FanHouse KidYamamoto

In another setback for a once-great MMA fighter, Japan's Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto was knocked out in the first round of his kickboxing match with Korea's Jae hee Cheon at the K-1 Max 2009 World Championship Tournament Final 8 in Tokyo.

We've been handing out our half-year MMA awards, so here's my take on the biggest upset of the last six months.

As is often the case in MMA, there were plenty of upsets to choose from. But at the end of the day, I had to go with Joe Warren defeating Kid Yamamoto via split decision at Dream.9 on May 26 (part one of the fight is above; part two is here.)

Japanese MMA superstar Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto, fresh off a loss to Joe Warren at Dream 9, has announced that he'll get back into the ring on July 13. But instead of fighting MMA, Yamamoto has taken a K-1 MAX kickboxing fight against South Korea's Jae hee Cheon. That represents an interesting challenge to Yamamoto, because the last time he fought in K-1, he got knocked cold by Mike Zambidis, as you can see in the video above. For thoughts on Yamamoto fighting in K-1, I turned to K-1 announcer Michael Schiavello, whose comments are below.

It's still a shock to MMA fans around the world that Joe Warren, an American Greco Roman wrestler in only his second pro fight, defeated Kid Yamamoto, one of the sport's all-time greats, last week in the Dream Featherweight Grand Prix. But it's not a surprise to Warren.

In an interview with FanHouse, Warren said he expected to beat Yamamoto, and that he expects to win two more fights at Dream 11 in September to be crowned Dream's featherweight champion. He also talked about potentially returning to Greco-Roman wrestling for the 2012 Olympics, and about whether he wants to move his MMA career to the United States. The full interview is below.

Just about every MMA fan would agree that Urijah Faber and Mike Brown, who will battle for the World Extreme Cagefighting title on June 7 at WEC 41, are the two best featherweights in mixed martial arts. But for a long time, a large contingent of MMA fans would have argued that Japan's Kid Yamamoto is actually the best.

That changed Tuesday, when Yamamoto was defeated by the unheralded American Joe Warren. And although that result surprised most of the MMA community, Faber told me on Wednesday that it didn't surprise him.

Ariel Helwani and I are back for another edition of our weekly MMA Podcast, and this week we're as busy as ever, discussing the future of Lyoto Machida and Matt Hughes after their big wins at UFC 98, plus the future of Dream after the surprising loss of Kid Yamamoto and the unsurprising loss of Jose Canseco at Dream 9. Listen below to the best hour of MMA talk you'll hear all day.

Jose Canseco has been retired from Major League Baseball for eight years, but he keeps finding ways to put himself into the headlines. The latest example? He has agreed to fight the 7-foot-2 Korean kickboxer Hong Man Choi in a mixed martial arts tournament in Japan.

Now is a great time to be a fan of small fighters. We just witnessed the best bantamweight card ever at WEC 40, and my list of the Top 10 featherweights in MMA features a whole lot of guys who either won over the weekend or are about to get big tests.

As Joseph Benavidez prepares to fight Jeff Curran Sunday night in the co-main event at WEC 40, he's already given some thought to what a victory would mean.

Benavidez told me Thursday that he views his fight with Curran as one that could establish the winner as the No. 1 contender for the bantamweight title. Bantamweight champion Miguel Torres will defend his title against Takeya Mizugaki in the main event.

Benavidez also talked about the possibility of moving down to 125 pounds, about fighting in Japan and about his friendship with Urijah Faber. The interview is below.

In the above video Eugene Calderon, the trainer for World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight champion Miguel Torres, says he doesn't think anyone can compete with Torres in the 135-pound weight class. And as Torres prepares for his fight with Takeya Mizugaki at WEC 40 on Sunday, that's a big question: Is there anyone bantamweight in the world who can even challenge Torres? And if not, what should Torres do to test himself? In my interview with Torres, I asked him that.