Norifumi Yamamoto

Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto (山本 徳郁) was a Japanese mixed martial artist and kickboxer who competed in the bantamweight division of the UFC.

He quickly gained popularity in the Shooto organization due to his aggressive, well-rounded style and controversial persona.

His father Ikuei Yamamoto represented Japan at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich and his sisters Miyuu Yamamoto and Seiko both won world championships in freestyle wrestling.

Kid received his education in the United States and wrestled at Marcos de Niza High School in Tempe, Arizona, capturing three state championships (with a third-place finish as a freshman).

During that time he lived and received training from Townsend and Tricia Saunders.

He also trained briefly under Choi Mu Bae.

At the age of 21, Yamamoto made a transition from wrestling to mixed martial arts despite his father's opinion that MMA is not a real sport.

His first trainer in the sport was Enson Inoue, fiancé of Yamamoto's sister at the time.

He had hoped to win the Olympic Gold medal for freestyle wrestling ever since he was a child, as his father Ikuei Yamamoto represented Japan in the 1972 Olympic games in Munich.

In qualifying, Yamamoto began with an impressive win over Japanese Self Defense Forces member Akihiro Tsuchida.

Yamamoto made his professional mixed martial arts debut on March 2, 2001, against Masato Shiozawa at Shooto - To The Top 2, where he won by unanimous decision.

He would go on to win his next two fights, both by TKO in the first round.

During this time Yamamoto faced future Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Josh Thomson in Honolulu, Hawaii, at Shogun 1.

Yamamoto dominated Thomson with takedowns and strikes but caught an accidental kick to the groin three minutes into round two, causing the bout to be ruled a no contest.

On May 5, 2002, Yamamoto suffered his first loss by TKO to Stephen Palling.

As Yamamoto shot in for a double-leg takedown, Palling countered with a knee, opening a huge cut to Yamamoto's face.

Though Yamamoto succeeded in slamming Palling, blood began pouring out of the cut and the referee stopped the fight.

The doctors determined that Yamamoto was unable to continue and Palling was declared the winner.

Kid went on to win his next three fights over Tetsuo Katsuta, Jeff Curran and Caleb Mitchell.

Yamamoto made his K-1 Hero's debut on April 7, 2004, at the K-1 World MAX 2004 World Tournament Open, where he choked out Tony Valente only 58 seconds into the fight.

Over the next year, Yamamoto's popularity grew as he went on to defeat Kazuya Yasuhiro, Jadamba Narantungalag and Ian James Schaffa in exciting fashion.

However disaster struck in the semifinals against 2004 Athens Bronze Medalist Kenji Inoue, when in the first move of the match, an arm-whip takedown by Inoue, Yamamoto dislocated his right elbow, and was consequently prone for the easy pinfall.

With this injury, Yamamoto had no choice but to leave his hopes of competing in the Olympic Games and return to mixed martial arts.

He moved on to K-1 Hero's, where he became the K-1 Hero's 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix Tournament Champion in December, 2005 after defeating Genki Sudo via a controversial TKO due to punches.

Though by most measures he was a natural bantamweight, many of Yamamoto's most significant bouts came in the lightweight division as it was the lightest division in Hero's.

Later in his career, Yamamoto competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the bantamweight division, although he did not perform well there, going winless in his first four fights.

Yamamoto came from a wrestling family.

Yamamoto would then write his name into K-1 Hero's history by defeating three highly regarded fighters—Royler Gracie, Caol Uno and Genki Sudo—to win the 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix.

On May 3, 2006, Yamamoto made mixed martial arts history when he knocked out Kazuyuki Miyata four seconds into the fight with a flying knee moments after the bell sounded.

It was the fastest ever knockout in a major MMA promotion.

Yamamoto looked nimble and explosive against Tsuchida, who had taken third in the 132-pound freestyle class at the 2006 Emperor's Cup.

In early 2007, Yamamoto announced an indefinite leave of absence from MMA to go back to his roots and train for and compete in freestyle wrestling for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Yamamoto's return to MMA came on September 17, 2007, against future Dream Featherweight Champion Bibiano Fernandes at K-1 Hero's 10.

Yamamoto won the fight by unanimous decision.

At K-1 Hero's Dynamite!! 2007 on December 31 Yamamoto faced WEC veteran Rani Yahya at Bantamweight.

Yamamoto won in the second round via TKO due to soccer and ground kicks.

In February 2008, Fighting and Entertainment Group launched Dream, a new MMA promotion intended to be the successor to Hero's. Norifumi Yamamoto was one of the many former Pride and Hero's fighters that was announced to be competing in the new promotion..

He was supposed to make his Dream debut at Dream 5 against Joseph Benavidez, but the bout was abruptly called off three days before the event to a knee injury suffered by Yamamoto.

Yamamoto next announced his participation in the Dream Featherweight Grand Prix, which began at Dream.7.

Due to an injury, he did not compete until the second round where, at Dream.9 on May 26, he faced future Bellator Champion Joe Warren.