Is Takanori Gomi really "back"?

At one time, Takanori Gomi was ranked as the #1 lightweight on the planet. He was Sherdog.com's 2005 Fighter of the Year (tied with Mauricio "Shogun" Rua) after winning PRIDE's Lightweight tournament and earned PRIDE's Lightweight championship as a result. The former Shooto champion went 14-1-1 in PRIDE Fighting Championships with wins over Tatsuya Kawajiri, Hayato Sakurai, Mitsuhiro Ishida, and Jens Pulver.

Once PRIDE folded, he joined the World Victory Road promotion and was a lock to fight for their championship against a challenger that was determined with its own Lightweight tournament.  It was in WVR that the pedestal that Takanori Gomi was standing upon started to fall.

Gomi was matched up against DEEP champion, Seung Hwang Bang, in his second fight in WVR. The fight was essentially a tune-up fight before Gomi fought the tournament winner and most expected Gomi to run through the Korean. However, Bang made it the distance in a relatively lackluster affair and Gomi's reign started to be questioned. Three months later, Gomi faced Sergey Golyaev and was the victim of a horrible decision which gave Golyaev a split decision victory. This result left people floored.

The MMA community began asking one another, "How the #1 ranked lightweight in the world could be beaten by an unknown Russian?” Unfortunately, most people acted as if the loss was legitimate and not one of the worst robberies in recent MMA history.

After that loss, World Victory Road was still contractually obligated to use Gomi as one half of their Lightweight title fight against Saturo Kitaoka. Kitaoka defeated three quality talents in Clay French, Eiji Mitsuoka, and Kazunori Yokota en route to winning the Sengoku Lightweight tournament. The two Japanese men fought on January 4th, 2009 with Kitaoka winning with an Achilles lock in less than two minutes. Gomi's presence as a top 10 ranked lightweight was over. He had lost to two previously unranked opponents in the span of three months time.

At this point, the MMA fandom had completely written off Gomi as any sort of factor at 155 pounds. B.J Penn was the new kingpin with DREAM's Eddie Alvarez, Joachim Hansen, Shinya Aoki, and "JZ" Cavalcante, rounding out most top five rankings. Takanori Gomi's skills, work ethic, and mental toughness all came into question after just two losses in a row. With a dominant performance over respected Takashi Nakakura in Shooto, Gomi got some attention back but it was quickly brought to an end when he went to a more-competitive than expected decision against then King of the Cage champion, Tony Hervey.

Although his resume was probably the best of any lightweight not named B.J Penn, Gomi was thought of as "washed-up" and "out of his prime". That talk was only exacerbated when Gomi signed with the UFC and was matched up against highly touted contender, Kenny Florian. The one-sided loss to Florian gave critics even more ammunition to hit the former Shooto and PRIDE champion. Even highly respected journalists and other MMA personalities proclaimed "The Fireball Kid" had been "extinguished".

Here's my take on the matter: Takanori Gomi is the same fighter he's always been. The same guy that knocked out Sakurai. The same guy that had the epic war with Nick Diaz. The same guy that won titles in two of Japan's historically biggest promotions. He might have slowed down a small fraction but that is inevitable with the passing of time. The fact is that Gomi always got by with his subpar work ethic when he fought lower level competition. He could knock out fighters like Mitsuhiro Ishida and Luiz Azeredo because they have lackluster chins. He could submit fighters like David Baron and Charles Bennett because their ground games were not up to snuff. Gomi's problems now are precisely the exact reasons he lost his previous fights. He didn't train hard for certain opponents and they either made him pay for it (like Kitaoka, Marcus Aurelio, or Diaz) or he went to unenthusing decisions (like Seung Hwang Bang, Sergey Golyaev, and Jean Silva). The Florian loss was a combination of not having a good training camp and fighting one of the best lightweights out there. Training with Nobuhiro Obiya and Akira Okada at Kugayama Rascal is just not cutting it when you're trying to be an elite lightweight who's fighting at the top level. Going to the States and training here would do wonders for Gomi. He's also never been one for in-cage strategy. It is no secret that Gomi has a lot of success when his opponents start to brawl with him. Gomi's got natural power and enough punching technique to where he can starch guys that come in on him lazily. That ability is always going to be there and we saw it against Tyson Griffin.

Before all the stories and forum threads start coming out proclaiming, "Gomi's back!!11", consider the past of "The Fireball Kid". Are his problems really that he's physically depleted? Or is he the victim of his own laziness? You can decide for yourself.