Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Flyweights

8. Shinichi Kojima

Much like with the 10th entry, Yasuhiro Urushitani, I was unfamiliar with Kojima before the voting was finalized and am now scratching my head about why he was included. And unlike with 10th place, far better inclusions were certainly available, such as John Dodson and Kyoji Horiguchi. Kojima was a Shooto legend with outstanding wrestling, especially for the mid-2000s in Japan. Unfortunately, that was almost all he had. “BJ” tangled twice with Urushitani, both fights ending in draws, and thrice with Mamoru Yamaguchi, whom we will discuss later, garnering two wins and a draw. However, as soon as Kojima faced better competition that could stifle his wrestling attack, he lost. In back-to-back fights, he lost by decision to Eduardo Dantas, who was only 2-1 at the time, and was then submitted by So Tazawa. Considering that Dantas wasn't even close to his prime and would be unlikely to make an all-time top 30 bantamweight list, that's saying a lot. And Kojima was hardly past his prime either, being 28 for those bouts. He came back with his second win over Yamaguchi before losing to a young Jussier Formiga, which is forgivable, and then to 5-4 journeyman Nam Jin Jo, which isn't. Yeah, I don't get it, either.

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