Norifumi Yamamoto

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Norifumi Yamamoto

Statistics
Nickname	Kid
Height	5 ft 4 in (163 cm)
Weight	143 lb (65 kg)
Born	March 10, 1977
Fighting out of	Tokyo, Japan
Town of birth	Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan
Fighting style	Freestyle wrestling, folkstyle wrestling kickboxing
Mixed martial arts record
Wins	15
By knockout	11
By submission	2
Losses	1
Draws	0
No contests	1

Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto (山本"KID"徳郁 (, 山本"KID"徳郁^?), birth date March 15, 1977) is a Japanese mixed martial arts fighter. He is associated with Purebred Tokyo and Killer Bee. He quickly gained popularity in the Shooto organization due to his aggressive, well-rounded style and controversial persona. He moved on to K-1 HERO'S, where he won their tournament in December, 2005 after defeating Genki Sudo via a controversial TKO due to punches. He also holds a win over Caol Uno, who is considered one of the best lightweights in MMA.

Yamamoto comes from a wrestler-family as his father Ikuei Yamamoto represented Japan at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich and his sister Seiko competes at International level[1][2]. Norifumi wrestled during his high school years in the United States and trained briefly under Choi Mu Bae [3]. Wrestling at Marcos de Niza High School in Tempe, Arizona, Yamamoto achieved great success in his exploits, capturing 3 state championships in 4 years, along with a 3rd place finish as a freshman.

Perhaps most impressive about Yamamoto's career is that he has fought many fights in the lightweight (155 lbs.) division, despite the fact that he is a natural featherweight (145 lbs.) Because many of his opponents cut weight in order to fight, it is not uncommon for Yamamoto's opponents to be 20 to 30 pounds heavier than him.

Yamamoto recently announced an indefinite leave of absence from MMA to train for and compete in freestyle wrestling for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.^[1]