Jack Skellington - I want to be.
But after being disapointed over & over again by Japanese fighters in the UFC, I'm too scared to get excited.
This guy gets it 
Lamonte Coleman - best fw in the world.
this guy gets it
+10
Jack Skellington - I want to be.
But after being disapointed over & over again by Japanese fighters in the UFC, I'm too scared to get excited.
me2!
J-Tee -Magnum TA - He also might get drilled like the rest of them have.
wat do u mean by "them?"
Legit lol
Easytarget - I trained at the same Gym as him for a while, not with him, just in the same classes.
He has great BJJ and has had for a long long time. I hope he wins, he is a nice guy.
tell us more!
In answer to the OP's question, FUCK YES!
His debut has all the making of another JMMA bust. George "The Spoiler" Roop FTW.
Dennis Schurg - I'm not really excited at all. I've bought the hype for so many JMMA stars only to see them ultimately fail, it's just not worth it. Hioki is skilled, but in all honesty he had some trouble with Omigawa, and look how Omigawa's doing. I'm not one to buy into MMAth, I'm just saying if he hit a roadblock with Omigawa, I don't think he's going to take out Aldo, Florian, Brown, Griffin, or even Gamburyan or Garcia.
I hope he does well, but I'm expecting Roop to beat on him for three rounds.
As much as I hate to say it, I think I agree....let's hope I'm wrong, been let down too many times before with the Japanese guys out of the their comfort zone
Ya I've learned to not get to hype about fighters coming over from somewhere else being coined as monsters or such.....more often than not I'm dissapointed in the outcome
Is it me or is the BW and FW divisions of the UFC on an incline for hype and excitement as opposed to the LHW and HW divisions?
Whoa, Lamonte, you had everything going until falling on the UG carried away boat. ;p
Hioko beat Sandro, he didnt exactly steamroll him and i find it hard to bet on anyone vs Aldo except for the possibility of Mendes wrestlefucking him. The Curran win also takes a bit away from Hioki's achievement of beating Sandro imo (though Sandro was winning, he still got KTFO where Hioki dec'd him).
But for the life of me, people still cant seem to do a lazy sherdog record check on all the "hyped" jap fighters coming in.
Gomi and Kid looked less than stellar to like shit before coming to the UFC.
Akiyama was still in his prime imo but wasnt unbeatable as the Misaki fight showed, same with Santiago who got KOed (though avenged) and had to comeback to beat Misaki and Nakamura (though he still won).
Kang is the perfect example. Aside from the fact that he's never been the same since his fiance passed away, he gets KTFO by Akiyama and tapped by Moussasi prior to the UFC and people explode with "he got exposed in the UFC!" when he lost there like he was riding a 15 fight win streak coming in. Kang actually showed his talent imo when he was absolutely schooling Belcher and also beating Bisping early on.
Uno when he came in the 2nd time was middle of the road even in Japan but was the #1 guy coming in the first time and had a very competitive fight with the eventual #1 LW in Jens.
Sakurai had already lost to Anderson and had a car accident before Hughes. Great win for Hughes still.
Gomi and Kid though, you'd think were also on 15 fight win streaks coming in by the shock of everyone seeing them underperform (though Gomi has absolutely looked like dog shit in the UFC).
With Hioki, he is in his prime, like Lamonte said, has fought in the cage though long time ago so smartly said he'd like more time to prepare for it and has apparently been training with Kenny and Tristar in N.America.
Aoki was also in his prime when he fought Gil but Gil is the #2 LW right now and could end up being #1.
Hioki did beat Omigawa though Omi still tagged him with some good shots. The style matchup between Hioki and Mendes against Omi is quite diff though. Omi nearly had Mendes with an amrbar as well.
Anyhow, I think after rewatching Hioki vs Omigawa, though i think his striking has improved yet since then, its tough to see him beating Aldo with Aldo being faster/deadlier than Omi on the feet and even if Hioki gets Aldo down, tough to see Aldo getting tapped so easily though Hioki apparently dominated Baret Yoshida on the ground and Baret is one of the best in grappling though in MMA, not so.
I think Roop is a good first fight for him. Roop and Hioki are about the same height so should be interesting to see their striking battle but Hioki should have a big ad on the ground.
