The 5 best MMA fighters from Asia

#2 Takanori Gomi

At his peak, Takanori Gomi ruled the Lightweight division

Although the ‘Fireball Kid’ has looked atrocious in his recent UFC outings – losing five in a row – at his peak, nobody could deny his greatness. Rewind just over a decade – to the end of 2005, to be exact – and Takanori Gomi ruled over the 155lbs division with an iron fist.

This was a time when the UFC had no Lightweights and so the top fighters of the division were housed by PRIDE – the likes of Joachim Hansen, Jens Pulver, Hayato Sakurai and Yves Edwards – and Gomi stood head and shoulders above them.

He’d debuted in PRIDE in 2004 and immediately stood out, knocking out Ralph Gracie with a flurry of knees in just seconds, and by the time the promotion decided to focus their Bushido series on the lighter weight classes, Gomi had become the poster-boy. A tournament was set up in 2005 to decide the first PRIDE Lightweight champion and it was no surprise when Gomi came out on top, beating Kawajiri, Luiz Azeredo and finally Sakurai to win the belt.

As PRIDE shut its doors in 2007, Gomi had just regained his top spot by thrashing Mitsuhiro Ishida. A run in the new Sengoku promotion wasn’t as great though, as he lost in upsets to Satoru Kitaoka and Sergei Golyaev.

After getting back on the winning track he made his UFC debut in 2010 and immediately mixed it with top-level Lightweights like Kenny Florian, Tyson Griffin and Clay Guida. And while his run in the Octagon ended badly – with a record of 4 wins and 9 losses – he’ll always be remembered as the kingpin of the division in the mid-2000’s.