"It was a complete, utter defeat. Reflecting on the fight, I have thoughts like, ‘I should have done this, I should have done that,' but they are indications that my ability as a fighter proved insufficient. Sonnen was tough. When I stuffed the first take down, I found myself in the clinch position which is normally my domain; however, I was surprised to be scooped up from underneath and thrown on the mat when I tried to fire off a knee from the position. He was more powerful than I imagined, and left me confounded as to what I should do next, and he kept up with his offense. I have never experienced anything like this before. For this fight, I had the best training possible, so I am disappointed about this loss. At the same time, I think I saw the limitation of the environment in which I find myself in (in terms of training). In Japan, I inevitably face a shortage of training partners and I often find myself on the offensive during training. Though I try to improve and diversify my training routine, I probably hit the ceiling at some point. I have the option of uprooting myself and training overseas... if I continue to train in Japan, I feel that I will end up becoming complacent, so I want to go back to square one and challenge myself. I feel that there is a need for me to train with training partners who are bigger than me. In order to win in UFC, I have trained to not be taken down and end up on the bottom on the ground; I thought I had the right approach, but I had not thought about what I would do if I did end up in a disadvantageous position. I was lax in my approach. Losing my passport? It had no bearing on the fight. With all that said, I am very glad that I got to fight a tough fighter like Chael Sonnen. I am disappointed because I have never experienced a loss like this - it is up to me use this as a learning experience, so I would like to carefully ruminate how I can improve and implement (what I learned) in my fights."  - Yushin Okami

UFC middleweight Yushin Okami reveals his thoughts via MMAplanet.jp about his loss against Team Quest's Chael Sonnen at this past weekend's UFC 104 event. Sonnen pushed the action and brought the fight to Okami, which seemed to make Okami uncomfortable, and, at times, he actually out-grappled and over-powered Okami en route to a unanimous decision win.

The loss knocks Okami out of title contention, which many fans felt that he deserved.  Fans also felt that the UFC was dogging him for a title shot due to his perceived unmarketable appeal, notorious slow starts and a fighting style that is sometimes labeled boring. Okami is the last man to defeat UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva at Rumble on the Rock 8 in Dec. 2006. The fight was ruled a disqualification in Okami's favor after Silva delivered an illegal upkick to Okami's face

The UFC 104 bout was Okami's first fight of 2009, as his last bout dated back almost a year ago, to Dec. 2008. He was originally slated to take on Dan Miller at UFC 98 in May, however, he was pulled from the event after tearing ligaments in his knee.

Okami mentioned that his training at his longtime home of Wajutsu Keishukai might have...