One Championship “A New Era” on Sunday in Tokyo offers several compelling matchups, though few consider the pairing of former Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight titleholder Demetrious Johnson and Yuya Wakamatsu to be one of them. Viewed by most as a sacrificial lamb for the debuting “Mighty Mouse,” Wakamatsu has no intention of going along with the plan.
Wakamatsu’s path to mixed martial arts seems non-traditional for a youth from a Japanese seaside prefecture. As a child, he did not study traditional Japanese martial arts like kenpo or aikido. The 24-year-old Kagoshima, Japan, native was an aggressive kid who often found himself in fistfights with other children, making the flyweight’s moniker of “Little Piranha” all the more fitting.