Tatsuya Kawajiri

Tatsuya Kawajiri (川尻達也) is a Japanese mixed martial artist who competes in the Bantamweight division.

He is a former Shooto Lightweight Champion, and has also competed in the UFC, PRIDE, DREAM, Strikeforce, ONE FC, and Rizin Fighting Federation.

At the age of 19, Kawajiri viewed the 1997 K-1 World Grand Prix Semifinal match between Ernesto Hoost and Francisco Filho, persuading him to begin training in combat sports.

Kawajiri graduated from Chuo Gakuin University.

Kawajiri's professional career started in Japan's Shooto organization where he lost to Takumi Nakayama via rear-naked choke submission at 2:44 of the first round.

After this loss Kawajiri went on to fight Yohei Suzuki to a Draw at Shooto's "Wanna Shooto 2001."

He would then remain undefeated in Shooto until a disappointing decision loss to future Shooto Lightweight Champion Vítor Ribeiro in 2002.

He would then continue on a new winning streak eventually re-matching Ribeiro to capture the Lightweight Championship at Shooto's 2004 Year-End show.

Kawajiri's fight at PRIDE Bushido 9 with Takanori Gomi was voted as PRIDE Fighting Championship's Fight of the Year for 2005.

In the same year, Kawajiri was considered by many mixed martial arts publications to be the #1 Lightweight fighter in the world.

Kawajiri was born in the Inashiki District of Ibaraki Prefecture and competed in baseball from elementary school through middle school before he transitioned into track and field in high school.

On May 22, 2005, Kawajiri made his debut in PRIDE and score a quick TKO over In Seok Kim.

He went on to score a one-sided victory over Luis Firmino at PRIDE Bushido 8 on July 17, 2005.

On 25 September, he entered PRIDE's inaugural Lightweight tournament in hopes of eventually being crowned the first PRIDE Lightweight Champion as well as holding the Shooto Championship at the same time.

His first match in the tournament was against superstar Takanori Gomi.

Gomi ended up knocking down Kawajiri after a flurry of punches and proceeded to submit him with a rear-naked choke 7:42 into the first round.

Kawajiri went back to Shooto to defend his Shooto Lightweight Champion against Norwegian Joachim Hansen.

The match was stopped eight seconds into the first round when Hansen was disqualified for kicking Kawajiri in the groin, making Kawajiri the victor.

Kawajiri came back to PRIDE in a fight against Charles Bennett whom he submitted by kneebar after 2:30 in the first round.

He then made another PRIDE appearance in which he fought Chris Brennan and scored an even quicker victory 29 seconds in the first round by TKO.

His next fight was a non-title bout against Per Eklund in Shooto where he scored a TKO at 4:10 into the first round.

Kawajiri return to PRIDE was at PRIDE Shockwave 2006 on New Year's Eve.

There he lost a controversial decision to at the time undefeated American fighter and rising star in the Lightweight division, Gilbert Melendez.

On January 23, 2007, Kawajiri relinquished his Shooto title because he could not defend his title by the next Shooto event due to a thumb injury that occurred with his fight against Melendez.

In March 2008 Kawajiri entered the DREAM Lightweight Grand Prix, where he has advanced to the semifinals after back to back victories over Kultar Gill, and Brazilian Top Team fighter Luiz Firmino.

At DREAM 5 Kawajiri lost a semi-final match-up to Eddie Alvarez by TKO at 7:35 of the first round.

This slugfest with Alvarez saw both men dropping the other repeatedly with punches and the fight was named 2008 Fight of the Year by several MMA outlets, including Sherdog.

Kawajiri also participated in the Yarennoka! event as well as Dynamite!! 2009 and Dynamite!! 2010, representing DREAM in both events.

On March 5, 2009, at DREAM 7, Kawajiri faced EliteXC veteran Ross Ebañez.

Kawajiri won via rear-naked choke submission just over four minutes into the first round.

On May 26, 2009, Kawajiri defeated Gesias Cavalcante via unanimous decision.

Kawajiri used his strong wrestling and ground and pound to great effect, and he was also able to frustrate Cavalcante by matching him in the striking game on the feet.

Kawajiri next faced Guam's Melchor Manibusan, who had not fought in several years in a match that was not expected to be competitive for Kawajiri.

Indeed, on October 5, 2009, at DREAM 11, Kawajiri overwhelmed his opponent.

Kawajiri easily took down his foe after a wild start in which Manibusan rushed Kawajiri with a flurry of punches, then used his trademark ground and pound to force the TKO via strikes at 3:48 of the first round.

On December 22, 2009, it was announced that Kawajiri would be taking on Sengoku Lightweight Kazunori Yokota in a Sengoku vs. DREAM fight at the annual Dynamite!!

event on New Year's Eve in Saitama, Japan.

He went on to defeat Yokota via unanimous decision.

Kawajiri faced Champion Shinya Aoki at DREAM 15 for the Lightweight Championship in a highly anticipated match up as the two are both from PRIDE and were meant to have fought in the now defunct organization.

Kawajiri lost via submission at 1:53 into the first round.