Gold Medalist Satoshi Ishii Signs With Sengoku
Despite entering exclusive contract negotiations with the UFC in December, Japanese Olympic Judo Gold Medalist Satoshi Ishii has passed on the world’s largest promotion, signing instead with World Victory Road’s Sengoku.
In December, Ishii traveled to Las Vegas to train at Xtreme Couture alongside 5-time UFC champion Randy Couture and attended UFC 92, where he was featured during the pay-per-view broadcast. Though he was rumored to have already signed with the UFC, a deal was apparently never struck, with Ishii opting to make his MMA debut in his home country with Sengoku.
The heavyweight prospect, who earned the gold medal last summer in Beijing in the men’s over 100-kilogram division, is expected to debut before year-end, though no date or opponent has yet been confirmed.
[Pictured: Satoshi Ishii]
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Too bad he’s not going to be in the ufc hw division. It would have been sick to see a judo hw in the worlds best hw div. Either way, it will be interesting to watch this dude. Maybe he wanted to be closer to home? Maybe he wants to work on his overall mma before coming to the ufc?
almost wonder if they wanted him to go on TUF and he refused.
Sad news, this. I’ve been waiting for a quality judo HW in the UFC for a long time, and now it looks like I’ll have to wait a bit longer. Hopefully this Sengoku stopover will allow Ishii to put the polish on his complete MMA game and eventually secure a better UFC contract down the road…
Lawl goto TUF and he refused.. they probably hit him with a retardo contract saying he could no longer fight in japan and that the UFC owns his likeness in video games for the rest of his life and he took a bit of a pay cut to still be able to keep control of his life.
Use ur head kthnx.