heavyweight grand prix.
“Kid” (17-3) dropped back-to-back DREAM bouts to Joe Warren and Massanori Kanehara in 2009, which snapped a 14-fight win streak that began in 2002 and included wins over notables Caol Uno, Genki Sudo, Bibiano Fernandes, and Rani Yahya.
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I’m sure one thing has nothing to do with the other, but I can’t help but wonder if it discourages other Japanese MMA fighters to try rocking it North American style when they see a guy like Gomi perform so underwhelmingly in the UFC…
Now would be the perfect time for a K-1/Dream card . Except for a twist , hold the K-1 stuff in the white cage . Now that would be cool to see …..
It would be nice if they stopped the whole weight cutting BS . Then these guys who come from japan to fight would be fighting even comp instead of the tricks .
Yeah we should take away the advantage that other fighters have gained by putting in hard work to benefit a handful of fighters, mostly from the same country, that aren’t willing to put in that same level of hard work….
Yeah Justin ,
I see your point , dehydrating and not eating before a weigh in is hard work . They obviously need that “advantage ” in whats supposed to be a fair fight between equally sized opponents .
It is hard work, if it wasn’t, more people would do it.
Weight cutting has been a part of combat sports for a very long time. Everyone has an equal opportunity to cut weight, should they choose to, so the fight is still fair.
I would guess that Kid was pulled by Dreams brass because he is a huge star in Japan and only fighting on the prelim
I don’t know if that’s what I will personally subscribe to, but it doesn’t seem like a logical conclusion, honestly. Either that or Kid pulled himself from the fight for the same reasoning.
I guess the problem is that almost all of the Japanese MMA fighters have no real following stateside, so its hard for a promoter to put them on the main or under card.
Look where Dana White put Gomi, and check the results.
In the case of Yamamoto, I can see where he’d be almost offended with a prelim spot, but everyone’s got to start [in Strikeforce] somewhere.
Plus, that “he’s huge in Japan” deal only goes so far, if you follow…
Upon further consideration, I also think the relative weakness of Dream 14 (now that the LHW tourney has been postponed) could have been a part of the reasoning for this move.