At this segment, we asked the fighters, people involved which fight they fought or saw became their turning point for their career.

—Asen Yamamoto
Japan’s future Olympian wrestler will make his long anticipated MMA debut on NYE. Asen was 9 years old when he walked down the ramp with his uncle, Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto into the HERO’S ring and witnessed him become Champion. Asen chooses the fight between his Uncle Kid Yamamoto vs Roman Salazar as the turning point of his career. The fight was held during UFC 184 on February 28, 2015.
“The fight ended up as a No Contest due to an eye poke, but I thought my uncle’s footwork and movement was the best. His fight really inspired me to become like him, so I started to change my footwork during wrestling, change my movement and tried all sorts of stuff. My uncle is known for his striking, but his ground game is top notch as well, and I respect him a ton.”

—Ikuei Yamamoto
His Grandson will be fighting for the first time as a Mixed Martial Artist on NYE. His son, Kid Yamamoto used to be a regular for the NYE events. The fight he remembers most was of course the fight between Kid Yamamoto and Masato under the K-1 rules during K-1 Dynamite 2004.
“I was watching ring side, he got a knock down, and he was controlling the fight entirely, so for sure I thought that we won. But we lost by a split decision. We lost to the name. Norifumi and I both knew that we would lose if it went to distance, we knew we had to KO him to win. That is how the professional fighting world. We lost that fight, but I remember it cleary.”