Issue 100

April 2013

SHOOTO: TREASURE HUNT 6, 5TH MAY 2002

STEPHEN PALING VS ‘KID’ YAMAMOTO

They all count, as they say. In 2002, in Japan, a pre-legend status ‘Kid’ Yamamoto might have suffered his first defeat due to a doctor’s decision, because of a cut during a double-leg attempt courtesy of a knee from Hawaiian boxer Stephen Paling, but a loss is a loss and it was Yamamoto’s only ‘L’ throughout his entire reign as the best featherweight on the planet during the mid 2000s.

Paling and Yamamoto’s encounter, at Shooto: Treasure Hunt 6 in Tokyo’s famous Korakuen Hall, only lasted 30 seconds but the duration, nor the method of the finish, made much difference to Paling. “I was happy with the victory,” he tells FO, of the forehead gash doctor TKO that left Yamamoto distraught. “He got cut but a win is a win – the way I look at it.”

Paling was forced into retirement with an 11-7-1 record after suffering a broken orbital bone incurred in a war for the ages with Jens Pulver in 2004. Although he’s left the sport behind and continues to run the same business he has for 17 years, Paling & Son’s Trucking in Waianae, Hawaii, ‘Bozo’ still remembers the day he defeated the current UFC bantamweight and the man who would become one the most feared featherweights in the world.

You fought ‘Kid’ Yamamoto in only the fifth fight of his career but did he already have a reputation?

“I was traveling to Japan a lot, and, I guess, they were really pumping this kid up. I watched a couple of his fights and I knew this kid was just arrogant, real aggressive, and obviously if you watch his fights he doesn’t obey the refs (laughs). So I was just thinking when I’d seen him fight, ‘Man, this kid is out of control.’ But skill wise I thought his wrestling was superior and he had heart. When this kid came in the ring he came to fight and he came to do damage, you know?”

What was your game plan?

“To catch him with a knee. Doing interviews I heard he was going to stand with me. His stand-up wasn’t too superior and I was thinking, ‘If he’s going to stand with me I’ll eventually knock him out.’ That was my game, but that particular fight I was actually doing a lot of defense on takedowns and a lot of drills on kneeing. Just having guys shooting on me and practicing the timing of getting that knee.”

Did you speak to him before or after the fight itself?

“After the fight he asked me, he wanted a rematch. But my goal was to achieve the belt (Shooto, 143lb). I was actually trying to get to (Alexandre) Franca Nogueira.”

Yamamoto went on a 14-fight win streak after your fight, and has since joined the UFC’s bantamweight division. Do you feel you could beat him if you fought him again?

“If I had the right amount of time of training, for me, I was always a fighter so I always had an attitude that I could beat anybody. And I still have that attitude in me. It’s something that never did leave me. Would I be able to do it today? Maybe not. But if I’m going to get into a fight, I’m coming in with the attitude where, ‘I’m going to beat you.’ That’s just the way I’ve always been, and whether I could beat you or not, I’ve always had that attitude… But definitely his skill level is at a whole different, new level. But if you’re asking if I wanted to fight him now? Nah (laughs). 

“After my last fight I had an injury in my eye, my socket was fractured, so that’s why I had to stop fighting. It took me two years to actually leave the gym. I had a hard time not fighting. So I had to really remove myself out of the game. Now, I’m alright. I can go and watch fights and not get that urge to start training so I can get in the ring again.”