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UFC 144 in Japan: Winners and losers
ErinT
Roar Guru
26th February, 2012
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Mark Hunt will be in action at UFC 193.
ErinT
Roar Guru
26th February, 2012
4
4431 Reads

The UFC returned to Japan with UFC 144, a highly anticipated event with a stacked card that didn’t fail to live up to it’s hype.

The event, held at the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo marked a milestone in the Zuffa chapter of the UFC and asserted the promotion’s focus on growing the competition outside of the United States.

For a card that was stacked, the entertainment was plentiful and a great representation of the sport as fighters continuously laid it out on the line, at times showing the warrior spirit by running on pure heart.

While many fights were fight of the night contenders, Benson Henderson and Frankie Edgar were awarded the honours with their five round tussle which saw Henderson overcome the lightweight champion to take the belt for himself.

For the others, it’s climbing up or falling down the ladder to title contention and the winners and losers of the UFC 144 Japan card are listed below.

Winners

Mark Hunt
Hunt
’s knockout win over fellow heavyweight competitor Cheick Kongo (17-7-2) in round 1 has certainly raised his profile in the stacked heavyweight ranks and has ensured the New Zealand/Australian based fighter lives to fight another day.


Hunt (8-7) continuously overcomes the odds with his comeback, starting with his win over Chris Tuchscherer at UFC 127 a year ago (Feb 2011), the last fight remaining on his contract when he was brought over from Pride.

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For Hunt, he should be mixing with heavyweight fighters such as Stefan Struve (23-5), Brendan Schaub (8-2) or even fan-favourite Roy Nelson (16-7) through this year.


Riki Fukuda

Fukuda (18-5) went into this bout not only off a loss a year ago at UFC 127 against canadian Nick Ring (12-1), but also off an injury to the knee that was sustained in a car accident July 2011.

Without fail, Fukuda spent the entire 15 minutes dominating the American Steve Cantwell (7-6) to a unanimous decision victory.

His octagon control and aggressiveness certainly painted a different fighter than what we saw at UFC 127 and we may see Fukuda in the new breed of Asian fighters gaining success in the Octagon.

Ryan Bader
Light-heavyweight Bader (14-2) certainly overcame the odds to beat the Pride and UFC veteran Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (32-10) in front of a crowd that was expecting the Rampage of old.

While the fight didn’t start as planned, with Rampage weighing in six pounds overweight, Bader certainly proved that he had the skills to mix with the best, gaining more confidence since his back to back submission losses in 2011 against champ Jon Jones (15-1) and Tito Ortiz (16-10-1).

2012 should see Bader continuously sitting on the rim of the top tier light-heavyweight fighters and should see bouts with the likes of Lyoto Machida (17-3).

Mizuka Koike
While the UFC invested in getting a local Octagon girl in Miss Japan 2008 finalist Azusa Nishigaki, it was Japanese translator Mizuka Koike who stole the show.

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In an environment where many translators have come and gone, Koike was without fault the entire night, translating quick and efficiently to the crowd all the while holding a now famous MMA meme in a rainbow fluffy pen and becoming the talk amongst MMA fans on twitter.

For Koike, her fanbase has certainly increased in a matter of hours and we hope she becomes a regular whenever the UFC returns to Japan.

Losers

Eiji Mitsuoka
It’s incredible what a wrong decision can lead to, and in this case it’s to defeat. Eiji Mitsuoka (18-8-2) had knocked down fellow Japanese MMA star Takanori Gomi (33-8 (1 NC)) with a right hand and instead of going in with heavy hands aiming for a TKO, decided to try for a submission.

This decision ultimately led to Gomi riding out the triangle choke until the sound of the opening round and into round 2 where Gomi came back with a TKO win at 32 seconds.

Mitsuoka should live to fight another day, as the UFC does tend to extend generosity to those who take fights at short notice for other injured fighters and we may see him as a feature on the next Japan card.

Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto
Kid Yamamoto (18-6 (1 NC)) unfortunately looks at his third loss in a row handed to him by Englishman Vaughan Lee (12-7-1) in an armbar submission 31 seconds from the end of the first round.

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While Yamamoto looked to be controlling the fight up until the last minute, he may not live to see another day in the promotion, given that we have seen other fighters let go for a lot less.

Steve Cantwell
Cantwell is another that may be looking for another activity to pass the time, experiencing his fifth straight loss in the six UFC fights he has been in.

The ex-WEC Light Heavyweight champion certainly has struggled with the transition into the larger promotion, however has yet to be finished, as all losses have come from decision.

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