The Afro Cometh -- Again

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These days, the concentration of MMA’s top talent is largely in the UFC. However, as the UFC’s opening of the flyweight division remains up in the air, it is anyone’s guess when -- if ever -- someone like Yamaguchi will be signed to a Zuffa contract. Still, he is adamant that is where he wants to end up, and, perhaps, where he wants to end his career.

“If the UFC opens up the flyweight division, then most definitely, I want to be in it. The UFC is the world’s biggest promotion, and the level of its fighters is the highest. As a pro fighter, there’s no other place than the UFC that I’d want to be or end my career,” says Yamaguchi. “I’m going to be 34 soon, so fighting in the UFC is my main and final goal now. I know I just can’t get in and win just like that, so I think what I’m doing now by fighting in other promotions is preparing for the UFC. Honestly, I don’t even know if they want me there yet, but for the meantime, what I’m doing now is what I believe to be the path to the UFC.”

Bringing a Touch of Shooto to the Cage

Besides the usual training camp, there is one prefight ritual that Yamaguchi must perform before every fight. While a Mamoru Yamaguchi without knees -- and now elbows -- would be a strange sight, a Mamoru Yamaguchi without an afro would simply be alien.

The process is a long one at just less than three hours and brings him to a barber shop called “Jun” in a bustling part of his hometown, Moto-sumiyoshi. The proprietor, “Jun” Ishida, has run his shop in Moto-sumiyoshi for the past 15 years, though his career as a barber stretches back 45 more, to when he was 16 years old.

“He’s got a knack for perming an afro very quickly,” says Yamaguchi, as he rolls his bicycle up Ishida’s driveway.

In an unexpected but charming gesture, Ishida and his wife are standing outside their mom-and-pop barber shop waiting to greet us. Yamaguchi seems unsurprised, which is perhaps to be expected, as he tends to visit them three to four times a year to keep up his funky fresh hairdo.

Inside, Yamaguchi gets immediately settled in and takes a basket of hard candy to occupy himself as the Ishidas get to work. Normally, he reads comics or other literature while waiting, but on this day, he opts to engage the mister and missus in conversation.

Once Ishida trims the loose curls from the previous perm, one can briefly see the Yamaguchi of old, as he was when he reigned over Shooto’s 132-pound division without the afro. The illusion does not last long, though, as Ishida quickly busies himself with rolling every centimeter of Yamaguchi’s hair in rows with miniscule hair rollers. It is meticulous and arduous work, demanding no small degree of dexterity.

“Japanese people tend to be good at very fine, detailed work like this,” says Ishida with pride, without breaking the pace of hair rolling. “And no, I never get tired or sore from doing this.”

Eight years is a long time to sport an afro, but that is about as long as Mamoru has been cultivating one with the Ishidas’ help. He has gotten to be such a regular visitor that the Ishidas do not even charge him for the work-intensive process anymore. It is, as mentioned, a tradition. Strange as it may seem, it is something that may soon come to an end, as Yamaguchi looks toward retirement. Once the fights end, the perms will likely end, as well.

“Fighting in the UFC may be the last major thing in my fighting career, but Shooto will always be close to me,” says the man who once called Shooto his “life’s work.”

“Going from Shooto to the UFC will be like going from Japanese baseball to the major leagues. I want that big challenge, but my feelings toward where I came from won’t change. After I retire, I may open my own gym, and if I do, I want my students to fight in Shooto. I want to keep teaching and guiding fellow fighters, leading them to Shooto because I love the sport of MMA and Shooto,” he says.

Passionate comments like these resonate with the message of “never forget your roots” -- the mantra of another Shooto icon, Rumina Sato, who has made competing in that circuit more a way of life than a career. As Yamaguchi is no different, the current turmoil within the Japan Shooto Association strikes a delicate chord with him.

While he has a stake in fighting under the unified rules now, one can tell he is less than certain its introduction into Shooto would change it for the better.

“I’m not particularly in a position where I can say a lot about the matter, but I do want to say that I hope they get through their difficulties and are able to make an environment where professional and amateur fighters can safely fight without worrying about politics,” he says.

“If Shooto’s rules stayed the way they’ve been until now, that would be fine with me. If they were to change, too, that would also be fine by me. I haven’t really thought too deeply about it, but if they allowed elbows in Shooto, I’d definitely use them without any hesitation. I train with the American rules in mind now, so I have no problems with them,” he says.

As the JSA continues its struggles to reform, Yamaguchi continues to make his way through stateside MMA. Though his home circuit may change substantially while he is away, he has made it his mission to bring a touch of Shooto to American cage fighting.

“I want to get to the UFC one day, and if American fans are going to remember and root for me, I’ll have to perform well against guys like Kevin [Dunsmoor] and make a big impact.”

“I just want American fans to remember me as that Japanese guy with the weird, big afro and awesome striking,” he says with a smile, not unlike Yoko Gushiken himself.

Yuko Komiyama contributed to this story.