Kid Yamamoto is one of the biggest combat sports stars to ever come out of Japan, and he continues to inspire his combative compatriots to this day. This is embodied by Kate Lotus, who is a surging star in the Japanese MMA scene today, and she takes on Katie Perez at Rizin 53 on May 10th.
Lotus showcases a set of striking proclivities where she is clearly quite sharp, but where there’s also that demonstrable growth in her anti-grappling on a fight-to-fight basis. When asked how much pride she takes from the clearly evident levelling up in her submission grappling game, even if it’s mostly to serve defending from someone advancing their own grappling game against her, Lotus said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Yeah, I think I would like to staple myself as a striker because obviously me being a fan of the sport, growing up watching fights, I have always been fond of strikers.They’ve always looked cool and the way they fight, it’s a lot more intriguing. I was a big fan of Kid Yamamoto and his style was to strike and knock people out.”
“So that’s kind of grown on me and that’s the type of style that I would like to go for. I would definitely like to utilize my striking and become a finisher. Even if I can’t finish my opponents on my feet, I would like to pepper them up and then eventually pound them out.”
Kid Yamamoto’s iconic k-1 knockout that happened 20 years ago today
Kid Yamamoto had one of his career-defining moments twenty years ago on this day at the expense of Kazuyuki Miyata. On May 3rd, 2006, a massive flying knee connected 4 seconds into their main event clash at K-1 HERO’S: Yamamoto vs. Miyata.
The former dispatched of the latter, referencing the name arrangement on the event marquee. Yamamoto generated, not just one of his big highlight reel moments in a career littered with them, but also the kind of KO that lit up message board forums all over, before the proliferation of social media-based clip sharing culture.
