Tatsuya Kawajiri signs with UFC, wants on January card in Singapore

Tatsuya Kawajiri, one of the most highly regarded lighter weight fighters in the world, will next compete inside the UFC's octagon.

The Japanese featherweight, who most recently fought for DREAM in December 2012, has signed a deal with the UFC, sources close to the situation told MMAjunkie.com. While no first fight has been set, sources said Kawajiri hopes to make his UFC debut in January in Singapore.

The UFC has not yet announced Kawajiri's signing.

Kawajiri (32-7-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) has fought outside of Asia just once – a 2011 Strikeforce loss to Gilbert Melendez for the now-defunct promotion's lightweight title. That fight resulted in a first-round TKO loss in San Diego.

Since then, Kawajiri has won five straight fights for DREAM, as well as ONE FC, with four coming by stoppage. In 2011, after the loss to Melendez, he stopped Drew Fickett with punches and submitted Joachim Hansen and Kazuyuki Miyata.

The 35-year-old is a former Shooto champion who also fought for PRIDE, where he lost to Melendez for the first time in December 2006.

In PRIDE, Kawajiri was submitted by Takanori Gomi in the 2005 lightweight grand prix quarterfinals in a fight that went down in that promotion's history as one of its best ever.

In DREAM, Kawajiri had much success, but fell short of the pinnacle for that promotion, as well. In 2008, he was stopped by Eddie Alvarez in the semifinals of the lightweight grand prix. And in 2010, he was submitted by Shinya Aoki going after his lightweight title.

But some of the names in the win column on Kawajiri's resume are highly regarded fighters like Josh Thomson, who in December challenges Anthony Pettis for the UFC's lightweight title, Gesias Cavalcante and Yves Edwards.

http://www.mmajunkie.com/news/2013/10/source-tatsuya-kawajiri-signs-with-ufc-wants-on-january-card-in-singapore

Good for him I think he could easily be top 5 featherweight in the UFC.

   

It´s always a sad day for mma when Zuffa signs a good fighter.

terrible news imo.

he's one of the biggest names in JMMA.

Bummer, all the best to Kawajiri though. I wish him success.

Kawajiri is going to dominate if Ricardo Lamas is number one contender material. Very beneficial for the UFC, he's probably already top five in name value.

This needs more discussion imo. Kawajiri is gonna dominate at 145. I kinda wish he was still at 155 because well, I think he matches up well and could be even more successful there. Alas, he is a 145er because of Melendez and Aoki.

Great news for Kawajiri but bad news for JMMA. Zuffa will feed him "all american" TUF wrestlers and that will most likely be the end of him.

RussianTopTeam wrote:Great news for Kawajiri but bad news for JMMA. Zuffa will feed him "all american" TUF wrestlers and that will most likely be the end of him.

Why is this great news for Kawajiri?

RussianTopTeam wrote:Great news for Kawajiri but bad news for JMMA. Zuffa will feed him "all american" TUF wrestlers and that will most likely be the end of him.

Come on, now. Kawajiri's wrestling is far superior than probably 90 percent of what's available in the UFC. He's got a style that could just as easily exploit the unified rules in his favor.

KSW wrote:

RussianTopTeam wrote:Great news for Kawajiri but bad news for JMMA. Zuffa will feed him "all american" TUF wrestlers and that will most likely be the end of him.

Why is this great news for Kawajiri?

Do you think its great how inactive he's been?

wekka wrote:

KSW wrote:

RussianTopTeam wrote:Great news for Kawajiri but bad news for JMMA. Zuffa will feed him "all american" TUF wrestlers and that will most likely be the end of him.

Why is this great news for Kawajiri?

Do you think its great how inactive he's been?

No but signing with Zuffa is the worst thing that can happen to the sport and the fighters. There are many other better promotions to fight for. I don´t understand you guys. Shall we turn this site into Sherdog 2.0?

There's no one to blame but everyone but Zuffa in this instance. Why hasn't anyone else made a serious offer for Kawajiri? Why didn't One FC manage to.lock him up for a long term contract? Who else could even possibly afford to sign a Kawajiri?

Sounds like he made the decision for himself and what's best for his.career. He's realistically got one last run left in him and why wouldn't he want to face guys like Aldo, Mendes, Edgar, Hioki, and Jung in the twilight of his career?

Sure, it would've been cool to see him fight Curran and Pitbull but there's absolutely no Asian presence in Bellator. WSOF's FW division isn't very good, either. UFC was pretty much his only choice.

wekka wrote:There's no one to blame but everyone but Zuffa in this instance. Why hasn't anyone else made a serious offer for Kawajiri? Why didn't One FC manage to.lock him up for a long term contract? Who else could even possibly afford to sign a Kawajiri?

