Takanori Gomi

Nickamed as "The Fireball Kid", Takanori Gomi was born on the 22nd of September 1978. He is an extremely well known mixed martial art fighter, both in Japan as well as the rest of the world. He has been the Shooto World Welterweight champion. And has held the title of the All Japan Combat Wrestling Champion, twice. He was last seen in PRIDE championships and he holds the world lightweight championship of PRIDE. Gomi is held in high regard by many and is considered as a fine mixed martial art's lightweight fighters of the world. He has had many remarkable wins over the likes of Charles Bennett, Luiz Azeredo, Hayato Skurai, Tatsuya Kawajiri and Jens Pulver. Many publications including the MMA Weekly rank Gomi as number one in the world in the lightweight division.

Gomi started boxing while he was in High School. This was in 1994 at the Sagamihara Yonekur Gym. He was extremely athletic when he was in school and was even the pitcher of the baseball team at school. When he did not make it to the next grade, in 1996, Gomi dropped out of high school. Because of this, it created a falling out with his father, who did not want anything to do with him. Thereafter, Gomi proceeded to learn wrestling. He participated in a number of wrestling tournaments all over Japan.

In 1997, Gomi became a member of the Shooto Gym. It was here that he began his training and participated in many Shooto competitions for amateurs. On the 27th of November, 1998, he made his professional appearance in mixed martial arts. This was in Tokyo and he fought and defeated Hiroshi Tsuruya. He won by decision. While he was in the Shooto organization, Gomi was victorious in  his first fourteen mixed martial art matches. However at the same time he also fought Vale Tudo Japan, as well as in SuperBrawl, an organization based in Hawaii.

After defeating Rumina Sato, in December 2001, Gomi was declared the Shooto World Welterweight Champion. In 2002, he won against Chris Brennan, an American grappler. This was by unanimous decision. In the same year he also defended the Shooto title and via TKO defeated Dokonjonosuke Mishima. His very first loss also came to be the last match in Shooto. This was in 2003, where he was defeated by Joachim Hansen, a Norweigan fighter. This was a huge dissappointment to him.

Thereafter Gomi went on to fought B.J.Penn - UFC welterweight champion,  in 2003. This was at the an event held in Hawaii. However Gomi felt lost due to the rear naked choke. Gomi could use his elbows here, and it was his very first fight inside a caged ring.

After these losses, Gomi went on to join, the PRIDE, which was considered Japan's top most  MMA organization. In 2004, he made his first appearance at PRIDE Bushido 2. Here he fought against Brazilian, Jadson Costa. Somwhere during the first round, Gomi defeated Costa via TKO. Gomi was then called back to PRIDE to a match with Ralph Gracie. This was at PRIDE Bushido 3. With repeated knee strikes, Gomi succeeded in defeating Gracie in the first round. This match of Gomi and Gracie is considered as the fastest matches in the history of the organization.

In many other PRIDE Bushido series, Gomi defeated Fabio Mello, Charles Bennett, Jens Pulver et al. At PRIDE 33, Gomi was defeated by Nick Diaz by way of gogoplata submission.

Currently with the PRIDE being purchase by Zuffa, Gomi is not sure what his plans are. One thing he is certain of is that he would much rather compete in Japan.