Today we’re talking about Japan’s hottest prospect. He’s tricky, creative, and very young. Can he take the necessary step forward this weekend in his first main even slot?

The birthplace of modern MMA has yet to produce a UFC Champion. That’s right, no Japanese person has ever worn UFC gold. It’s not like the country has no outlet for the sport either.

Today Rizin is the face of Japanese MMA promotions. Before them, DREAM, Pride, Sengoku, and others scouted, developed, and promoted Japanese talent. One small Japanese promotion has been plugging away in the background since before the UFC started, Shooto.

Shooto started promoting fights in the 80’s. The plan was to create a sport around real fighting, separate from pro wrestling. Since then, Shooto crowned legendary Japanese champions like Hayato Sakurai and Kyoji Horiguchi. In fact, Anderson Silva’s first world title was actually Shooto’s 168 pound belt.

Countless other Japanese fighters have risen through Shooto’s ranks to make it to the UFC. This weekend one of their champions is getting their first UFC main event slot. Tatsuro Taira is the latest Japanese champion to leave Shooto on his quest for UFC gold. Taira is only 24 but his game shows rare maturity

Oftentimes, the only thing that separates a good fighter from the elite is how well they know themselves. Do they understand which of their weapons is sharpest, when to use them, and where they’re least likely to lose?

That’s the thing that stands out the most about Tatsuro Taira. All of his attacks advance him towards angles where he can hurt you but you can’t really counter, or they keep you off him.

Let’s look at how Taira uses his long weapons to take his opponents out.

Taira is a big for his division. The 24 year old fights at 125 but stands at 5’7”, two inches taller than his division’s average. His strikes make good use of that length.

In general Taira is all the way in to shoot for takedowns or all the way out launching straight rights and kicks. Those long strikes serve three general purposes.

First and foremost, they keep him at a safer distance. He can hurt you, but you can’t readily return fire.

When opponents come in and extend, Taira simply intercepts their offense with takedowns.

Ultimately, Taira is trying to get his opponents to the fence. That’s where he has a better chance of taking them down.

When opponents get past Taira’s long strikes and try to take him down, Taira uses those same knees to punish them. Then he’ll circle out to get back to his range where he can hurt you but can’t strike back.

Generally Taira’s striking is a means to an end. It keeps him safe or gets him to a position where he can grapple.

Taira has a good shot but he doesn’t usually take people off of their feet immediately. Instead he enters the clinch and climbs to a position where he can accumulate control time, hurt his opponents, and get closer to submissions. Most of his takedowns come on the cage.

Above we saw Taira swing to the back after striking back at advancing opponent. Let’s look at how he leads now.

Undoubtedly, the best part of Taira’s game happens on the floor.

My favorite part of Taira’s game is his passing and submissions. He uses his length to smother opponents as he progresses through control positions. As they try to scramble he takes advantage of their misplaced hands for smooth grip fighting that often ends in his striking, or submissions.

Taira also uses the threat of submissions to transition back to better spots.

It’s clear Taira is a student of the game. He uses modern jiujitsu techniques to take away his opponents hands so they can’t frame nor fight back.

Here Taira uses what is known as a straight jacket to take one of his opponent’s hands away.

Taira did not have the proper angle to finish the choke and Candelario survived. That didn’t stop Taira from overwhelming him with back attacks.

Another common gripping attack Taira uses is the gift wrap. Above we saw Taira use it to drop an elbow. Below we can see him use it in combination with a high mount and cross faces to get the submission.

And if you reach out in any direction, Taira will use that space to take your limbs home with him.

Taira is generally seen as a grappler but really he’s a modern MMA native. He combines striking with grappling to regularly advance his offense. If there’s one sequence that best summarizes his game it’s this.

After styling on his first five UFC opponent’s, Taira is getting dropped into the deep end. This weekend Taira takes on former UFC flyweight title challenger Alex Perez. It’s one of those fights where each other’s offense works directly against the other’s liabilities.

Perez is generally a straight forward wrestle-boxer. He stands in the center of the cage and bites down on his mouthpiece before launching heavy punches from both hands. He’s not a creative kicker, but he sneaks hard leg kicks in between exchanges.

Taira has a bad habit of eating leg kicks and left hands. Perez throws both of those hard and heavy. On the flip side, Perez’s main loss type has been submission. I’m just not sure if Taira can get to one.

Taira is good at getting into clinches, but I’m not sure if he can push Perez to the fence to make use of it. The former college wrestler circles and scramble better than most fighters in the division.

There are two questions that define the fight. Can Taira get to a favorable grappling exchange without getting hurt? Or, is Perez going to get stuck outside of Taira’s long rights and head kicks?

We’ll be here to breakdown the action either way.