I think this guy gets overlooked all the time when people are talking about the legends of the sports. I mean, take a look at Khabib who combines Judo and wrestling as well as anyone. But, if you are really looking at someone who one tricked wrestling into domination, especially someone who had legit world class wrestling resume, literally one tricked his way into success with wrestling, it would have to be Ben Askren, who I think would ragdoll Khabib at welterweight.
I tried Judo but never stuck around with it too long at all, but Judo has always been one of martial arts that I was fond of, similar to boxing. There really never was any boxing gyms around when I was growing up
Nobody one-tricked Judo like Yoshida was able to. There is no one in the history of MMA, who one tricked Judo like Yoshida was able to, and his throws were thing of a beauty. Someone always mention Ronda, but I mean, who really cares about female athletes when talking about greatness in other sports? Never in my life I've seen that in any other sports, till WMMA became a thing, which I think is ridiculous, and Yoshida's Judo accomplishment make Ronda's look like that of a child anyway, and that of Karo Parysian a special olympic athlete's.
I feel like no one really blended wrestling and Judo to dominate like Khabib does. Whether it's to a great deal a credit to Sambo, it's up to a debate I suppose, and no one really dominated with wrestling like Askren did, and same can be said of Yoshida.
This guy had a legendary grappling match with Royce, in which in all fairness Yoshida should have been rewarded a victory, went toe to toe with Wanderlei Silva in his peak prime, fought OWGP Crocop, and fought and got suplexed more than once by Josh Barnett in Japan, whatever he may have been on, beat Mark Hunt, when this guy has a Judo olympic gold medal at fricking 170 pounds.
You know, in this day and age, complete scrubs like Matt Serra is going into hall of fame, and gets called a legend, I mean, no offense to Matt Serra, but that's the truth, but real legends like Hidehiko Yoshida gets overlooked. He doesn't have the best record out there, but he fought top heavyweights and arguablly the best light heavyweight at that point in time, when this guy competed at welterweights in Judo, while literally having shit striking and showing how strong his choice of martial arts could be, and having an epic grappling victory, in my book anyways, against Gracies and make them butthurt once again, which is always a pleasure to see.
Khabib one tricks wrestling/Judo as well as anyone but Ben Askren would make Khabib look like Conor in a wrestling match, just like Yoshida would in a Judo match. There's one of the biggest fight of all time coming up between two one-tricks in Conor and Khabib, and let's not forget to give some respect to a real legend like Yoshida once a while, the best Judo one trick of all time.
