Judo career Geesink first participated in the European Championships in 1951, and placed second in his category. The following year, he won his first European title. Until 1967, 20 more European titles would follow. At the 1961 World Championships, Geesink became World Champion in the open class, defeating the Japanese, who had won all World Championship titles up to that point. Judo debuted as an official sport at the 1964 Summer Olympics, which were held in the sports home country, Japan. Although Japan dominated 3 of the 4 weight divisions (light,middle and heavy), Anton Geesink won the final of the open weight division, defeating Akio Kaminaga in front of his home crowd. After winning the 1965 World Championships and a last European title in 1967, Geesink quit competitive judo. Anton Geesink is the only living 10th dan grade kodansha recognized by the IJF but not by Kodokan. There are three living 10th dan kodanshas recognized by Kodokan: Toshiro Daigo, Ichiro Abe and Yoshimi Osawa. [YT]BtyWMKs7dp0[/YT] [YT]doRaneahGjw[/YT]
Not judo particularly; competitive martial arts in general. Geesink was an extremely dominant competitor in one of the most physically demanding combat sports of the time. He deserves a great deal of credit, and may have been better in an MMA style environment than any of his contemporaries (Bluming possibly excepted). Welcome to the MMA section. :good
geesink is a legend!!!...anyone read judo gene le bell's biography...i found it quite entertaining...i practiced judo for 12 years as a young man and am only now finding out about these old characters...