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[AmboPB]

Awesome, in a perfect world the Gomi of old shows up, smashes a top 5 155'er and goes on to face BJ Penn in another epic showdown. However, I think it's more realistic to say that he'll probably have limited at best success within the UFC's deep lightweight division at this point. Hopefully I'm wrong though.

[Repenter]

great signing, but i'm not sure how the UFC brass will play him. a fight with florian or sanchez would burn the house down, but a loss to either of them would halt any hype building with fans who've never seen him. i guess you could argue that he's the best striker bj could potentially face at LW... but since their first fight, bj has kept on improving into even more of a poi-fueled cyborg than he was last time he murdered gomi... while gomi has hit some hard times. i think it was the leglock loss to kitaoka that really made his elite stock drop...

regardless, in him, we have a great fighter who would make a great top-5 (?) addition to the UFC's LW division, and help move a shipment of japanese talent into the states.

[JadedX]

Great news for sure. That said, hope the best for Gomi in the UFC.

[ckauffman28]

bet they give him some one like guida or griffin and if he wins gets penn

[CJRockstar]

There is SERIOUS power behind this signing.... I mean... America just stole one of Japan's most revered champion MMA fighters. And now the only way they can see him is in the UFC. There won't be anymore "this month im in K-1, now im in DREAM, 1 fight for Sengoku here" It's UFC only. This signing along with Sexyama means the UFC plans to make their big push for a Japanese show this year for sure. Don't be surprised if the UFC announces a Tokyo show or something when they officially announce Gomi's signing or shortly there-after.

Even if Gomi comes into the UFC and stinks it up like a giant turd, the UFC still accomplishes a lot with this signing. If Gomi comes in and loses like crazy and gets fired, the UFC can certainly spin for an angle on the whole "UFC fighters are the best fighters in the world" argument. At the end of the day, they want you(MMA fans around the world) to spend your monthly PPV budget on UFC PPV's and not Strikeforce or DREAM or Sengoku or K-1. So if they throw one of Japan's most revered fighters in the octagon and he gets utterly annihilated, it's still a win in their books as far as they are concerned because they will believe it just proves they already have the best fighters in their ranks. If he comes in and cleans house with everyone, they end up with a marketable world known fighter. This is why they threw big time dollars at Gomi, who is what I would say, questionably marketable. Certainly all of us know who he is mostly thanks to PRIDE, but redneck America probably knows very little about him. The same can be said about most of the UFC's foreign fighters, except they don't make what Gomi is going to make.

On a related note, we may never see the total $$$ put into this contract but I bet Gomi can buy his own Leer Jet now.

Oh, and I would like to add HOLY CRAP.... just... HOLY CRAP.

[macewen]

good siging, can foresee some exciting match ups

[Fedorlei Gomipierre]

Gomi kills any UFC LW other than Penn. He's been wanting to fight in America for a REALLY long time and while I think he's no longer the wreckingball he once was, it has ALOT to do with personal committment and desire and the fact that alot of the time, he barely had to train to fuck his opponents up, since he was on such a higher level than them. He's a naturally gifted fighter, hone those skills with a legit camp and he's a fucking juggernaut.

If they plan on doing Diego/Florain II, I could see Griffin, Edgar or Gray getting Gomi and the winner getting a title shot while BJ goes after say Hughes or Fitch at WW.

I think Gomi's striking style and sick wrestling will ruin Gray and Griffin and a showdown with Edgar would be an awesome bout.

Sherk, Clay, Joe Daddy and Fisher would all be solid debuts if they want to introduce Gomi with a dominant win, I just hope he recognizes that he's going to have to step it up a notch from his last few performances. I'm pretty sure he's still got it.....

[bZa_305]

I love all the possible first match ups for Gomi.... but let's be honest.... Dana's feeding him to BJ right away. Pride/UFC title unification, they have a history, BJ's frustrated with competition. There's too much to promote. Marketing is winning this one.

[beau420]

I hope Gomi of old comes back. The one that looks in shape, the one that throws punches whenever he can. He needs to come back and be better than he was against Nick Diaz.

It will be interesting to see him in a cage...and he better be working heavy on his wrestling skills.

I expect he'll get a couple warm up fights against some mid tier guys before taking on a contender or the champ.

Now the UFC just needs to sign Joachim Hansen, Alvarez and Aoki in order to take the top Japanese guys. If the UFC thinks that taking one guy, who hasn't fought the best guys since Diaz and Ludwig, is going to help them buy the Japanese market?.....Even with Sexyama. If they really want to take over the world and threaten Sengoku and Dream (who are vulnerable...especially Sengoku) they are going to need to do something special.

I suggest a UFC Fight Night Japan or something along those lines, or maybe even Japanese TUF open to all Sengoku and Shooto and other smaller organizations fighters. Winners get in a UFC contract....along with a handful of other guys who get a 1 or 2 fight contract.

You can't win the Japanese fans over by buying them. You have to include them. I hope they take it slow in Japan, get a couple more fighters, let them have a couple fights before they decide to hold a fight card in Japan. Maybe do a special on Japan, with old Pride fights and new interviews with former fighters. Or a UFC All Access that tours training camps in Japan.

[snakerattle79]

set him for the LW championship vs BJ already, being the last PRIDE LW champ, he earned it..No more mumbo jumbo fighting against other UFC LWs