Report: Takanori Gomi Signs With The UFC

…that ignorant people are going to see Gomi fail hard in the UFC (which he will) and use that to say he wasn’t great. He had the most insane stretch of brutal wins at 155 in the history of the sport, a mark that BJ is just beginning to challenge (and will eventually pass). The way Gomi crushed top competition in his prime was amazing. Unfortunately for Gomi, he never really trained that much or that hard, and once his athletic ability left him…so did his career. You can only get by on natural talent for so long.

how old is gomi? if the person is right from above maybe he will train harder for a future fight with penn.

Gomi’s physically shot and he doesn’t care. He’s never cared, really. Gomi’s 30 and been fighting for almost 10 years, and has totally lost his drive. Gomi won’t win one or two tune-up fights: I imagine he’ll fight Edgar, lose, then fight someone else he couldn’t possibly lose to, then lose to someone like Florian or Sanchez after that.

Also, the UFC doesn’t give tune-up fights to people they pay real money to. He’ll fight Edgar, and they will hope Gomi can win so they can basically immediately give him a title shot because B.J. will need an opponent. I think this means they’ve realize they can’t possibly headline a show with B.J. and Gray Maynard, no matter what, and using an international star like Gomi only helps them in their foreign markets. Plus, they have all the footage in the world of Gomi crushing people from PRIDE and a redemption story for them to use. But it will be all for nought, because Gomi probably won’t win the fight. But it’s worth to have him just for the option, and Edgar would be a perfectly fine option for a title shot should he win. It’s a perfect fight for them to do.

Gomi is a monster and always has been. His only real weakness is his sub defense and even unmotivated he’d knock the shit out everyone but BJ in the standup department.

people thought that Gomi was the man. That boy was knocking fools around in Pride, and despite getting mauled by Penn, was widely considered one of, if not the best light-weight in the world. Then came Nick Diaz, who whomped him something fierce. Since then he’s lost fights he wasn’t supposed to, and (if memory serves) won a fight he shouldn’t have. I don’t think Gomi’s body is gone, but the guy just isn’t that hyped. If he can put it back together and start smoking dudes again, I’m all about it, because god knows the UFC needs more lightweight standouts. But in 2010? This signing is two years too late to mean anything.

I think Florian and Sanchez would easily beat him. BJ would just kill him. Give him Guida, Stevenson or the other Diaz brother first. He could be have the chance to lose to both Diaz brothers. Nice.

I like this signing. At the end of the day, the UFC has signed a lightweight with international appeal that sports a 31-5 record. He also happens to be the last PRIDE lightwegiht champion and he’s a fairly exciting fighter. Some have said that he’s rededicated himself to training like never before. If nothing else this helps solidify the UFC’s claim to lightweight supremacy over the rosters of organizations such as DREAM.