Japanese gold-medalist judoka Satoshi Ishii (0-0) looks to make his MMA debut at Sengoku's year-end event, and World Victory Road today revealed his opponent. Ishii well meet fellow Olympic gold-medalist Hidehiko Yoshida (8-7-1) at an as-yet-unannounced year-end event for the organization. World Victory Road officials also announced that a name change may be in the works for the Sengoku series, and further details regarding the Ishii vs. Yoshida fight including an exact date will be released before the end of the month. Japanese fight fans are expected to take a keen interest in the bout between two national heroes. The 240-pound Ishii has been heavily courted by several MMA organizations, including the UFC, following his gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Games. The 22-year-old is considered among the worlds' top heavyweight prospects based on his success as a judoka. Yoshida earned his Olympic gold at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Yoshida is also a four-time medalist at the World Championships. Yoshida is currently mired in a 1-4 slump in MMA, but the 40-year-old has never hesitated to take on the world's best fighters as witnessed by a career record that includes Josh Barnett, Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, Wanderlei Silva, Mark Hunt, Royce Gracie and Don Frye. Interesting debut. Ishii is going to be a very good prospect to watch. But a debut vs Yoshida? He's not mucking about. I hope he stays on the Japanese circuit as well as he said he wanted to come to the UFC.
Even though Yoshida isn't the same fighter he was a few years back its not a easy debut fight. Interested to see how Ishii does, have read a lot of positive stuff about the guy.
The Japanese will eat this **** up. Good move by Sengoku imo. Not a bad first fight either really although I fully expect Ishii to win comfortably.
