With one punch, Takanori Gomi's career looking bright
In the world of mixed martial arts, you’re often only as good as your last fight. Fans will often forget your entire career if you won or lost your last fight in dominating fashion and pick solely on that. Betters who were willing to back a fighter as a heavy favourite will suddenly swing against him if he didn’t look good in his last fight.
Such was the case with Japanese lightweight superstar Takanori Gomi after his defeat in his Ultimate Fighting Championships debut at UFC Fight Night 21 back in March. Gomi faced off against the second best lightweight in the UFC, Kenny Florian, and simply put, he didn’t look good. Florian controlled the fight and outboxed Gomi for three rounds, battering the Japanese fighter with a sharp jab and eventually taking him down, working to his back and choking him out.
After such a performance, Gomi was all but written off by fans and pundits alike. Gomi, once considered the best 155lb fighter in the world, was seen as having had his best days long behind him, over the hill at the ripe old age of 31. When the UFC initially chose Joe Stevenson as his opponent, and then later replaced the injured Stevenson with an even tougher test in Tyson Griffin, Gomi was seen as being in deep water. A loss would have quite possibly seen Gomi cut from the UFC, who would be unwilling to pay top dollar for a fighter that couldn’t beat top competition. Gomi entered his fight on the UFC’s second "UFC on Versus" event on Sunday as anywhere from a 3-1 to 4-1 underdog.
Gomi knocks out Griffin
Instead, Gomi took 64 seconds to prove the bookies wrong and show just how far he was from being done. Griffin made the mistake of being willing to stand in the pocket and trade with Gomi. After Griffin threw a leg kick and left himself open, Gomi took the opportunity, wound up and unleashed a monster right hand which knocked Griffin out cold, sending him face-first to the canvas in spectacular fashion.
It was the kind of performance that made Gomi famous from 2002-06, when he was regularly knocking out the best fighters in the world, and when he was the Pride Fighting Championships first and only lightweight champion. It also creates new possibilities for Gomi and the UFC lightweight division.
What’s next for Gomi?
With a single punch, Gomi has turned his career around. A win over a fighter of Griffin’s stature means Gomi should only now be two wins from a UFC title shot. Additionally, the UFC is attempting to build inroads into Japan, a famously difficult market for American fight promoters to crack, meaning if the UFC can find an excuse to give him a high profile fight, they’ll take it.
On 28 August Gomi’s vanquisher Florian takes on Gray Maynard in what is seen to be a fight to determine the next challenger to the lightweight title. Should Florian win, Maynard could be an interesting match-up for Gomi. Gomi has traditionally fared well against wrestlers like Maynard, and would almost certainly outclass the American in the boxing department. If Maynard wins though, a rematch against Florian would be less appealing a proposition.
The same night sees B.J. Penn face off against Frankie Edgar in an attempt to gain his lightweight title back. Gomi has actually faced Penn before in 2003, with Penn coming away the victor after an entertaining three-round affair. He hasn’t faced Edgar though, and if the UFC really wants to fast-track Gomi they’d throw him in against the loser of this fight. Interesting is that Gomi, Edgar and Penn are all very good boxers, and so any fight would likely be a fan-pleasing stand-up affair.
Lastly, rising Australian star and Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert George Sotiropoulos is looking for a new opponent after his 3 July win over Kurt Pellegrino. Such a fight would feature Gomi’s hard-hitting style against the brilliant grappling of one of MMA’s best talents.
Whatever the case, Gomi would enter any one of these fights with an advantage in power, and the ability to knock out any of these opponents. It just took one well-placed punch to remind the fans of that.
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