He is a punchline. He's MMA trivia. He is an internet meme, and an underdog's hero. He's a "can" and a "card-filler", and he is commonly the "David" fighting "Goliath" in Japanese freakshow match ups.
He's Ikuhisa "The Punk" Minowa.
Most would render his place in the history of MMA an insignificant footnote. A chuckle-worthy aside to the many-paged tales of champions and legends that populate the bulk of MMA's greater sporting legacy. But for those few MMA aficionados who make the transition from mild amusement to genuine curiosity, browsing through Minowa's eighty-fight record yields a far greater appreciation for the man and his moxy.
Make no mistake, Minowa's not a can, and he's not a joke. In fact he's possibly the toughest son of a bitch walking this earth, and his fighting career is an unflinching snapshot of everything grand and gruesome in an era of MMA.
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The casual fan would have every excuse to discredit Minowa as a fighter. He's Japanese, and the Japanese have had little high-level success in western promotions like the UFC. He's a some-time pro wrestler (Lesnar's success be damned), who fights in plainly generic pro wrestler shorts, and often in pro wrestler boots or shoes. He's the proud owner of a well-trimmed mullet. He's smaller than almost all of his competitors, and his striking is terribly mediocre at best. He's known as much for the intensity of his entrances as his talent in the ring. The description reads like a blueprint for MMA irrelevancy.
A typical Minowa ring entrance
But surprisingly, when the facts are laid bare, Minowa proves to be every bit as relevant to MMA as your favorite superstar fighter. Yes, read it again...I said it. Minowa matters.
Minowa has fought as much top competition as some UFC hall-of-famers and current champions. Seven of his opponents have been K-1, Pride, or UFC beltholders or tournament champions. He is also a rare enigma in fight-sport whereby one man's losses are every bit as impressive as other fighter's victories. Among his losses are respected and legendary names like Wanderlei Silva, Yuki Kondo, Semmy Schilt, "Rampage" Jackson, Kazushi Sakuraba, Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic, Murilo Bustamante, Kiyoshi Tamura, Evan Tanner, and many others.
That's not enough to quell your laughter? Well consider the fact that Minowa has with regularity fought men who outweighed him by as much as 170 lbs...and sometimes more. Such is the life of a Japanese freakshow fighter. Opponents Eric "Butterbean" Esch, Bobb "The Beast" Sapp, Wagner "Zulu" de Conceicao Martins, Paulo "Giant Silva" da Silva and Semmy "Hightower" Schilt outweigh Minowa by an average of 164 lbs, and are an average of ten inches taller. Minowa beat three of them. Oh, and his next opponent? 7'2", 352 lb Hong Man "The Techno Goliath" Choi. In the wake of Minowa's efforts, Couture vs Lesnar suddenly begins to look a lot less like David vs Goliath and more like a friendly catchweight bout. Fighters like Keith Hackney and Marco Ruas made names as giant tamers thanks to single bouts. Minowa has made an entire career out of tangling with and often toppling men who are literally twice his size.
Say what you want about his record or his even his skillset, but Minowa's courage to consistently face men of such imposing physical stature is something that few in the sport could hope to emulate. Even still, his courage and his competition aren't the only things that make him such a unique figure in MMA.
Setting his fearlessness aside, Minowa's numbers continue to do the talking. "The Punk" has twenty-seven career submissions. By contrast, submission legend Minotauro Nogueira has twenty; Fedor, sixteen. Fourteen of Minowa's thirty losses have come by decision in spite of frequent mismatches. He's fought thirteen years, for eleven different promotions, in four different countries. An average of six fights per year, for eighty fights in total...four times as many fights as MMA legend and pioneer Royce Gracie. Twenty times more than UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar. Laughter turns to reverent silence in recognition of computations such as these.
Measuring the value of Minowa transcends even the statistical and the numerical. His MMA odyssey is littered with a potpourri of historic and fascinating anecdotes. He fought in the inaugural event for staple Japanese promotion DEEP in 2001, and seven years later joined the inaugural card of fellow Japanese super-show Dream. Minowa made his name internationally for his dozen-plus fights in the legendary Pride Fighting Championships, but to the surprise of many, he actually fought for the rival UFC promotion first. Over three years before setting foot in a Pride ring, Minowa won a TKO victory over Joe Slick at UFC Japan 3 in Tokyo.
Among his eight draws are a contest with MMA ironman and fellow trivia-piece Travis Fulton (also a noted racist), as well as the only MMA bout in the career of respected Brazilian and American Top Team co-founder Ricardo Liborio. The much-ballyhooed 2006 Pride Open-Weight Gran Prix championship run of Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic started with a first round showdown against Minowa. Minowa fought Wanderlei Silva and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in a span of a month and a half, and he once fought nine times in under eight months in 1999. Reflecting MMA's international appeal, he's fought Koreans, Americans, Brazilians, Englishmen, Croatians, Germans, Japanese, Russians, and Dutchmen. He's trained Muay Thai in Thailand and Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil. It could be argued that Minowa is a kind of living embodiment of many of MMA's defining characteristics, particularly the variety of MMA found in Japan.
Perhaps the greatest revelation in Minowa's story lies not in simply overcoming the chuckles to find respect for him as a competitor, but rather in the way that Minowa forces the MMA fan to reconsider what he really values in a fighter. While the legends of the sport have garnered their share of universal respect and acknowledgment, and every frontrunner appreciates a champion or superstar whose coattails they can latch onto, Minowa is equally as beloved in some circles for reasons unto his own. Minowa illustrates the virtue of toughness, courage, and persistence in the face of perpetual and longstanding adversity. Every excuse could be afforded him to turn down such consistently scary opponents, or even to hang up the gloves completely. He'll likely never attain a major championship, and at age 33, his limited skillset will only further deteriorate over time. The money aside, Minowa really doesn't have anything to fight for but glory. And with more freakshow fights and likely more losses on his horizon, the jokes and the "can" moniker likely aren't going away any time soon.
But in his own way, Minowa represents hope for those in life who may never achieve great heights, and yet never cease to continue fighting; those who routinely face long odds and perpetual setbacks, but meet the next set of challenges just as willingly. He has stared down immeasurable odds and beaten them, and mustered the courage to face the best and give his all, time and again. Minowa is champion of no organization, and has achieved no single distinguishment as an MMA competitor, but he is forever in the hearts and minds of those who root for the underdog, and those who appreciate a tireless and unflappable warrior. If MMA history has some sense of justice, it would see fit to award "The Punk" something more than just a footnote or a side column in its annals. For while the champions and the greats provide the heights to which others can aspire, it is the fighting spirit of men like Minowa that help to define the sport, and to reflect the warrior in each of us.
3 comments:
Very cheesy writing style but good topic and research. And yes, Minowa is actually a legitimately skilled and tenacious athlete.
Surprised that you didn't mention either of the Baroni fights, as both are emblematic of his character, both for different reasons (first fight which he lost showed his heart and "never say die" approach to fighting, the second fight which he won showed his legitimate wrestling pedigree.)
Hardly Cheese - enjoyed the article. Everyone loves a "mutt" . Minowa fills the bill.
"Laughter turns to reverent silence in recognition of computations such as these."
You're telling me that that isn't a cheesy writing style? Come on, it's overall a good article but some of the little fancy editorializations such as the above quote give it a "trying too hard" feel at times.
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