Sounds like he made the decision for himself and what's best for his.career. He's realistically got one last run left in him and why wouldn't he want to face guys like Aldo, Mendes, Edgar, Hioki, and Jung in the twilight of his career?

Sure, it would've been cool to see him fight Curran and Pitbull but there's absolutely no Asian presence in Bellator. WSOF's FW division isn't very good, either. UFC was pretty much his only choice.

EXACTLY! This is probably one of few choices because Zuffa destroyed most competition but this is horrible for mma and for Kawajiri.

Outside of the WEC, Zuffa largely left the lower weightclasses unaffected. DREAM and Sengoku destroyed themselves. Seems like the Shooto scandal affected the company's ability to maintain a stranglehold on 155 and below too.

wekka wrote:Outside of the WEC, Zuffa largely left the lower weightclasses unaffected. DREAM and Sengoku destroyed themselves. Seems like the Shooto scandal affected the company's ability to maintain a stranglehold on 155 and below too.

Do you even have a problem with Zuffa or do you think they´re alright?

KSW wrote:

wekka wrote:Outside of the WEC, Zuffa largely left the lower weightclasses unaffected. DREAM and Sengoku destroyed themselves. Seems like the Shooto scandal affected the company's ability to maintain a stranglehold on 155 and below too.

Do you even have a problem with Zuffa or do you think they´re alright?

I don't necessarily like the lack of direct competition with them and the unified rules suck but I like the majority of their roster.

I'm just giving you the truth about opportunities at the lower weights.

wekka wrote:

KSW wrote:

wekka wrote:Outside of the WEC, Zuffa largely left the lower weightclasses unaffected. DREAM and Sengoku destroyed themselves. Seems like the Shooto scandal affected the company's ability to maintain a stranglehold on 155 and below too.

Do you even have a problem with Zuffa or do you think they´re alright?

I don't necessarily like the lack of direct competition with them and the unified rules suck but I like the majority of their roster.

I'm just giving you the truth about opportunities at the lower weights.

Do you want UFC to stay as the biggest promotion?

KSW wrote:

wekka wrote:

KSW wrote:

wekka wrote:Outside of the WEC, Zuffa largely left the lower weightclasses unaffected. DREAM and Sengoku destroyed themselves. Seems like the Shooto scandal affected the company's ability to maintain a stranglehold on 155 and below too.

Do you even have a problem with Zuffa or do you think they´re alright?

I don't necessarily like the lack of direct competition with them and the unified rules suck but I like the majority of their roster.

I'm just giving you the truth about opportunities at the lower weights.

Do you want UFC to stay as the biggest promotion?

I just said I don't like the lack of direct competition lol.

wekka wrote:

KSW wrote:

wekka wrote:

KSW wrote:

wekka wrote:Outside of the WEC, Zuffa largely left the lower weightclasses unaffected. DREAM and Sengoku destroyed themselves. Seems like the Shooto scandal affected the company's ability to maintain a stranglehold on 155 and below too.

Do you even have a problem with Zuffa or do you think they´re alright?

I don't necessarily like the lack of direct competition with them and the unified rules suck but I like the majority of their roster.

I'm just giving you the truth about opportunities at the lower weights.

Do you want UFC to stay as the biggest promotion?

I just said I don't like the lack of direct competition lol.

Yes but do you want UFC to be dethroned, not just getting direct competition?

Direct competition =/= dethroned at this point. To me, I don't like their business practices, but at the same time they dominate the PPV market right now and if another company could compete it'd be wonderful. M-1, OneFC, Legend, and even KSW are not exactly clean themselves. I'm sure you could dig and find some serious shit involved with every promoter.

This is good for JMMA because right now MMA in Japan is beyond dead. They need to know their guys can be successful in the organization with the most talent. Regardless of whether or not it's what you or I want.

So KSW would rather not see Kawajiri fight than fight for UFC?
 

IQ Wrestler wrote:So KSW would rather not see Kawajiri fight than fight for UFC?
 

I want him to sign with another promotion. My point is it´s not great that Zuffa tries to sign all the top fighters because they´re bad for mma.

They had plenty of chances and no one offered him anything. It's not his or ZUFFA's fault

IQ Wrestler wrote:They had plenty of chances and no one offered him anything. It's not his or ZUFFA's fault

Do you know exactly what offers he got from other promotions? I´m pretty sure other promotions want him and tried to get him.