Road to UFC Preview: Bantamweights

This is the second part of the Road to UFC Preview series, for the first article that explains the whole deal click here

Rinya Nakamura vs Toshiomi Kazama

Next up is another bout between fellow countrymen, this time it’s a Japanese duel between grappling converts. Former international freestyle wrestler Rinya Nakamura faces off against former judoka and BJJ player Toshiomi Kazama.

Rinya Nakamura

An accomplished international wrestler, the 27 year old - undefeated so far in his MMA career at 6-0- had the peak of his wrestling career when he won Gold at the Under 23 World Championship in Bydgoszcz, Poland. He could have represented his country back home during the 2020 Summer Olympics but decided to transition to MMA instead.

He reached the final after two first round KOs. A very athletic and powerful southpaw, he’s raw on the feet but has good transitions to his wrestling. During his first fight he stuck to fighting on the mat, securing takedowns after pressuring his opponent to the cage, shooting for the legs and using impressive control to secure the submission against the Indonesian Gugun Gusman. In the semi-finals he decided to bang it out on the feet; he is wild and open for counters, but has a good feel for when to clinch and how to find strikes from there, and he eventually changed the wide hooks for a pretty straight left that he used in the finishing sequence to find the knockout against the game and athletic fellow Japanese Shohei Nose.

Nakamura looks to pressure, he fights behind a bouncy southpaw stance that allows him to close distance quickly, but also bail out of exchanges and bounce right in to resume pressure

A quick shot to the legs allowed Nakamura to initiate a scramble, note how on the ground he hooks Gusman’s right arm with his legs and eventually gets him into keylock position using only his leg. Similar to a reverse omoplata or shin whizzer position.

While having the the arm trapped in that leg keylock, he pressured the head with a power half nelson and released it to land big elbows. He eventually lost the position for hitting the back of the head, but it’s a cool set-up

The end of the fight as he found a clean double leg right into side control from where he secured a keylock, this time of the regular kind.

Nakamura once again pressured in his second fight, but he seemed to built his pressure about finding good entries to land big punches this time around. A very good tool was the closing of distance after defending kicks

We also got to see Nakamura’s takedown defense and clinch as a defensive blanket. And he showed good instincts to find dangerous knees in the clinch

His head can be stationary while throwing, but there are good instincts and promise for Nakamura as a boxer. He stays aware in the pocket and his distance and timing are on point

Toshiomi Kazama

Kazama comes from a Gi BJJ and Judo background, and while he doesn’t have the accolades his foe has, he’s a very interesting prospect in his own way. He didn’t get to compete in the semis, as his opponent the Korean Kim Min Woo didn’t make weight and was disqualified. In his only fight he faced off against the Chinese Mamaitituoheti Keremuaili, a brickhouse well rounded veteran of the Asian circuit with big power and good grappling. Kazama looks to be functional on the feet but where he impressed was obviously in grappling exchanges, where he’s a very creative top and bottom player with a vast flowchart. Even more promising for his MMA career at this stage are his constant pursuit of the clinch, entries and smothering pressure from there, something a lot of more accomplished Judo players have failed to do in MMA. He seemed disappointed with himself over his unanimous decision victory, but it was an impressive showing.

Kazama also looks to pressure, but mostly to initiate clinches and/or forcing the opponent to lead to give him entries or shoot to initiate scrambles

Kazama is very good at maintaining clinches. He mostly favors a strong overhook and tries to control either the triceps or wrist on the other side. He’s also very good at dropping down for takedowns and get right back to the clinch if the attempt is unsuccessful

He is a dangerous takedown threat from the clinch, specially finding trips after moving his opponent, and can hit them from bodylocks or overhook set-ups

Kazama is heavy from top position and has a good variety of passes, he’s also not afraid to go for rides, wrist control, leg entrapments and other modern MMA positions

He is very active from the bottom, very good at regaining guard with knee shields, and makes constant use of butterfly hooks and transitions to X guard for a variety of sweeps

What to Expect

It’s hard not to favor Nakamura here, as he probably can deny the clinch trickery of Kazama and keep it on the feet where he’s the more dynamic threat. If  Nakamura ends up on top position he needs to be careful of not getting swept, as Kazama’s bottom game seems well suited to deal with strong bases. If the fight goes long it could get interesting, I haven’t seen proof that Nakamura gasses and Kazama can fade a little, but he pushes a grueling pace and could eventually push Nakamura into uncharted territory. Both fighters would make for interesting additions in an already crowded bantamweight division. The pick here is Rinya Nakamura by KO.