No winter meetings necessary: UFC jumps to steal Japanese stars

Some hardcore fans are driven nuts by the fact that the UFC is trying to bury the competition. An "Evil Empire" of sorts. So it was funny this weekend to see Dana White operating like his favorite baseball team, the Boston Red Sox.

The Evil Empire in Beantown spent $292 million to steal Adrian Gonzalez from San Diego and land the best overall hitter on the free agent market in Carl Crawford. White didn't land Fedor Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem, but he did grab two of the biggest names from Japan in Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto and Michihiro Omigawa.  

After WEC 53 this Thursday, the bantamweight and featherweight division will be playing in the big leagues. The 135 and 145 pound divisions will help sell pay-per-views with the UFC, that means there's no limit on who Zuffa can bring in to bolster the roster. Yamamoto and Omigawa are money well spent. 

Omigawa, 35, is probably a longshot to get his hands on UFC featherweight champ Jose Aldo, but he'll add some flair to the division. He's gone 8-2-1 since a drop to 145 pounds. He actually fought in the UFC back in 2007 and 2008, losing at 155 pounds against Matt Wiman and Thiago Tavares. In his return, the UFC gave him a stiff test. He'll debut against Chad Mendes, an excellent wrestler.

Yamamoto is the guy fans should really be excited about.

He's the rare bantamweight with legitimate one-punch knockout power, but he's not a one-dimensional fighter. Yamamoto (18-3) came close to making the Japanese Olympic wrestling team and wrestled in the U.S. His career stalled recently because of a severe knee injury and a lack of motivation.

Japanese promoters also contributed to his less than stellar attitude by feeding him easy opponents. The UFC won't do that and it should motivate him. And if Kid thought he was getting Miguel Torres or Urijah Faber right out of the gates, he got a wake up call when the promotion booked him to face Demetrious Johnson. Hardcore fans don't understand the booking, but it's a good move. Kid is unknown by 98 percent of the fans in the U.S. He needs to be built up. If he does his work and scores some impressive wins, look for him to face one of the top dogs at 135 (Torres, Faber or Joe Benavidez) by the summer or fall of 2011. 

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