Andrews Nakahara is a highly decorated Kyokushin karate competitor, and one of the most compelling prospects in the middleweight division. Among his many accomplishments, Nakahara is a former South American and All-American Open Karate Champion and holds a win (in karate) over former Kyokushin Champion, and current K-1 heavyweight prospect Ewerton Teixera. Training under famed kickboxing coach Francisco Filho, Nakahara's unique brand of standup has transitioned over very nicely to mixed martial arts where he has displayed a wide variety of effective striking abilities. Light on his feet, Nakahara possesses quick, snapping kicks that he can throw with equal precision to any part of the body, and has been particularly effective in incorporating excellent leg kicks and "Brazilian Kicks" into his standup repertoire. Nakahara also has a fast set of hands, is a solid counter puncher, is good at staying just outside his opponents range and overall displays excellent awareness and a uniquely polished striking game on his feet.

In the grappling department Nakahara is still very green, and did enter the sport without any sort of grappling base. Nakahara has been put in trouble when the fight has hit the ground and will need to continue working on rounding out his game. He was able to thwart most of Kazushi Sakuraba's early takedown attempts and was winning the standup battle before eventually being taken down and submitted. In his bout with Yoon Dong Sik, again Nakahara was winning the standup battle but was eventually taken down and mounted for a long period of time (see below) before coming back to win the bout. While it's definitely a concern that Nakahara's ground skills are raw, he has shown very good takedown defense, displayed good instincts on the ground, recently earned his BJJ blue belt and does possess very good potential as an MMA grappler. Nakahara is comfortable fighting from top position or off his back, will actively look for sweeps and submissions (see him smoothly transition to an omoplata attempt against Dong Sik Yoon below), and has displayed remarkable poise and composure for a fighter with a striking background on the ground. He'll need to continue working on his takedown defense and ground skills, but Nakahara has shown the promise of developing a competent ground game to compliment his already sound striking skills.