This September is known as the "Black Moon of Death" because many of the masters passed away this month, making this September shrouded in sadness.
Among them, the death of celebrities such as xiangsheng famous Chang Baohua, Shi Shengjie, book critic Shan Tianfang, rock singer Zang Tianshuo and other celebrities has caused the social platform "national mourning".
But what many people may not know is that there is also a good player in the fighting circle who has passed away, that is, the Japanese fighting legend "Son of God" Yamamoto Tokuyu, who died of stomach cancer at the age of 41.
On August 21 of this year, Tokuyu Yamamoto said through his ins account that he was battling cancer. Until his death, he had been treated at a hospital in Guam.
Despite being only 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighing only 141 pounds, Tokuyuki Yamamoto has spent most of his career playing as a featherweight or even a lightweight player, hitting a 17-1 professional MMA record before his first announcement of retirement in 2007.
In the mid-2000s, Tokuyuki Yamamoto was once a Japanese rock star, receiving numerous commercial investments. He is the youngest son of a famous Japanese wrestling family, and his father, Ichiro Yamamoto, represented the Japanese national team at the 1972 Munich Olympics. His sister Miyu Yamamoto has won three World Wrestling Championships. His other sister, Seiko Yamamoto, was even better, winning four World Wrestling Championships. Unfortunately, women's wrestling was not one of the Olympic events at the time.
As the youngest child in the family, the young Tokuyu Yamamoto was sent by his father to arizona in the United States to attend high school and trained with Olympic wrestling silver medalist Townsend Sanders. Tokuyuki Yamamoto won three Arizona wrestling titles, but at the age of 21, he left wrestling to train in favor of Inoue, Japan's top MMA star at the time.
Tokuyuki Yamamoto's fame battle was a kickboxing match against Moguro on December 31, 2004, which attracted 34 million spectators and a super high rating of 31.6. Although he eventually lost, he weighed a full 20 pounds lighter than his opponent and successfully knocked down his opponent in this duel with the world's best kickboxer at the time.
In 2005, Yamamoto became Japan's most famous MMA superstar after defeating Basil Gracie, Uno Sai, and Sudo Genki to win the Hero Lightweight Championship. After that, he flew to the knees in an incredible 4 seconds to ko Olympic wrestler Kazuyuki Miyata, and the first leg of the 2006 New Year's Eve contest ko Olympic wrestling champion István Majoros.
Yamamoto's father was initially not optimistic about MMA, believing that it was not a real sport, and he hoped that his son would regain wrestling and become the first Olympic champion in the family. So when Tokuyuki Yamamoto first announced his retirement in 2007 and was preparing for the 2008 Olympics, the entire fighting world was shocked.
His first retirement match was held at the Osaka Dome, when he attracted more than 40,000 boxers to the show and defeated the active UFC player Rani Yahya.
Tokuyuki Yamamoto's attempt to fulfill his father's dream is a mainstream sports story in Japan and has drawn attention to amateur wrestling, yet the sport is not taken seriously in Japan. Unfortunately, despite competing in the 60 kg wrestling competition at the 2008 Olympic Games, he was injured by his opponent's elbow during the qualifying round and needed to undergo cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery, so he regrettably withdrew.
In 2009, Tokuyu Yamamoto returned to the world of fighting, but everything was different from before the injury. Despite competing in the chickweight and featherweights, he won only 1 of his 7 matches.
In 2011, Tokuyu Yamamoto signed for UFC as a Japanese star, but was defeated by "Hercules" Dimitris Johnson in his debut. The last game of his career took place in 2015 and ended his professional MMA career with a record of 18 wins, 6 losses and 2 no results.
Less well known is that Tokuyuki Yamamoto also obtained a bachelor's degree in law, but the Kanagawa man always believed that fighting was his own path in life.
"I've always been a fighter, I thought about being a lawyer, but I never really took it seriously."
"When I was 24 years old, my sister showed me a video of an MMA competition and I thought I was a lot stronger than the players in the sameweight. At that time, I decided to give up wrestling and start my professional MMA career. ”
Unexpectedly, last month, Mofudou also expressed concern and encouragement to Yamamoto Tokuyu on the Internet, and his fans also expressed concern to him, but the world is really too unpredictable.