Kawajiri and Yamamoto represent MMA fighters shifting to K-1 matches
Published by Zach Arnold on June 18th, 2009 in Current Events

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When we last saw Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto in action, he lost a decision at DREAM 9 on May 26th at Yokohama Arena to Greco-Roman star Joe Warren. Warren now has wins over Chase Beebe and Kid Yamamoto this year, making his early MMA record look fabulous. For Yamamoto, the loss was unfortunate — he was coming off knee surgery and was facing a man who had just as good, if not better, qualifications in the amateur wrestling game as he did.

Yamamoto has decided to quickly rebound from his loss to Warren by taking a booking in the K-1 World MAX ring on July 13th in Tokyo at Nippon Budokan against Jae Hee-Cheon. For Yamamoto, this is not his first go-round in the K-1 ring in a kickboxing match. Kid’s main rival a few years ago was Masato, who has long been the ‘ace’ of the World MAX series of events featuring some of the best kickboxers in the world in smaller weight classes. The two men faced each other in one of the highest-rated K-1 bouts ever on Japanese TV on New Year’s Eve of 2004. It was Yamamoto’s experience in K-1 matches that helped him gain name recognition amongst casual fight fans in Japan.

Yamamoto returns back to the K-1 ring on the same card that features Masato, who has announced his retirement from the fight business by the end of this year. Masato will be facing one of Yamamoto’s MMA contemporaries in Tatsuya “Crusher” Kawajiri. Kawajiri is leading the pack of new MMA fighters who are dabbling into K-1 kickboxing. This also includes the highly-talented Gegard Mousasi, who is now fighting in the heavyweight ranks after fighting at around 185 pounds. On paper, Kawajiri or any other MMA fighter facing Masato doesn’t sound like a great idea. However, Kawajiri and crew have more than held their own in the K-1 ring and have won a fair amount of matches. The July 13th bout against Masato is by far Kawajiri’s biggest, most high-profile match to date. It will help raise his profile enormously amongst a new demographic of fans who may have never heard of him as an MMA fighter in the PRIDE ring.

While DREAM is held under the K-1 unmbrella, it is not exactly a project that Kazuyoshi Ishii (the K-1 boss) embraced. He was in jail, after all, when the heavy push for the MMA promotion began under the auspices of ex-Dream Stage Entertainment (PRIDE) officials. Therefore, K-1 still provides a much larger platform for fighters to make a name for themselves than fighting in the DREAM world. There are three major reasons why we will see more MMA fighters dabble into the K-1 world soon:

Reason #1: Masato is retiring and there’s pressure on finding guys who can pop good TV ratings

K-1 is facing a lot of pressure in regards to the future of their World MAX brand if they cannot find the proper star power to carry it. Masato’s ability to attract scores of female fans is legendary in this business. Without Masato, K-1 is left with having to rely on journeyman like Yoshihiro Sato who are commendable but not superstars. If Kid Yamamoto sees a bleak future with his MMA career, it’s entirely possible that he could make the transition to World MAX and become the ace. The money would be good and he could further build up his superstar reputation. Someone like Yamamoto is already a superstar, but it never hurts to build new fans.

As for someone like Crusher Kawajiri, fighting a superstar like Masato is huge exposure. It’s the biggest exposure he will ever get in his entire life. The MMA fighters are certainly taking a risk of getting knocked out in the World MAX ring, but the upside of fighting the K-1 bouts significantly outweighs the risks of doing so.

K-1 will throw everything but the kitchen sink to try to find new stars to carry the lucrative World MAX brand and there may be some Japanese MMA fighters in smaller weight classes who could help keep the brand afloat.

Reason #2: The boys need paydays and fighting in the K-1 ring can get you just as much money than fighting in DREAM

Let’s face it – DREAM is not a place where you can significant money like you could when PRIDE existed. Sure, it has some name recognition and a TV deal, but it is nowhere near as big as K-1. Not even close. That’s not to say that fighting in DREAM is a dead-end deal, but K-1 is where the ratings and money are at. Given the uncertainty of the health of the MMA industry outside of UFC, it is almost imperative to take whatever bookings you possibly can — even if it is kickboxing matches. And if you’re good at it, like Gegard Mousasi, then you have the flexibility to fight in both K-1 and MMA bouts. It makes it easiers for promoters to push you and also makes it easier for you to keep training all year long instead of having long breaks in between MMA fights.

Reason #3: K-1 realizes that as a promotion it’s easier to make stars through their kickboxing platform than their MMA platform

Let’s face it — it’s a lot easier to build stars when you have 12-15 million people watching a telecast than it is when you have 3-5 million people watching a television show at Midnight. While DREAM recently had a semi-good TV slot for their last telecast, the brand is often relegated to edited airings at Midnight on Tokyo Broadcasting System. With K-1 telecasts, the network is able to get prime time real estate on both TBS and Fuji TV, two major free-to-air platforms.

There is a lot of uncertainty right now in K-1, both on the kickboxing and MMA sides. Who will rise up and become the new Japanese aces on each side of the equation? Right now, you have a surprise heavyweight in Keijiro Maeda who is on the K-1 side of the equation. Who will replace Masato? K-1 has had to deal with the decline of Musashi, the up-and-down ability of Junichi Sawayashiki, and a host of undercard Japanese fighters that haven’t broken out of the pack yet. Plus, Golden Glory continues its assault with major-league gaijin talent ready at Bas Boon’s disposal to push in Japan. Bringing in MMA personalities such as Kawajiri and Yamamoto can work to a degree, but in order for the brands to be carried in the future it will be new Japanese MMA fighters that we know a little bit about or haven’t yet heard that will end up carrying these lucrative fighting brands shortly. With so much money at stake, it is impossible not for promoters to think K-1 first, MMA second. The fighters understand this equation as well and are starting to mold their training around this situation. The Japanese marketplace still values K-1 fights above any other fighting style on a mass level. In a perfect world, DREAM would be just as competitive as K-1 telecasts but there is no long-term evidence that this will happen. Therefore, the likes of Kawajiri, Mousasi, and Yamamoto will venture into a world that is far different than MMA but a world that they can become successful in and make a whole lot of money.