Akihiro Gono

Akihiro Gono (郷野聡寛) (born October 7, 1974) is a Japanese mixed martial artist currently competing in the Lightweight division.

A professional competitor since 1994, he is best known for his Clever and deceptive fighting style, and for his flashy ring entrances.

Akihiro Gono began fighting mixed martial arts in 1994, competing in the Lumax Cup tournaments as a Sambo and Karate representative.

He got a win over Kazunari Murakami via head kick, but lost to him in their rematch the next year.

Gono originally debuted in Fighting Network Rings's undercard, but he moved to Shooto after the Lumax Cup.

His run there was uneventful, although he drew Jutaro Nakao and led Matt Hughes to a decision in his first years.

2000 would be his breakout year, winning against veteran Masanori Suda, against Ivan Salaverry via spinning kick and drawing with Murilo "Ninja" Rua.

Gono left Shooto for Pancrase in 2001 and became a member of Sanae Kikuta's Grabaka team.

He again showed improvement, beating twice renowned Keiichiro Yamamiya and Chris Haseman and having a spirited match with Yuki Kondo, as well as a draw with Chael Sonnen.

He began fighting in PRIDE Bushido with Bushido 2 in 2004, facing Murilo's brother Maurício "Shogun" Rua.

Gono avoided Rua's first flurries with an elusive style, throwing Rua to the mat twice, but he was knocked out via punches and kicks when Rua finally caught him.

However, Akihiro recovered from his defeat at his next event, facing Gracie family member Rodrigo Gracie.

The match was heated, as Rodrigo had submitted Gono's fellow shooter Hayato Sakurai in his debut while Gono had defeated Cesar Gracie's student Tim McKenzie back in Pancrase.

During the match, Gono traded strikes with Gracie and was taken down and pressed at the first round, but he came back at the second, stopping takedowns and capitalizing with strikes, including a head stomp which bloodied Gracie.

He stopped fighting for Pancrase in 2005 in order to focus in PRIDE Fighting Championships, though still as a Grabaka member.

In September 2005, Akihiro took part in the PRIDE Welterweight Grand Prix.

He became controversial for criticizing Ryo Chonan and Masanori Suda's performances and right to fight in the tournament, somewhat they called off on him back.

At the first round, Gono won an upset over Daniel Acacio, showing one more time his ability to avoid damage in stand-up and counterattack.

The same night, at the second round, he faced Dan Henderson, suffering an accidental headbutt before losing the match by KO.

In 2006, Gono returned to PRIDE, this time playing a new character, DJ Gozma, a parody of Japanese musician DJ Ozma.

His entrances involved Gono wearing a vintage suit, including shoes and an orange wig, and accompanied by oddly-dressed male dancers while the song age♂age♂EVERY☆Night by DJ Ozma played in the background.

Also, when the fighters were introduced in the ring, Gono would drop his suit's pants to reveal zebra stripped fighting briefs.

He participated in the next edition of the Welterweight Grand Prix, defeating Cuban Olympic judoka Hector Lombard on the first round.

Characteristically, Gono avoided the damage from Lombard's aggressive initial combinations and countered him with hard punches, keeping his hands unorthodoxly low and throwing spinning backfists.

His next round match would be against Gegard Mousasi, which he won again, deflecting his attacks and working an armbar for the tap out.

However, Gono was eliminated at the semifinals by Denis Kang.

Gono's last apparition in Pride was at Shockwave 2006, fighting a revenge match with Yuki Kondo which came from their Pancrase days.

Despite injuring his hand earlier in the match, Gono won the match by unanimous decision.

Gono defeated Tamdan McCrory at UFC 78, by submission due to an Armbar at 3:19 of the second round.

It was reported (first by Dave Meltzer) that he came out to his usual entrance with his DJ GOZMA persona.

Gono then took on Dan Hardy at UFC 89, but suffered defeat via split decision.

Gono was left swollen and bloodied by several of Hardy's left hooks.

Gono rocked Hardy on more than one occasion.

In the third round Gono pushed Hardy to the canvas, and subsequently landed an illegal knee to the face of the downed fighter.

This caused the fight to be stopped for a short period.

Hardy recovered and went on to win the split decision.

The judges saw the bout 29-28 (twice) for Hardy, and 29-28 for Gono.

Gono lost to Jon Fitch in a preliminary bout at UFC 94: St. Pierre vs. Penn 2.

Following his loss to Jon Fitch, Gono was released from the UFC.

Gono has competed for the UFC, PRIDE Fighting Championships, Pancrase, the World Series of Fighting, DEEP, World Victory Road, Shooto, Bellator, and also participated in the Dynamite!! 2009 event.