Olympic Judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii signs with FEG

by Stefan Manojlovic on Oct 29, 2008 6:33 PM EDT

Olympic Judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii was set to make his mixed martial arts debut on New Year's Eve at the FieLDS Dynamite show at the end of this year. However it now looks as though he will just be making a brief cameo appearance like Fedor Emelianenko did back at DREAM 6 in September according to our friends at Nightmare of Battle.

While fans may be disappointed that he won't be competing, the good news is he's officially signed with Japan's Fighting & Entertainment Group (FEG) and is expected to compete in an upcoming DREAM event sometime in Spring 2009.

I'm sure he'll elaborate when his fan club holds a celebration party on November 3, but for now he is remaining tight-lipped about the details.

The December 31 Dynamite card features a plethora of top-tier fighters and fan favorites such as Kazushi Sakuraba, Shinya Aoki, Hayato Sakurai, Joachim Hansen, Yoshihiro Sato and many more.

One of the names being kicked around for Ishii's debut according to Tokyo-Sports is fellow Judo gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida (8-6-1). Nothing is certain yet, but both athletes rank very high in the court of public opinion and a fight between them would no doubt be a huge draw.

After winning an Olympic gold medal in Judo this summer in Beijing, many Japanese fans regard Ishii as a national hero. His appearance in and of itself might help to bring Japanese mixed martial arts back into the mainstream like the glory days of PRIDE FC.

After winning his gold medal, Ishii issued an open challenge to heavyweight deity Fedor Emelianenko. I guess he didn’t see what Fedor did to silver medalist Naoya Ogawa at PRIDE Final Conflict back in 2004.

Fedor of course smiled and went about his business, as Ishii has yet to prove that he can transition from Judo to mixed martial arts and a few questions have been raised of his ability to strike - or be struck.

In addition, his Judo Federation doesn’t seem too keen on the idea of him making the jump from Judo to mixed martial arts, despite Ishii's persistence.

This could be the spark that FEG needs to help ignite DREAM's sagging ratings. Unless of course he gets smashed by a journeyman ala Kimbo Slice.

Looks like we'll have to wait until November 3 to find out the rest.

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WOW, this is HUGE NEWS. This will definitely boost their ratings.

by Bill Maher on Oct 29, 2008 6:45 PM EDT reply actions

This kid has some serious hype behind him. It’s nice to see big prospects from outside of the wrestling world. His work ethic and vast natural talent can really be something too if he doesn’t want to be a waste like Yoshida.

by NameNotRequired on Oct 29, 2008 7:23 PM EDT up reply actions

Yoshida was older when he got in the game. Ishii isn’t even 22. By the time he is in his prime in about 8 years, he will be a beast

by Bill Maher on Oct 29, 2008 7:45 PM EDT up reply actions

Good point Maher, but why would Ishii make such a stupid challenge to fight Fedor,,, seems like he’s got some unrealistic immediate expectations of himself at this time, but if he’s dedicated, I’m sure he’ll learn.

by THORAZINE on Oct 30, 2008 12:03 AM EDT up reply actions

God i hope he comes to the ufc but for some reason the japanese fighters dont want to come over here.

by JRV on Oct 29, 2008 7:11 PM EDT reply actions

because he is probably going to be betting paid more than the UFC would ever offer him.

by Bill Maher on Oct 29, 2008 8:14 PM EDT up reply actions

hope he comes to the ufc but 4 some reason japanese fighters dont like to come here

by JRV on Oct 29, 2008 7:12 PM EDT reply actions

I can not believe they compared A 21 year old Olympian to Kimbo, rofl. Kimbo is 34 and had no formal training. Ishii is only 21 and is already a master of Judo.

I know they mean that DREAM banking on him, but Dream has a ton of other people and are way smarter than EliteXC (afterall, they at the very least didn’t buy out a slew of people and get into huge debt over it), so I think they have very different business strategies.

by Bill Maher on Oct 29, 2008 7:50 PM EDT reply actions

Yes DREAM have a ton of stars but even they haven’t been helping get them the ratings they were hoping for. Obviously not comparing Ishii with Kimbo skill wise, but if he gets beat by a no one a lot of people will be dissapointed and those people who tune in just for him that are boosting the ratings won’t do again most likely, this guy is huge in Japan right now. Hopefully he can be successful, he certainly has the skills to be…time will tell.

by Stefan Manojlovic on Oct 29, 2008 8:02 PM EDT up reply actions