One of the most dominant and aggressive finishers in mma Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto will make his debut with Strikeforce on May 15 at St. Louis. This comes at a crucial point in Kid's career after losing back two back matches since coming back from a injury he sustained during his quest representing Japan for the Beijing Olympics at the Japanese Olympic wrestling qualifiers.Yamamoto (17-3) once ranked among the best in their weight classes. World Extreme's Cagefighting former champion Urijah Faber, went so far as to call out Kid a few years ago in an attempt to get a match up with the man considered the no.1 featherweight at that time. But last year produced setbacks to Yamamoto whom was returning to MMA after not fighting at all in 2008. Came out of the wrong end of the judges score cards in a shocking defeat to newcomer Joe Warren in May Dream's featherweight grand prix quarterfinal, followed by another decision lost to Masanori Kanehara on New Year's Eve DYNAMITE! event.
Blessed with speed and power the 5'4 decorated japanese fighter was at one point on a 14 fight win streak dating back to his first loss of his career in 2002. He has quite a impressive resume with victories over top ranked fighter's; Caol Uno, Royler Gracie, and Bibiano Fernandez. He has also fought Genki Sudo in 2005 and won by TKO to capture K-1 HEROS Middleweight Grand Prix title. He also has the fastest knockout in K-1 history back in 2006 against Kazuyuki Miyata. As soon as the bell rang he came right after kazuyuki and delievered a devestating flying knee, 4 seconds young into the match. One of the most impressive KO in mma history and also one of the popular KO searched on Youtube.
Kid has also has a professional kickboxing record of 1-3, not as impressive as his MMA stats but it shows how versatile the KILLERBEE/PUREBRED product is. He fought one of the respected Japanese Kickboxer Masato at '04 on K-1 Premium Dynamite! Masato has a 5 inch height advantage to Kid's frame however Yamamoto wasn't afraid to stand up and trade punches. At one point he caught Masato with a beautiful left hook to the face of Masato, and had his legs buckle and dropped, Kid followed with a vicious uppercut while Masato was on the ground, Silverwolf managed to escape the attack and won the match via decision. Like most prominent fighter's Yamamoto isn't afraid to take on challenges whether it's going up against larger opponents. His natural weight is 143 lbs though most mixed martial artist his size usually compete's in Bantamweight (135 lbs), many of his most significant fights have been at lightweight (155 lbs).
He has been dealing with a lot of personal problems last year, with the divorce of his wife Japanese model Malia of 5 years whom has supported and been with him throughout his career couldn't find a balance between both of their busy schedule. She has gone on and stated that she has kept her end of the bargain by supporting their three kids, and yet he hasn't found time to put in effort to do his part. Rumours have swirl that reason for the break up was because of Yamamoto's decision to move to the United States inwhich Malia refuse too because her family and friends are here (Japan). He has gone on and said that he has hope to reconcile with Malia in the future and feels he strongly loves her.
So this is a perfect situation for Kid, a new surrounding a new breed of team to help him prepare for his Strikeforce debut against Federico Lopez (4-2). I have been a huge fan of his not because of his flamboyant status but because of his versatility in his game. Fuelled with different arsenals he has proven in the past he is one of those fighter's you just don't look passed on. Sure he is at the peaked of 33 years old but remember he is a experience fighter, and wouldn't want nothing more that to stake his claim as one of the best featherweight fighter's of all time. I consider him as one of my idols in my game and one of the purest fighter's out there. You may not have heard of him but you will come MAY 15.
FREDERICO LOPEZ I HOPE YOUR READY.....MY BOY WILL FUCK YOU UP....
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