Will Strikeforce's Japanese Gambit Succeed?

Let's face it, there's not too much intrigue around tonight's Strikeforce at the Playboy Mansion card. First off, lightweight champ Josh Thomson is fighting a non-title fight against relative unknown Ashe Bowman. Secondly, both Babalu Sobral and Bobby Southworth dropped out of their match due to injuries.Thirdly, UFC also rans like Joe Riggs, Trevor Prangley and Terry Martin aren't exactly setting the world on fire these days.

But in true Strikeforce creeper fashion, there is something VERY interesting happening on tonight's card. Two A-List Japanese fighters are making their their return to the U.S. Sengoku middleweight star Kazuo Misaki and DREAM lightweight contender Mitsuhiro Ishida.

Dave Meltzer gives a great bio of Misaki:

...Misaki, who brings a 20-8-2 record into his second fight on U.S. soil after a loss last year to Frank Trigg on PRIDE’s second event in Las Vegas. ...

Misaki’s original claim to fame was beating Phil Baroni and Dan Henderson via decision in 2006 to go into the final four of the PRIDE Grand Prix tournament. But his run appeared over when he submitted to an armbar by current World Extreme Cagefighting middleweight champ Paulo Filho in the semifinals of a four-man, one-night final. But when Filho couldn’t continue with a knee injury, Misaki found himself in the final, where he won a split decision over Denis Kang.

Misaki is a well-rounded fighter who prefers to stand up, and makes good use of kicks mixed in with punches. It was mixing up his stand-up attack, along with his quickness standing, that saw him outstrike both Baroni and Henderson.

But his biggest fight was this past New Year’s Eve, when he apparently knocked off the most hated fighter in Japan, Yoshihiro Akiyama of South Korea.

Strikeforce is typically for them, unusually for an MMA promoter, thinking long term. Giving Misaki exposure against a tough, but non-contender in Joe Riggs and hopefully building him for a title fight with Cung Le in 2009.  Riggs is tough but also has the kind of rotten luck that should allow the uneven Misaki to beat him. Misaki's cryptonite is good wresters like Frank Trigg who know better than to stand with him and instead ground him and pound him. I doubt Riggs will do that.

The other Japanese thoroughbred import is lightweight Mitsuhiro Ishida. He's interesting to me because he's one of the only top Japanese fighters rely solely on excellent wrestling. He's not a lay and pray guy, more of a busy bee than that but he still wins almost all of his fights by decision. His biggest win was beating former Strikeforce champ Gilbert Melendez late last year.

I'll be very interested to see how Ishida fares against a good American wrestler in Justin Wilcox -- a college wrestling teammate of Josh Koscheck and fellow AKA product. If Ishida can dominate position over Wilcox -- something that won't surprise me as the AKA guys (Fitch, Koscheck) tend to underemphasize the sprawl in their MMA efforts -- then that sets up a very interesting Thomson vs Ishida title fight.

Strikeforce is quietly attempting something the UFC hasn't even pulled off -- importing top notch Japanese talent to the states. Here's hoping it works out.

I'm putting a bunch of Misaki and Ishida fights in the full entry.

Kazuo Misaki vs Paulo Filho, part 1

Misaki vs Filho, part 2

Mitsuhiro Ishida vs Takanori Gomi

Mitsuhiro Ishida vs Caol Uno, part 1

Mitsuhiro Ishida vs Caol Uno, part 2