The 5 best MMA fighters from Asia

#4 Kid Yamamoto

In his prime, Kid Yamamoto was a pound-for-pound great

For a period of time – around 2004-5 – many people considered Norifumi ‘Kid’ Yamamoto to be the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in all of MMA. A natural 135lbs, Kid was fighting at that point in Shooto and K-1 Hero’s, and was defeating men like Caol Uno, Royler Gracie and Genki Sudo – all at 155lbs, and usually with vicious knockouts. An Olympic-level wrestler, it was with his concrete fists – and bad attitude – that Kid made his name.

A brief excursion back to wrestling – Kid tried and failed to make the 2008 Japanese Olympic team due to a dislocated elbow – he returned to MMA in 2007 and picked up where he left off by defeating future top ten Bantamweight Bibiano Fernandes.

Before he could make his debut with the new DREAM promotion, however, disaster struck. A torn ACL sidelined him until 2009 and when he returned, he was never the same fighter, losing to the likes of Joe Warren and Masanori Kanehara.

A long-awaited UFC debut finally came in 2011, but as of this writing, Yamamoto is without a win in the Octagon in four attempts. He now hasn’t fought since February 2015 and, at the age of 40, is likely retired. In his prime, however, he was a genuinely scary talent and had the lighter divisions had the same kind of spotlight they do today, he’d probably be far more respected worldwide.