Hidehiko Yoshida's legacy

Always loved watching him. He didn’t mind throwing leather AND he had me believe in the 1980’s infatuation again.
 
itheuser said:
He didn't have a choke. The arm wasn't even over the neck. It was being blocked. He wouldn't have died. He would have passed out.

Yoshida yelled to the referee that he was out, and the referee stopped it. Royce popped up instantly and protested. You also forget to mention that in the rematch, Royce dominated him.

It was a blatant hometown call, and those kinds of calls were common in Japanese MMA. They even did it to Royler, calling the match when Sakuraba wasn't even cranking the arm. All they while, the let fighters get bludgeoned to death, and their arms broken.

Worked matches were not uncommon in Pride and basically all forms of Japanese sport.

Yoshida was nothing special, but MMA definitely needs more Judo to help change the predictable handful of wrestling take-downs that dominate American MMA.

All most fighters do is push forward, using more energy, and more predictability, instead of changing directions, and giving way more. Even Jon Jones commented on it.

The take-down game in MMA needs some heavy evolution.

The weird thing about wrestling in MMA is that so little wrestling technique is actually used. it's more about picking from a stable of trainable athletes who already have a ground base, and competitive career.
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Says yoshida is nothing special

Get the fuck outta here
 
itheuser said:
He didn't have a choke. The arm wasn't even over the neck. It was being blocked. He wouldn't have died. He would have passed out.

Yoshida yelled to the referee that he was out, and the referee stopped it. Royce popped up instantly and protested. You also forget to mention that in the rematch, Royce dominated him.

It was a blatant hometown call, and those kinds of calls were common in Japanese MMA. They even did it to Royler, calling the match when Sakuraba wasn't even cranking the arm. All they while, the let fighters get bludgeoned to death, and their arms broken.

Worked matches were not uncommon in Pride and basically all forms of Japanese sport.

Yoshida was nothing special, but MMA definitely needs more Judo to help change the predictable handful of wrestling take-downs that dominate American MMA.

All most fighters do is push forward, using more energy, and more predictability, instead of changing directions, and giving way more. Even Jon Jones commented on it.

The take-down game in MMA needs some heavy evolution.

The weird thing about wrestling in MMA is that so little wrestling technique is actually used. it's more about picking from a stable of trainable athletes who already have a ground base, and competitive career.
Click to expand...

Yoshida was the first step. He helped the guys from the judo community all over the world to say "look there is a professionnal sport life after high level judo carreer".
Think to BJJ, the first black belts in the USA are extremly recent.
In my country (france), every kids tried judo, we have between 600k or 700k judo practionners being part of a gym affiliated to the judo federation. Its only one country, one example, but if those guys can see more Yoshidas, there will be more of them coming to MMA and as you said, the sport will benefit from that.
To me thats why i love yoshida. A gold medal coming with solo judo against those killers was great...and it shows how great and efficient judo is btw
 
amok attitude said:
Yoshida was the first step. He helped the guys from the judo community all over the world to say "look there is a professionnal sport life after high level judo carreer".
Think to BJJ, the first black belts in the USA are extremly recent.
In my country (france), every kids tried judo, we have between 600k or 700k judo practionners being part of a gym affiliated to the judo federation. Its only one country, one example, but if those guys can see more Yoshidas, there will be more of them coming to MMA and as you said, the sport will benefit from that.
To me thats why i love yoshida. A gold medal coming with solo judo against those killers was great...and it shows how great and efficient judo is btw
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You train judo?
 
amok attitude said:
I trained sure. Begun in the 80s as a kid till the 00s.
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How good do you think is Fedors Judo compared to Yoshida

Obviously Fedors a tier below but Fedor competed at heavyweight and Yoshida between 78 to 90 kg. And two guys in his weight class was absolute world class.

Funny thing is Fedor try to paint himself as non judo but Sambo guy.
 
JustOnce said:
How good do you think is Fedors Judo compared to Yoshida

Obviously Fedors a tier below but Fedor competed at heavyweight and Yoshida between 78 to 90 kg. And two guys in his weight class was absolute world class.

