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Yushin Okami

Yushin Okami is one of the great underappreciated names in the annals of MMA. He's one of the best middleweights in the sport--he's probably the best Japanese middleweight of all time, and for a division that includes Sakuraba, Misaki, Tamura and Chonan that's saying something--but he's another of those fighters that are unfortunately defined by their losses.

"Thunder" was part of the earlier murderer's row at the Wayjyutsu Keisyukai school. As a tall, 6'2" fighter who could fight at both 185 and 170 pounds, he made an immediate impact on the sport, going 14-3 in his In his first four years including two wins in Pride and one infamous disqualification victory over the not-yet-the-greatest-ever Anderson Silva after he was knocked out by an illegal kick. (Anderson would go on to say Okami was faking it and was a coward.) Okami had a steady amount of hype when he signed with the UFC in 2006: At 17-3, with six straight wins coming by stoppage, he was an exciting prospect for the middleweight division as the UFC entered its mainstream boom--especially as the last man to defeat Anderson Silva, who won the UFC title just a few months after Okami's debut. Eyes were immediately on Anderson/Okami as a prestige battle.

It would take half a decade to materialize. Part of it was injury, part of it was timing, but mostly it was the rankings that plagued Okami. He could beat almost everyone in the sport--just not the best of the best. As of this writing, Okami has been fighting for fifteen years and is 34-11--ten of those losses were against world champions and the eleventh was against Ovince Saint Preux, whom Okami moved up two weight classes to face on seven days' notice. Every time he got a crack at the top of his division--whether that was in Rumble on the Rock, the UFC or the World Series of Fighting--he faltered.

And again: That's been going on for fifteen years. Okami has been turned away from championship contention across multiple generations of MMA talent. He'd finally get his crack at gold in his rematch with Anderson at UFC 134 and the result was his first knockout loss in nearly a decade. Two years later he'd be released from the UFC--despite a 13-5 record in the organization and only one loss in his last four fights--because they just didn't know what to do with him anymore. He could grind out decisions against any prospect they handed him, but he couldn't main-event. He was a marketing liability.

And then they brought him back four years later because he took a fight two weight classes up against the #5 in the world on one week's notice. Because he's Yushin Okami, and no matter how many times he gets knocked down the rankings, he never stops. Even when sometimes you really wish he would.

Moveset, stats, logic and four attires (UFC 69 vs Swick / UFC 134 vs Anderson / Pride: Bushido 2 vs Ryuta Sakurai / Pancrase 279 vs Susuki).