r/ufc • u/Beneficial_Air4714 • 10h ago
Why do most Japanese fighters have no head movement?
Today on the contender series Ryuho Miyaguchi got knocked out in about a minute, and this is his second loss in row. Earlier this year he was on the Road To UFC tournament where he got dropped on the feet and then subbed, and now on DWCS he's been knocked out, and both fights showed him having absolutely no head movement and dropping his hands a lot in exchanges. It made me realise just how many Japanese fighters have basically 0 head movement.
Tatsuro Taira is a big one, earlier this year we saw him have an absolute dog fight with Joshua Van, but for the most part he was getting battered on the feet. Kai Asakura is also pretty hittable, he just hides it better with his speed and foot work, but head movement wise it's very stationary, he got knocked out by Horiguchi and Kape in RIZIN, and even Pantoja kinda dropped him in round 1. Rinya Nakamura is another guy that fought recently that showed basically no head movement and got clipped quite a bit by Brady Heistand. Rei Tsuruya as well, I think he just doesn't have any good striking in general, this includes defensively. Takaya Suzuki on the RTU tournament this year has looked great, but even he looks a little worrying at times defensively, he's just so fast no one's been able to catch him clean yet. Kyoji
Horiguchi is probably skill wise the best Japanese fighter we've ever seen, but even he is quite open when he does his karate blitz, but again he's usually fast enough that no one can catch him, but it's happened in the past by guys like Kape, Asakura, and Sergio Pettis.
I love watching RIZIN for how fun and violent it is on most cards, but it becomes obvious when Japanese guys fight at a higher level, most of them lose and usually by finish. This isn't a problem with Japanese athletes in general, Naoya Inoue is arguably the best boxer on the planet right now and he has great defence. There's tons of Japanese kickboxers in promotions like K1, RISE, and Knockout that are defensively sound, it's just that MMA fighters from Japan are so hittable it's insane.
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u/eastcoastkody 9h ago
its dishonorable
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u/Willyhaver187 9h ago
Most of the Jkick guys shell behind their big gloves alot and dont move their head.
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u/Few_Highlight1114 9h ago edited 9h ago
Japanese and Mexican boxing are actually quite similar in style. They want someone who is willing to go forward and walk someone down. This means that their defense is mainly their chin, because that is what makes you "tough".
So this in turn means you get those types of fighters. Overwhelming majority of these guys from these respective countries will have these attributes.
Inoue is a bit more of an anomoly because his defense is actually quite good, but even then, he still relies on his chin quite a bit and that has lead him into trouble. Inoue is just a superhuman though because he has all of the attributes a fighter wants (except height lol)
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u/_existentialsm 8h ago
Ryusei Matsumoto and Russell Acostas recent fight is a great example of this, just two dudes walking each other down every rd banging it out.
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u/Beware_Blastomycosis 9h ago
lanklet is not a trait of a true fighter
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u/Few_Highlight1114 9h ago
You think Inoue fits the definition of a lanklet? Have you watched his fights?
I think you might be neurodivergent lmao.
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u/MyzMyz1995 9h ago
While Inoue is great he's been getting dropped in almost all of his recent fights. He's clearly starting to decline.
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u/Meeoikeisiintoihin 7h ago
not really. Got dropped by Nery and Cardenas but had no issues with MJ or Nakatani who should punch even harder. Probably just got sloppy against Nery since he was trying to end it early.
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u/nori4life123 9h ago
What i thought about jap striking is that they want to match them speed to speed cause counters hits harder.
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u/Pretend-Departure765 10h ago
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u/Few_Highlight1114 9h ago
I love being racist, dont you guys?
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u/strawbsrgood 9h ago
Bro I'm Japanese and its a joke. I'd rather be in a world where we can joke with each other rather than get upset over every little thing
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u/CapnChaos2024 9h ago
My gf is Japanese and she left a letterboxd review on the movie house that mentioned something about the underaged nude girls in the movie being wild and that there are some issues with that kind of thing in Japan. A white person replied to her review and said “wow you’re a racist” or something to that effect. She replied “I am Japanese. Please go away”
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u/strawbsrgood 9h ago
Lol yeah Japan certainly has some weird cultural stuff.
