Genki Sudo joins K-1 + NTT Docomo's big bet on Shooto & Tatsuro Taira
Japan's greatest generation of fighters resurface to restore old glory.
It’s not billion-dollar level TKO activity, but we’re suddenly seeing some significant moves in a fragmented and chaotic Japanese fight scene.
Frustration has been mounting among Japan’s (previous) greatest generation of fighters. Institutions that once were pillars of fight society, like Shooto, have been struggling to stay relevant in the promotional game. K-1, once the greatest combat sports spectacle on broadcast Japanese television, has been losing fighters to Chatri and ONE. Regrettable, indeed.
In short, there’s RIZIN and then there’s everyone else when it comes to Japanese MMA.
RIZIN’s little (unofficial) brother is DEEP. The ebullient Shigeru Saeki has a very busy fight calendar of club and mid-major events. The fact that he is still active in 2025 and successful is a testament to what a resourceful carnival barker he truly is.
Everyone else is on the outside looking in.
Pancrase runs an active club show circuit. There’s a flashy upstart called KNOCK OUT that features a multi-sided ring (view their highlight reel here). Ryo Chonan is running independent events at Coconeri Hall under the Tribe Tokyo Fight banner. There are lots of little shows that most fans have no idea about. It’s a decentralized mess. A mad swarm of semi-outlaw exhibitions.
We’re trying to leave bad boy reality street fighting show Breaking Down out of this conversation, even though they remain a high-profile circus in the 18-to-34-year-old demographic.
All you need to know about Japanese MMA is that the two major streaming players with fight content are ABEMA and U-NEXT. UFC and PFL air on U-NEXT.
Crusher Kawajiri is a jack-of-all-trades analyst for many different fight promotions, including UFC, PFL, RIZIN, and the club show circuit. A lot of familiar veteran Japanese pro-wrestling and MMA play-by-play announcers work the local circuit as well. There’s a significant amount of cross-pollination with content.
(It’s similar to watching Todd Grisham on DAZN. Todd is the Swiss Army Knife of play-by-play guys, and he’s good at his job.)
Recently, RIZIN PPV numbers have leaked, and recent major events from Saitama Super Arena are drawing huge buy rates on digital platforms like ABEMA. When PRIDE started live PPV broadcasts on SkyPerfecTV, bigger events could draw buyrates of 50,000. Today’s RIZIN PPV numbers for major fights are much larger. The transition from broadcast television to digital PPV has been a radical change. And yet, the gap and distance between RIZIN and UFC is both literally and figuratively as large as the Pacific Ocean.
A lot of veteran PRIDE and K-1 fans are discovering that today’s RIZIN fan base is mostly unfamiliar with the past. Today’s RIZIN fans don’t remember PRIDE. Hell, a fair amount of them were born after PRIDE died.
It’s a brave new world, and those who remember the glory days have largely been left behind.
(If you want to keep up with the latest Japanese MMA happenings, I strongly recommend following Go Yamamoto on Twitter.)
Kai Asakura’s inability to get a win in the Octagon has created great frustration in Japan. The UFC matchmaking machine has done no favors. The stigma of high-profile Japanese fighters being unable to successfully integrate into UFC is a sore spot.
In response, there is an aggressive push by past Japanese legends to give it one more try to revitalize and bring life to a Japanese independent fight scene that could use some real muscle, organization, and star power.
A key area of focus: reviving Shooto.
Betting the farm on Tatsuro Taira
The last couple of years of Shooto events in the Tokyo area have been, charitably speaking, rough outings. Several events at Korakuen Hall have drawn a few hundred fans. Sustain, which has long been the main sponsor of Shooto, has struggled to keep the promotion in the headlines.
Yushin Okami is active and winning in the Shooto cage. He won the promotion’s vacant Middleweight title. It’s admirable for him. He’s also 43 years old.
Shooto has, more or less, become a mini-club promotion that, on its best day, could run a small show once a month and Korakuen Hall twice or three times a year, but never gather a full house.
Something had to change. The old guard decided to reunite publicly and get back together.
Crusher Kawajiri. Kaoru Uno. Rumina Sato. Some very familiar faces have recently resurfaced. You can thank a brand new sponsor for this reunion.
NTT Docomo, the major Japanese telecommunications player, is now supporting Shooto events. Shows are now streaming on their Lemino platform, which used to have great market share but is now dwarfed by U-NEXT & ABEMA.
