Ishii to enter mma

Pingu

21 year old Ishii, who took gold in the +100kg Judo category in Beijing has been dropped by the All Japan Judo Federation as he plans to enter mma.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/sports/view/olympic-champ-ishii-plans-to-turn-professional-martial-artist

There doesn't seem to be any other details yet as of where or with whom. He has called out Fedor in the past, but being dropped by the Judo Federation is the first sign that it's for real.

Roper

Wait?
Oh Ren Ishii?
Half Chinese half Japanesee?


Never mind...

Pingu

Now i'm confused. It's Satoshi Ishii.

Dragan

Rumours abound about some announcements from one or two of the American Wrestlers as well.

Fozzy

That's odd. After he publicly said that he wants to fight Fedor he changed his mind and said that he's set on competing in the next two Olympics. The MMA scene in Japan is dying rapidly, I'm not sure if that's a smart idea for him at the moment

dlofnep

There was talks of him and fedor fighting for the NYE card a while back.

Nothingcompares

Even someone with the natural grappling ability, athleticism and spirit of Ishii would need 3/4 years of proper mma training before even being discussed in the same sentance as Fedor.

Fozzy

Nothingcompares wrote: »

Even someone with the natural grappling ability, athleticism and spirit of Ishii would need 3/4 years of proper mma training before even being discussed in the same sentance as Fedor.

The key though is that he could be a huge draw in Japan in the vein of Yoshida. MMA is on a big downturn in Japan at the moment and a guy like Ishii could possibly turn things around to a degree

dlofnep

Nothingcompares wrote: »

Even someone with the natural grappling ability, athleticism and spirit of Ishii would need 3/4 years of proper mma training before even being discussed in the same sentance as Fedor.

Correct!

Pingu

Fedor has stated that it is too early for a fight like that to happen.

"I think it's too soon for him to fight me," Fedor told DREAM. "I'm very happy to train with him whenever he comes to Russia. I heard he said he has desire to be the strongest guy in the world. I think his ambition is too unrealistic to realize for now. He is young, so it's important to take his time to gain techniques, knowledge and experiences."

Once he takes the time he needs to adapt he'll be fine, unlike Yoshida he's alot younger (21) so he can take his time to adapt. Saito has He also cross trains in wrestling and BJJ, he's a brown belt.

Fozzy

There's a report in this week's Wrestling Observer on Ishii. On Sunday he had told some judo officials that he wouldn't be going to MMA. On Monday there was a TV report on Japan's public broadcast channel saying that he was going to MMA. On Tuesday Ishii held a press conference and said that he's not going to MMA, he's focused on graduating from college and he has no time for MMA. He also said that he wants to win another gold medal at the 2012 Olympics

Going by that piece, I underestimated just how big a draw Ishii would be in MMA. Sounds like he'd be up there with Sapp, Cro Cop, Wanderlei, Akiyama and Yoshida