Yuki Kondo: The Journey of a Journeyman

This Sunday night (or morning here in the States) longtime veteran, Yuki Kondo, will have his 85th pro MMA fight in the main event on Pancrase's 11th installment of their Passion Tour.

He will rematch Rikuhei Fujii, the man who beat him in September, for the middleweight King of Pancrase title.

Kondo has been involved with the Pancrase promotion nearly since its inception. His first recorded professional fight was on January 28th, 1996 against Takafumi Ito. He won in just over two minutes with a guillotine choke submission. He ended up fighting 11 times in 1996 with wins over the likes of Frank Shamrock, Semmy Schilt, and Minoru Suzuki.

He remained a Pancrase main-stay for the next 4 years before entering the UFC in 2000. Kondo entered his first fight in the UFC with a 28-8-3 record and got his 29th win against highly touted jiu-jitsu competitor, Alexandre Dantas, in his Octagon debut at UFC 27. In his next bout, Kondo would challenge then light-heavyweight champion, Tito Ortiz, in an unsuccessful bid. Ortiz ended up putting Kondo in a neck-crank and forced him to submit in the first frame.

After a 1-2 stint in the UFC, Kondo went back to Pancrase and made a few appearances in the newly established DEEP promotion. In 2003, Kondo got the opportunity to compete against the light heavyweight King of Pancrase, Sanae Kikuta. Kondo knocked out Kikuta in the 3rd round to earn his first taste of gold in the promotion. Quickly after, he got the call for to fight on PRIDE's Shockwave card on New Year's Eve. It was one of the biggest cards in Japanese MMA's short history and Kondo made sure to make the appearance count as he forced a doctor's stoppage in the first round of his fight with Brazilian, Mario Sperry.

Kondo stayed reliable to where he made his name and still appeared on Pancrase cards, even though he got opportunities to compete in PRIDE. In 2004, the King of Pancrase took on the PRIDE middleweight champion, Wanderlei Silva, and was turned into a highlight reel courtesy of "The Axe Murderer". It was at Shockwave 2004 that Kondo could have put on his best career performance against one of the best opponents he's faced. He took on future duel-PRIDE champion, Dan Henderson. In one of the worst decisions in MMA history (in this blogger's opinion), Henderson took a split decision victory and Kondo was denied what would have been a career-defining win.

After that loss, Kondo's career seemed to fall apart. He has gone 9-9-3 since then with time and his past battles catching up with him more and more each bout. He vacated the light heavyweight King of Pancrase in January 2008 and was awarded the interim middleweight King of Pancrase title. Kondo has held the title since then and went on to defend that title in February against Takenori Sato. The same title will be defended this coming weekend where the veteran looks to avenge his most recent loss to Rikuhei Fujii and earn another win in his near 15 year career.

While Yuki Kondo will never be looked upon in the light of some legends like a Kazushi Sakuraba or Hidehiko Yoshida, his tenure in mixed martial arts should be remembered. Not many fighters can say they went from the open-hand strikes and open weight rules of the original Pancrase, to challenging for a UFC title, to being a two-time King of Pancrase, and facing some of the best fighters from this past generation along the way. Kondo has also been a great acid test for prospects throughout his career, and only few have passed. Some may say his time has come and gone, however the guy is still a Pancrase staple, he's still winning fights, and he's still collecting paychecks. You can't hate on the guy for that.