Hopefully, we'll see a patented Hioki mounted triangle in the octagon.
Wasa-B, another great post, another vtfu
ttt!
Lamonte Coleman - Hioki is actually in his prime, has fought five 5 minute rounds before, fought in a cage before, fought in north america before and dominated former number 1 contender hominick twice, much easier then aldo did. This is a real test. Hioki is going to steam roll aldo just like his team mate sandro. People will be shocked. Evil yoshida will cry with tears of joy.
He has never fought in the UFC period.
Not one Japanese fighter has performed well for even the short term in the ZUFFA era.
"Hioki is the best wrestler at 145."
Ban
Lamonte Coleman -LOL @ telling me I never watched that fight. It was very close, but not a robbery. Omigawa tagged him quite a few times, but I do agree that Hioki won. Phan isn't doing well, really, he's 1-2 in the UFC, two fights against Garcia.GelderdEnd -Dennis Schurg - I'm not really excited at all. I've bought the hype for so many JMMA stars only to see them ultimately fail, it's just not worth it. Hioki is skilled, but in all honesty he had some trouble with Omigawa, and look how Omigawa's doing. I'm not one to buy into MMAth, I'm just saying if he hit a roadblock with Omigawa, I don't think he's going to take out Aldo, Florian, Brown, Griffin, or even Gamburyan or Garcia.As much as I hate to say it, I think I agree....let's hope I'm wrong, been let down too many times before with the Japanese guys out of the their comfort zone
I hope he does well, but I'm expecting Roop to beat on him for three rounds.<br type="_moz" />
He only hit a roadblock with omigawa because you never watched the fight. Hioki clearly won the fight, omigawa even got on the mic after the fight and said hioki won. He also clearly lost to sandro as well. Hows nam phan doing in the ufc? Omigawa banged him out with the peekaboo quickness.
lets also take a look at omigawas fights in the ufc at fw. Loss to elkins in a decision he clearly won and a decision lost against mendes who is probably the number 2 or 1 guy in the division.
Akiyama came over after getting knocked out by misaki.
gomi came over after a minute loss to kitaoka and a terrible outing against hervey.
santiago got knocked out with a hammer fist in the guard of his opponent before coming over.
kang was submitted by mousasi and kod by akiyama before coming over.
uno was dominated by aoki before coming back to the ufc.
DONT buy the ufc hype machine telling you these guys are killing everyone in japan before coming over. Mixed results in japan and you think coming state side with the same mixed results means something about the state of japanese mma? Dont be naive.
You can say Omigawa clearly won all you want, I agree he won too. However, two judges didn't think so. He should not have had such a close fight with Elkins, at all.
Akiyama did get KO'd, illegally. Up until then, it was pretty fucking even. He also came to the UFC after compiling a 12-1 record, bud, don't be so biased. He did well in Japan and then went 1-3 in the UFC with the one win being very close.
Gomi just can't hang at all these days, he definitely wasn't/isn't in his prime, I'll give you that.
Santiago also rematched Mamed and beat him, not to mention all the other success, the wars with Misaki. He was the champion of the #2 JMMA organization and is 0-2 in the UFC.
Kang has always had trouble, it doesn't change the fact that he got finished twice and dropped from the UFC.
Caol Uno had a great K-1 heros run and submitted Ishida, then went 0-3-1 in the UFC.
Let me put it this way, I know those guys aren't the cream of the crop, but who is?
I'll tell you this, just about every JMMA fighter gets crushed in the US. It's a fact.
What happened to Sandro and Blanco in their last fights? Fedor? How did Aoki, Ishida, and Kawajiri do against Melendez? Mousasi wins DREAM tournaments and belts, can't even beat Keith Jardine. King Mo? Jacare? JZ? Shaolin? Kid Yamamoto?
Who are the magical JMMA powerhouses who haven't already came and lost in the US? Please, do enlighten me.
I love JMMA, I stayed up until 7 and 8 AM EST to watch plenty DREAM and Sengoku events. I sport my Saku shirt proudly. I would choose live DREAM over live UFC/StrikeForce/Bellator any day. That said, I'm not delusional. I am intelligent enough to realize that when I'm enjoying watching guys like Blanco or Kid Hercules tear it up, I know they couldn't hang in the US.
tonight's the night!!