is a Japanese professional mixed martial artist who gained international fame in Pride Fighting Championships. Later in his career, Gomi also competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Gomi is the only Pride FC Lightweight Champion in the organization's history. He became the Lightweight Grand Prix Winner at Pride Shockwave 2005, thus winning every lightweight accolade put forth by Pride FC. Gomi also held a record twelve-fight winning streak in Shooto, where he was a former Shooto Lightweight Champion, as well as a four-time All-Japan Combat Wrestling Champion. Nicknamed "The Fireball Kid", Gomi had a ten-fight winning streak spanning 2004 to 2006 in Pride FC, the longest in the organization's history. During this streak, Gomi knocked out Ralph Gracie in six seconds, the quickest knockout victory in Pride FC history. Gomi later defeated Tatsuya Kawajiri (voted Pride FC's Fight of the Year), Luiz Azeredo, and Hayato Sakurai en route to becoming Pride FC's 2005 Lightweight Grand Prix Winner, after which he was awarded the Pride FC Lightweight Championship. At Pride Bushido 13, Gomi successfully defended the title against Marcus Aurélio. Throughout both his record-breaking Pride FC and Shooto championship reigns, Gomi was considered to be the top lightweights in the world and is regarded as one of the greatest lightweight fighters in the history of mixed martial arts. Biography Gomi was born in Kanagawa, Japan in 1978 and started boxing at Sagamihara Yonekura Gym in 1994 while he was attending Kanagawa Prefectural Aikawa Higashi Junior High School. Gomi was athletic and the pitcher of the school's baseball team, but dropped out of high school in 1996 when he failed to pass on to the next grade. This caused an argument between Gomi and his father who disowned him as a result of the incident. Gomi then went on to learn freestyle wrestling and catch wrestling at Kiguchi Dojo and competed in many wrestling tournaments throughout Japan, the pinnacle of his grappling career being his four All-Japan Combat Wrestling championships, in which he defeated a number of the nation's top grapplers, future opponent Mitsuhiro Ishida amongst them. Mixed martial arts career Shooto Gomi joined the official Shooto gym in 1997 where he began training and taking part in the amateur Shooto competitions. He made his professional mixed martial arts debut on November 27, 1998 at Shooto Las Grandes Viajes 6 in Tokyo, where he defeated Hiroshi Tsuruya by decision. Gomi won his