Satoshi Ishii’s Trainer on Challenge to Kazuyuki Fujita and Return to Japan

By MMAEdition on Dec 31, 1969 with Comments 0

Filed under: FanHouse Exclusive, Sengoku, News, Japan

When he announced his intent to move to MMA, Beijing Olympic heavyweight judo gold medalist, Satoshi Ishii, was the hottest free agent in mixed martial arts. He was to be the savior of Japanese MMA. In his debut, Ishii dropped a decision to 1992 Gold Medalist Hidehiko Yoshida on New Years Eve and the hype evaporated.

Since then Ishii has gone 2-0 and most recently had a win in Xplosion in New Zealand over WKBF New Zealand Super Heavyweight Champ Tafa Misipati. After his second low profile fight, Ishii this week announced his intention to step back up to Sengoku Raiden Championships, calling out PRIDE veteran Kazuyuki Fujita. Ray Matsumura has cornered, trained and promoted Ishii and he spoke to MMAFighting.com about the young judoka’s future.