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Shukan Gendai story on Kid Yamamoto
By Zach Arnold | July 18, 2008
They went after PRIDE and caused massive headaches for the company’s backers. Now they’re aiming their sights on Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto.
In the newest edition of Shukan Gendai, the publication has a six-page article (p. 16 ~ 22) with allegations that Yamamoto is involved in “marijuana parties” with a famous actor. The article claims that an undercover policewoman, followed by 10 officers, got a search warrant and checked out a fashion building in Harajuku.
The magazine claims that the room had a sweet herbal smell and that neighbors had supposedly complained about cars in the driveway playing reggae music, and that tattooed guys were regularly hanging out at the place until the early hours of the morning. The article further claims that neighbors had complained to the police about Yamamoto hanging around the area.
Despite a two-hour search, no marijuana was found in the room. However, Gendai claims that several people have stated that they smoked with Kid in the office room.
Further allegations in the article include the following:
A number of joints were flushed down the toilet when police came to the party. The parties allegedly have 5-8 people at a time. The magazine claims that Yamamoto smokes in front of family members (kids?), but that he stops smoking a couple of weeks before fighting.
Yamamoto was quoted as saying that someone who is jealous of him made claims to the police and that the police never found anything incriminating.
In Japan, the stigma of being associated with marijuana is very bad PR and can be very damaging to one’s career. It’s clear that some entity or some person is after Yamamoto and that he has a big red target on his back right now.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, K-1, MMA, Media, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
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