Japanese MMA needed this one. The nation many considered the equal to Brazil and the U.S. at one time, has fallen on hard times. The stars of Japan - Norifumi Yamamoto, Hayato Sakurai, Shinya Aoki, Kazushi Sakuraba and Takanori Gomi - got old, lazy or exposed over the last few years. Tatsuya Kawajiri gained back a small measure of that lost respect by taking out former Strikeforce lightweight champ Josh Thomson. He did it pretty easily via unanimous decision at Dynamite!! 2010 in Saitama, Japan.
Sure he was representing his country, but Kawajiri (27-6-2) individually needed the win badly as well.
He was coming off an odd performance against Aoki back in July, where the submission ace took him apart on the ground. Kawajiri refused to tap to a heel hook and was badly injured. That was the same Aoki, who looked terrible just a few months earlier against current Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez. Yes, the same Melendez who split two wars against Thomson.
It should've been an easy win for Thomson this morning, right? That's not the way it works in MMA. Styles makes fights and Kawajiri's strong wrestling made it difficult for Thomson to get his standup and dynamic kicking game going.
Kawajiri didn't do anything fancy to get Thomson (18-4) to the ground. In fact, his powerful work out of the clinch was very American-like. Once on the ground, Thomson never threatened a submission and had to constantly work to keep Kawajiri from improving his position. The Japanese star scored the mount in each round and threatened with an arm-triangle submission in the first and third rounds.
This may serve as a wake-up call for Thomson, who recently suggested that he was getting a little bored with the sport and there was a lack of challenges at lightweight.
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