What Lemino provides Shooto is access to media resources. It’s exactly the kind of title sponsor and media partner that Shooto desperately needed to build a relationship with.
“Lemino Shooto” has magnified brand power compared to “Shooto” alone. You can view their landing home page here. The Lemino Shooto Twitter account is active and drawing some good impressions.
The first Lemino Shooto event at Korakuen Hall drew a very good house at Korakuen Hall. Headlined by Ryo Okada winning his retirement fight, the seven-match cage fight card demonstrated the first true signs of life in years for the promotion. There was actual discussion on social media.
While there remain different promoters under the Shooto banner, Lemino Shooto is now the umbrella branding moving forward. A prominent player in the Shooto world is Black Belt Japan Okinawa. The second Lemino Shooto event is scheduled for Okinawa on October 19th at Music Town Oto-chiba.
The reformation of promotional branding for Lemino + Shooto includes a key ingredient: current UFC fighter Tatsuro Taira.
NTT Docomo & Lemino are supporters of Tatsuro Taira. He attended the Korakuen Hall event. Lemino currently has a docuseries on Taira’s UFC journey.
Tatsuro Taira is scheduled for a big fight against Brandon Moreno this December in Las Vegas for UFC. If he wins, NTT Docomo hopes that it will increase marketing interest for Taira, Lemino, and Shooto.
It would be historic, bitter, and a little bit ironic if it turns out that Shooto, not RIZIN, becomes a future Japanese pipeline for UFC. RIZIN dominates the smaller weight classes in Japanese MMA, and yet the successful bridge with UFC is largely isolated to Kyoji Horiguchi.
A Shooto-UFC and RIZIN-PFL alliance in 2026 might not be as far-fetched as you might expect, especially if Taira wins his fight in December.
While hope springs eternal for reviving an old Japanese institution, there’s another institution that is desperately searching for answers.
Genki Sudo, where did you go?
For a generation of fight fans who grew up on K-1 and HEROs, Genki Sudo and his iconic “we are all one” flag were the stuff of legend. Pancrase. UFC. RINGS. K-1 freak show fights.
Genki Sudo had everything you could want in marketing a mainstream fighter. A perfect blend of skill, crazy ring entrances, intelligence, communication skills, and moxy.
No wonder he retired and went into show business, then politics. Fighting was more or less his audition for public service. Who could forget his fight with Butterbean?
After retiring from fight sports, Genki Sudo moved on to other entertainment ventures. The man called “Neo Samurai” ended up creating a dance performance group called WORLD ORDER. You can view their many videos by clicking this YouTube link.
It wasn't until recently that he started to dip his toes in the fight media waters again.
Earlier this year, Mr. Sudo appeared in a restaurant meet-up with his old K-1 compatriot Masato.
A few months ago, Sudo appeared for a long YouTube interview with his old boss, Akira Maeda.
In July of 2025, Genki Sudo participated in the Upper House election for a seat representing the Democratic Party for the People but lost. Here was a video of his stump speech:
Having lost his election race, what was next in store for Genki Sudo’s future? Little did we know that it would end up becoming the next producer for K-1.
The announcement was made today at an emergency press conference. Watch for yourself.
Genki Sudo is promising unique and creative K-1 matches. Translation: let’s bring back the freak shows. And right on cue, K-1 has plans on bringing back HERO’s MMA fights. This time, it involves wild man Sina Karimian.
What’s old is new again. The question is whether Shooto or K-1 can capture lightning in a bottle. Both groups are trying to revisit their roots, but in very different ways.
Zach Arnold is the lead opinion writer for The MMA Draw Newsletter on Substack. You can e-mail him at fightopinion - at - protonmail dot com.
Sudo's speech expressed his deep commitment to public service and a vision for a revitalized Japan where citizens can afford simple pleasures and local traditions are preserved. He supported things like tax reductions, social insurance premium relief, and lower utility costs to increase disposable income. He talks about the struggles faced by many, including the closure of a friend's restaurant. His political vision was forward-looking and focused on "not leaving a single person behind" and fostering a bright future for children. He even mentioned his catchphrase "We are all one." Very charismatic.
So great to have Genki back under a combat sports spotlight. My MMA hero from way back. I hope he can help K-1 rekindle that magic it once had.