Funny thing is Fedor try to paint himself as non judo but Sambo guy.
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Fedor was an Olympic alternate in the Russian national team, medalled in the national championships, he was very good
But Yoshida was Olympic gold medalist which is the elite of the elite
 
lukeuidswords said:
Fedor was an Olympic alternate in the Russian national team, medalled in the national championships, he was very good
But Yoshida was Olympic gold medalist which is the elite of the elite
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Yeah Fedor keeps trying to paint himself as sambo guy tho
 
JustOnce said:
Yeah Fedor keeps trying to paint himself as sambo guy tho
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I think because he was able to represent Russia more as a Sambist in tournaments he feels more pride towards it, his judo career never really took off internationally in the same way
 
He brought Kodokan Judo to mma, revives the Gracie-Kimura rivalry by beating Royce Gracie.
 
Judokas in Pride got no love. Nastula was fed to Big Nog. Yoshida fought and won against a seasoned, complete fighter in Don Frye for his first match.
 
Yoshida kinda replaced Naoya Ogawa as "the judo guy" in Pride, which was good, because Ogawa clearly wasn't really interested in being a MMA fighter.
 
Patrick Jane said:
Yoshida kinda replaced Naoya Ogawa as "the judo guy" in Pride, which was good, because Ogawa clearly wasn't really interested in being a MMA fighter.
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Yoshida pulled off a very slick armbar from the bottom in that fight.
 
Yoshida was originally hired to be their poster boy. (Similar treat rutten received from UFC) . He earned about 3 millions by signing with pride. Although it wasn't confirmed by involved parties, his salary from the ogawa fight was rumored to be about 5 millions, record for the Japanese MMA. As a fighter, he never made it to world rankings but he fought really hard against top foreign fighters that nobody wanted to fight.
 
LouisBolanos said:
Yoshida's greatest legacy was show the world how much judo sucks compared to wrestling as a grappling base.
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Quite the opposite. With little to no cross-training he was competitive against the very elite. Not to mention he was long removed from his prime, he was shot and fought well above his prime weight class (178 lbs).

Compared to the elite wrestlers who tried MMA with little cross-training he was superior. I mean guys like Karam Ibrahim, Katsuhiko Nagata, Istvan Majoros, Eldar Kurtanidze.

EDIT: 78 kg where he won his Olympic gold is actually 172 lbs, not 178.
 
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14.09 said:
Quite the opposite. With little to no cross-training he was competitive against the very elite. Not to mention he was long removed from his prime, he was shot and fought well above his prime weight class (178 lbs).

Compared to the elite wrestlers who tried MMA with little cross-training he was superior. I mean guys like Karam Ibrahim, Katsuhiko Nagata, Istvan Majoros, Eldar Kurtanidze.
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he was actually evolving by the end of his career... see his boxing vs Ishii:

 
Hidehiko Yoshida, certainly underrated. Fought top competiton since his debut always being a tough competitor despite usually giving up in size.

One of the greatest judo based fighters from Jaoan, who were the most among big guys from Asia, along with Kaz Nakamura, Yushin Okami, Dong Hyun Kim and Yoshihiro Akiyama.

A while ago there was this thread about the best Asian big guys ever in mma, which shows Yoshida is pretty underrated.
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/best-big-asian-fighter-ever.3800313/

gono btw said:
he was actually evolving by the end of his career... see his boxing vs Ishii:

Click to expand...


It's fair to say that it was Ishii's professional debut. He looks pretty clueless in there. Ishii became a way more composed fighter standing and a better wrestler. It would be interesting to see Yoshida vs Ishii both in their primes. I would maybe still pick Yoshida.
 
pankrat said:
Hidehiko Yoshida, certainly underrated. Fought top competiton since his debut always being a tough competitor despite usually giving up in size.

One of the greatest judo based fighters from Jaoan, who were the most among big guys from Asia, along with Kaz Nakamura, Yushin Okami, Dong Hyun Kim and Yoshihiro Akiyama.

A while ago there was this thread about the best Asian big guys ever in mma, which shows Yoshida is pretty underrated.
http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/best-big-asian-fighter-ever.3800313/



It's fair to say that it was Ishii's professional debut. He looks pretty clueless in there. Ishii became a way more composed fighter standing and a better wrestler. It would be interesting to see Yoshida vs Ishii both in their primes. I would maybe still pick Yoshida.
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yeah, still..against another rookie, Ogawa, Yoshida wouldnt throw these 1-2..He definitely worked on his boxing imo
 
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