Yushin Okami...DON'T COUNT HIM OUT!!! By Brian Michelino

  

      It’s been about 5 year since Yushin Okami has been looking to fight
for UFC gold. Yushin has quietly acquired a 10-2 record in the
ultimate fighting championship since he first came on to the scene by
winning fights by decision, with 12 of his 26 wins coming by decision.
None the less he is winning, when you look at Okami’s 5 losses you
will notice they mostly consist of top UFC fighters, fighters like
Chael Sonnen, Rich Franklin and Jake Shields all pop out. Okami has
fought top tier opponents as of late and is starting to get
comfortable in the spot light.
       Okami’s fight against Nate at UFC 122 proved this, Okami a
notoriously slow starter managed to come out strong. Okami out worked
Nate to grind a unanimous decision out even thought a lot of people
(including myself) wrote him off. It seems every time I bet against
Okami he always pulls off a victory, the truth of the matter is he’s a
very skilled fighter. Okami is Big for the weight class and is very
well rounded; his skill set matched it his superior size might give
anyone in the division trouble.
       Okami showed great Jiu Jitsu awareness in this fight verse Marquardt
(witch is what I thought would give him trouble) he got out of some
dangerous positions Marquardt put him in. Okami avoided three serious
submission holds that Nate had locked, two guillotines and a dangerous
looking heel hook. I don’t know if Okami has any chance against
current champ Anderson Silva but I can tell you one thing he defiantly
deserves the title shot now, no question.