Yushin Okami

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1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 UFC Career
4 Mixed martial arts record
5 Gallery
6 External links

Profile

Yushin "Thunder" Okami (born July 21, 1981) is a Japanese professional mixed martial artist who fights out of Wajyutsu Keisyukai Tokyo.

He stands 6 ft. 2 in. (188 cm) tall and fights in the middleweight division. He is a veteran of the PRIDE Fighting Championships and currently fights as a middleweight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Early Career

Yushin Okami made his professional mixed martial arts debut on September 8, 2002 against Kyosuke Sasaki as a part of the GCM - Demolition card. He defeated Sasaki via unanimous decision after two rounds.

Okami made his debut for the PRIDE organization at the PRIDE: The Best Vol. 3 card in his next bout. He defeated American Steve White via submission due to strikes at 3.25 of round 2.

Okami suffered his first professional defeat at the hands of Armenian MMA veteran, Amar Suloev at an M-1 event in October of 2003. He suffered a TKO stoppage at the hands of Suloev, 4.44 into round 1.

Early in 2004, Okami returned to the PRIDE ring, at PRIDE: Bushido 2 against fellow Japanese fighter, Ryuta Sakurai. Okami out positioned Sakurai on the way to a unanimous decision victory.

In his bout, he suffered his second professional defeat when he was on the losing side of a split decision to UFC vet, Falaniko Vitale.

After racking up five straight victories after the Vitale fight (including a victory over Nick Thompson) Okami entered an 8 man tournament for the Rumble on the Rock promotion which was held at a catchweight of 177 lbs.

The star studded tournament line-up featured, Anderson Silva, Jake Shields, Carlos Condit, Frank Trigg, Renato Verissimo, Dave Menne and Ronald Jhun.

Okami faced Anderson Silva in the first round and was ruled to be the victor after Silva landed a crushing kick from his back that left Okami dazed. Okami was unable to continue and the kick was ruled illegal, meaning Okami was declared the winner.

Three months later Okami faced off against Jake Shields in the semi finals. Shields outwrestled Okami on the way to a unanimous decision victory.

UFC Career

After scoring two more victories in a two month span after the Rumble on the Rock tournament, Okami recieved a call up to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Okami made his debut at UFC 62 against Alan Belcher. Okami controlled position for the duration of the bout, eventually scoring a one-sided decision win.

At UFC 64, Okami returned to face TUF 3 veteran, Kalib Starnes. Okami's size and strength proved too much for Starnes as Okami broke the Canadian's will in the third round as he TKO'd Starnes.

Another TUF 3 veteran was lined up Okami at UFC 66 in the form of Rory Singer. Much like the Starnes fight, Okami overwhelmed Singer in the third round as the TUF 3 vet tapped to strikes.

A step up in competition was granted to Okami at UFC 69 as he faced a confident Mike Swick who was sporting a dominating five fight win streak in the UFC. Okami's size eventually proved to be an overwhelming factor in the fight even though Swick almost turned the fight on its head in the second round as he unloaded on Okami with a fast and furious combination. It all proved for nought however as Okami scored the unanimous decision victory.

The toughest test of Okami's career to date came at UFC 72 when he replaced the injured Martin Kampmann as the headline fight against former UFC middleweight champion, Rich Franklin. Okami offered little to no attack in the opening two rounds, with Franklin outpointing Okami on the feet. In the third round Okami sprung to life and nearly finished the former champ with a kimura. Franklin escaped and scored the unanimous decision victory.

At UFC 77 Okami bounced back from the loss to Franklin with a one-sided decision win over Jason MacDonald.

In early 2008, at UFC 82, Okami faced another former middleweight champion in the late, great Evan Tanner who was returning to mixed martial arts competition after almost a two year layoff. The task proved to be too tough for the returning champion as Okami scored a KO victory in the second round to move one step closer to the belt.

Okami was in line to recieve a title shot against champion, Anderson Silva, at UFC 90 but sustained a hand injury in practice and the fight was given to Patrick Cote instead.

Okami will be given a chance to retrieve hit title shot at UFC 92 when he faces BJJ wizard, Dean Lister.