Envy and Condemnation

Kenny Florian from USA Today

Takanori Gomi lost by rear naked choke to Kenny Florian on Spike TV last night.  I wanted to see him fight, although I knew he was somewhat past his prime.  I didn’t realize exactly how past his prime he was.

I always get filled with envy when I watch Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Thai, and Korean fighters go at it.  Guys of Chinese descent haven’t had a championship level fighter since Bruce.  Meanwhile, fighters like Penn, Machida, Cung Le, Pacquiao, Hakuho, etc are tearing it up in all fighting sports.  To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a Chinese male world champion fighter in MMA, boxing, judo, jujitsu, Muay Thai, wrestling, or sumo–basically all the fighting sports that matter.

Which brings me to the point of this post: overfighting and lack of respect for fighters in Japan.

I knew Gomi was past his prime, but good god, the guy looked worse than an amateur last night.  He was afraid, tentative, and had absolutely no tricks in his arsenal and no strategy aimed towards winning.  He basically just bobbed back and forth while Florian hit him with jab after jab.  It was sad.  Same deal with Caol Uno.

I haven’t followed Gomi much, but I would guess that what happened to him is similar to what happened to Sakuraba and all other great Japanese fighters.  The Japanese companies pit these great champions against larger opponents who have no business being in the same ring, or they make them fight every couple of months rather than a more reasonable two or three times a year.  After a while, the fighters become hesitant, tentative, and uncreative.  The system destroys the champions that it should be cultivating and respecting.  It’s disgraceful.

And Joe Rogan, I understand that you work for the UFC, but you should call it like it is.  Gomi is no longer the fighter he once was.  To hype him up like that to American MMA fans who haven’t ever seen him fight before is setting up expectations that you know he can no longer meet.  I don’t condemn Florian for fighting him, but c’mon, the terrible fighters from the IFL could’ve beaten Gomi last night.

And Japan–do something about your fighting system!  It’s terrible that your country produces all these awesome competitive martial arts experts, and then you make them fight til they die.

If you need an example of how to conduct your business, look no further than Dana White (who cares about his fighters here, but obviously let Gomi in just to get an influx of publicity).  When Penn lost to the bigger St. Pierre, he decreed that Penn would stay at lightweight from then on.  After Chuck Liddell got knocked off his butt too many times, Dana retired him.  That’s the way to do it.  Let legends be legends, and respect them enough to save them from their own fighting spirit.  Throw in the towel when they’ve had enough.

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