ONE Championship Lands Former UFC Middleweight Yushin Okami

Yushin Okami is now a member of the ONE Championship roster.

Okami has 47 professional mixed martial arts bouts. While he has competed in Pancrase and Rumble on the Rock, “Thunder” has spent most of his fighting career under the UFC banner. In fact, he last competed in the UFC back in December.

ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong took to Twitter to reveal that Okami has signed with the promotion:

“Please join me in welcoming Japanese MMA legend Yushin Okami to ONE Championship!”

Okami challenged for the UFC middleweight gold back in Aug. 2011. Anderson Silva was the 185-pound title holder at the time. Okami was on a three-fight winning streak going into that bout, but fell to “The Spider” in the second round. Okami ended his first UFC run with a record of 13-5. His second UFC run was a different story, going 1-2.

ONE Championship has been making moves in an effort to have global success. The Singapore-based promotion has scooped up Demetrious Johnson, Eddie Alvarez, and Sage Northcutt. They also landed a television deal with TNT, which will also make use of the B/R Live streaming service.