Dana White: “Kid” Yamamoto vs. “Mighty Mouse” Fight to Stream Live on Facebook

Japanese MMA sensation "Kid" Yamamoto makes his UFC debut this Saturday night against Demetrious Johnson at UFC 126. The bout will air live on Facebook. (Photo courtesy of Taro Irei and Sherdog)

At today’s UFC 126: Silva vs. Belfort pre-fight press conference, UFC President Dana White announced that the preliminary card bout between the highly touted “Kid” Norifumi Yamamoto (15-2-1) and “Mighty Mouse” Demetrious Johnson (10-1) will stream live on Facebook this Saturday night.

MMA fans have anticipated the UFC debut of Yamamoto for quite some time, and will get their wish this Saturday night. “Kid” Yamamoto is a Japanese mixed martial artist and kickboxer that has quickly gained popularity in the Shooto organization largely due to his aggressive style, well rounded skill set, and often controversial character. He also is a PRIDE and K-1 veteran, for the latter of which he holds the record for the fastest knockout in the organization’s Hero’s history with a four second flying knee KO over Kazuyuki Miyata (7-6) in 2006. Throughout his career, “Kid” has earned 11 TKO/KO, one submission, and three decision victories. His pair of losses are split between TKO and Split Decision, respectively. The southpaw Yamamoto fought as a lightweight to start his career in 2001 and descended the divisions to fight at featherweight from 2002-2009 and finally made his home at bantamweight just last year.

Yamamoto’s opponent “Mighty Mouse” Demetrious Johnson is also making his UFC debut this Saturday, having made the cut following the recent UFC/WEC merger at the end of 2010. Aside from gracing the WEC cage, the small but mighty bantamweight is also a veteran of the King of the Cage promotion and has been fighting professionally for the better part of four years. Johnson has a wrestling background but has shown impressive growth in his fight game. Three of Johnson’s total victories have come by way of (technical) knockout, accompanied by five submissions and two decisions. His sole loss was via Unanimous Decision to Bradley Picket (18-5) at WEC 48 last April.

At the press conference UFC Middleweight Champion “The Spider” Anderson Silva (27-4), title challenger “The Phenom” Vitor Belfort (19-8), “Ace” Rich Franklin (27-5), Forrest Griffin (17-6), “Bones” Jon Jones (11-1), and “Darth” Ryan Bader (12-0) also discussed their upcoming fights. Click here to see the UFC 126 pre-fight press conference in its entirety.