No doubt that fighting in the UFC keeps you at an elite level if you are indeed an elite fighter to begin with. Other than that, the UFC style of matchmaking truly seperates the men from the boys.

I think saying that Gomi will never be #1 in the world again is harsh. Do I think BJ would beat him? Yes. Do I think guy like Alvarez, Florian, Hansen, and Sherk would have a good chance to take down the Fireball Kid? Yes. But as we’ve seen time and time again, top fighters routinely fall off the horse only to get back on and become stronger then ever. I’m not entirely sure what Gomi’s contract is with WVR but what if, when it’s up, Gomi jumps over to the UFC or DREAM. All he would need is a one or two wins against top opponents for people to start claiming he’s the top guy again.

My main argument here is that people need to stop writing guys off after they have one or two uninspired performances. Yes, the true top P4P kings like Silva, GSP, Fedor, and Penn have literally dismantle top competition time and time again but I’m sure someone will come along and take one of them out on a bad night eventually. I personally don’t see Gomi regaining his top status but anything can happen in this sport.

I think thats an overly pessimistic assessment. Gomi vs. Pang ended up being a pretty great fight, to me the story of the fight was Gomi’s experience helping him take over the later rounds, he was more deliberate about picking his spots than the “old” Gomi, but he still managed to keep Pang at a distance for most of the fight and score points. And as for the tourney, they have four decent Japanese fighters in the semis. How can WVR complain about that?

Gomi didn’t look spectacular last night but I do think it’s a bit premature to say he’ll never matter again. He’s still a relatively young dude who just seems bored with the competition he’s facing, even if it’s by design.

He needs a big fight to get him revved up. He didn’t even know he was facing the winner of the GP.

“Seeing the belt for the first time yesterday, I found out that if I won I would fight against the winner of the tournament," Gomi commented. "So I realized that it was a fight I couldn’t lose. It was a source of motivation. Until now I was wondering how the tournament worked.”

Overall, I was pretty underwhelmed by Schultz and Damm. Schultz sat back when I thought he should be pushing the pace. Even his corner was screaming at him to go for it. He seemed hesitant at times and late on the trigger. Damm was swinging like he was in a highschool fight. He had his chin forward, his hands low as he pressed forwards. Before I could think to myself that it would only be a matter of time before he got hit with a good shot, he did, and he went down.

I have been thinking this About Gomi ever sence he signed with WVR. I just can’t SEE WVR brining in any top 10 or even top 15 LW’s for him to fight in near future Dream will not co-promote with them.Like is or not Gmoi is going to be stuck fighting who ever WVR can bring in. And so far sure 2 tuff good LW’s but not not top10 buy any stretch and thatsthe type of fighters that Gomi needs to be fighting, Looking back on it Gomi’s managment should of took the offers they got from bolth Dreams and the UFC instead of taking the little bit of extra $$$. Fighting in WVR againt the type of fighters he is fighting agaisnt could cost him $$$ and popularity down the road !!!!

Schultz “fought stupid and got himself KO’ed”??

Wow, give me a goddamn break. That’s so disrespectful to both Schultz and Hirota, who fought a good, exciting and technically solid fight.

I don’t think Gomi will “matter” that much in the US, without TV exposure. Even if he was fighting lower level competition, that exposure is a lot of what builds the popularity of fighters.

There is no doubt Gomi is a top level LW, but fighting guys that are unfamiliar to most US fans and not having dominating wins on TV, will certainly effect many fans opinions of him.

This is another big draw of the UFC, imo. They are consistently putting on shows, have a very high profile, have tons of media exposure and do a good job of promoting their fighters. Whether or not a person is a UFC fan, there is no question that they have a great platform for fighters to display themselves.

Come on man its not like you make it out to be at all the UFC is on TV in japan and MMA in a cage in Japan does pretty good ever heard of cage Force ? Alot of good fighters fight there and a few are in the UFC right now, Sure the fans would rather have there fighters fight at home but alot of fans in Japan actually want to see there fighters go to the U.S and succeed in the UFC.Almost Every top fighter in Japan was expressed interest in coming to the UFC. We are seeing it now with the lighter weights in Japan with some of the top fighters in Shooto and Deep coming over to fight in the WEC.

I was going to give him damages by not punching but kicking. I was almost down in the beginning of 2R because of kicking a lot in 1R. My opponent didn’t tackle me and aimed the counter punches. I saw a belt last night and I strongly felt that I didn’t want to lose. I personally wanted him to be more aggressive as a champion of DEEP. I think great performances by other lightweight fighters contributed SENGOKU to get more attention. I wish I could have an exciting fight yesterday. Don’t worry, I will definitely get a belt. I want my next fight in Nov and have a title match next year.

Sweet!