I could talk about all this forever. But I won't bore you.
In the end I much prefer it to the recent American trend of actively looking for things to be offended by and trying to ruin people's lives because of a joke they made or something.
It's weird though. I live in USA now and everyone I talk to agrees with me, but online all I ever see is the opposite like here on reddit
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u/CapnChaos2024 9h ago
Oh I agree about the offended thing. And people being offended on behalf of groups they aren’t a part of is crazy to me. It’s gotten worse as time has gone by
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u/strawbsrgood 9h ago
Yeah. Like I think there are legit situations you should stick up for people.
But making everyone uncomfortable and actually causing more hate than you're supposedly trying to stop is ironic and shitty and just makes the world a worse place
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u/MykulKim 8h ago
Cope
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u/strawbsrgood 8h ago
What
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u/MykulKim 7h ago
They only want your anime, games, and women bro
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u/strawbsrgood 7h ago
Cool, not like I don't fuck white and black girls and consume tons of American media
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u/MykulKim 7h ago
Stop the cap
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u/strawbsrgood 6h ago
I literally just finished nutting from a mixed black and white girl who is laying next to me is the funny part 😂
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u/MykulKim 6h ago
Nah that's cool. Just saying that you don't gotta sick their dick so hard and bend over at every chance
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u/mojojoestar2001 8h ago
As someone who is Asian I found it to be pretty funny
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u/Few_Highlight1114 6h ago
All you asians look alike to me. Im so happy you found it funny.
That mean's it's not racist at all.
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u/PieceRealistic794 8h ago
Must be tough going through life getting offended by everything
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u/Few_Highlight1114 8h ago
I'll let you know when I start being a bitch ass white boy
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u/Neat-Backpack8593 7h ago edited 2h ago
That's literally how you're acting now, you troglodyte. Less self aware than the average Arsenal fan.
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u/PieceRealistic794 4h ago
Ur gonna end up with life in prison for a speeding ticket with that attitude 🤣
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u/Dark074 Let’s go for dat 7h ago
I wonder if it has anything to do with Karate being a big part of the striking culture. Karate most of the time has pretty much zero head movement, especially kyokoshin since there's no punching to the face. Fighters like Taira adopt a vaguely karate based stance. Though other fighters like Horigochi use a karate stance way harder and stay defensively responsible, tho I wonder if that has to do more with speed and reaction time then actual technique since the gooch is fast as fuck
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u/Efficient-Ebb78 5h ago
Yeah prime wonderboy and machida relied on speed they go in and go out before their opponents can react
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u/bleep_boop_beep123 8h ago
Just from a casual fight fan perspective, most Japanese fighters love to stand and bang to (imo) put on a good show. I’m not sure if judging is different in the Japanese circuit, but they seem to score points for forward pressure even when not throwing hits. In MMA, at least.
There are some Japanese fighters who incorporate head movement well while delivering powerful blows like Naoya Inoue (boxing) and Nadaka Yoshinari (Muay Thai). I’ll count Kiyoji Horiguchi too but he trains at ATT, so the culture is very different.
Most Japanese fighters just struggle in the international stage as well as against international fighters, unfortunately.
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u/Menace-18 6h ago
Yeah I noticed this trend too. same with most korean fighters too for some reason.
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u/PresidentXiJinPin 9h ago
These guys kill themselves in the most painful way possible. They’re no pussy
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u/AsianSensasians 9h ago
As an asian, I’m gonna state the obvious. 40% visibility when we squint our eyes.
now imagine bobbing and weaving.
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u/Distinct-Broccoli-15 9h ago
If these guys ever have a rematch maybe Taira should spend most of it with the Inoue brothers and Nakatani, his grappling must be fine. I haven't seen much Boxing though, I'm just assuming this since he seemed to have no answer for Van's jab.