Japanese professional wrestler and mixed martial arts fighter
Hirotaka Yokoi
(
?井宏考
)
(born June 8, 1978) is a Japanese former
mixed martial artist
and
professional wrestler
. A professional MMA competitor from 2000 until 2007, Yokoi fought for
PRIDE
,
Shooto
,
RINGS
, and
DEEP
,
[1]
[2]
[3]
while in professional wrestling he wrestled mainly for
Pro Wrestling Zero1
.
Mixed martial arts career
[
edit
]
Yokoi originally started training in
Judo
in high school, but he was more interested in
Universal Wrestling Federation
and its offshoots. He participated at a
Shooto
mixed martial arts tournament during his stay at the
Kinki University
, and later moved to
Fighting Network RINGS
. Yokoi gained the nickname "Kaibutsu-kun" (meaning "Monster-kun") for his physical resemblance to the title character from the 1980s
anime
series
Kaibutsu-kun
.
[1]
Fighting Network RINGS
[
edit
]
Yokoi made his professional debut in 2000 and won his first eight fights, mostly fighting in the
RINGS
organization before moving to compete in
PRIDE
. After RINGS's demise, he followed fellow judoka
Tsuyoshi Kohsaka
and joined his Alliance team.
PRIDE Fighting Championships
[
edit
]
Yokoi made his debut for the organization on November 24, 2002 at
Pride 23
against Dutch
kickboxer
Jerrel Venetiaan
, winning in the third round via
armbar
submission.
After picking up a
TKO
win over
Wilson Gouveia
, the undefeated Yokoi fought former
Pride Heavyweight Champion
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
in the opening round of the
Pride Total Elimination 2004
tournament. Yokoi performed unexpectedly well,
[1]
taking Nogueira down repeatedly with judo throws and pulling out reversals and occasional
ground and pound
on the Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert, but he ultimately fell to an
anaconda choke
in the second round for the first loss of his career.
At PRIDE 28, Yokoi faced
Heath Herring
, but he was soon overwhelmed with a right hook and multiple knees, including illegal strikes to the back to the head that granted Herring a warning. He eventually lost the fight by TKO in the same way. Yokoi looked to make up for his defeat at the next event by taking on
Mario Sperry
, Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion and Nogueira's trainer, but after an uneventful round of clinch striking Yokoi was again downed and hit with knees and soccer kicks for the TKO.
Yokoi's final fight in PRIDE was at PRIDE 30, where he faced
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
. Yokoi showed himself active again, gaining dominant position with an early
omoplata
sweep
, but Jackson used his superior strength to reverse him and threw heavy punches and kicks until the referee stopped the match.
Post-PRIDE
[
edit
]
Yokoi bounced back with a win via
rear-naked choke
submission win a year after last fight and then fought again a year later in Finland, losing via TKO. With a career record of 11-5, having won only one of his last six fights, Yokoi retired.
Professional wrestling career
[
edit
]
Pro Wrestling Zero1 (2002?2007)
[
edit
]
Yokoi joined
Pro Wrestling Zero1
in May 2002. He started teaming up with other
shoot-style
wrestlers, namely
Wataru Sakata
,
Yuki Ishikawa
and
Yoshiaki Fujiwara
, and also enjoyed significant wins in the
Fire Festival
, beating
Kohei Sato
and
Tetsuhiro Kuroda
. He spent the rest of the year in random tag team matches, as well as losing efforts to
Shinjiro Otani
and Kazuhiko Ogasawara. Eventually, he formed a tag team with Kohei Sato in midst of the
feud
between the native wrestlers and
Steve Corino
's American faction, and they challenged Corino and
CW Anderson
for the
NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship
in two separate occasions, though coming short in both.
Around the same time, in which their team was named as Rowdy, they started appearing in
All Japan Pro Wrestling
as Zero-One representatives. Sato and Yokoi put their eyes in the
All Asia Tag Team Championship
, taking part in a special league for the vacated title. Rowdy was successful, winning the belts against Turmeric Storm (
Kazushi Miyamoto
and
Tomoaki Honma
) in July 2003. They retained the title against challengers like King Adamo and
King Joe
and Nobukazu Hirai and Shigeo Okumura, but ended up losing it in October to the Zero-One team of
Kintaro Kanemura
and Tetsuhiro Kuroda.
After the All Japan affair, Yokoi diversified to his singles career aside from Rowdy, and challenged
The Predator
for the Zero-One United States Heavyweight Championship and
Masato Tanaka
for the
NWA United National Heavyweight Championship
. He and Sato also challenged for the NWA tag team titles several times, but they failed. From 2004 to 2006, Yokoi competed sporadically in
Hustle
as a member of the
babyface
Hustle Army, teaming up with "Hustle K"
Toshiaki Kawada
, while trying luck in Zero-One's
Fire Festival
tournaments and keeping his team with Kohei Sato. He was released from Zero-One in February 2007, leaving pro wrestling altogether.
Championship and accomplishments
[
edit
]
Mixed martial arts record
[
edit
]
Professional record breakdown
16 matches
|
11 wins
|
5 losses
|
By knockout
|
2
|
4
|
By submission
|
5
|
1
|
By decision
|
4
|
0
|
Res.
|
Record
|
Opponent
|
Method
|
Event
|
Date
|
Round
|
Time
|
Location
|
Notes
|
Loss
|
11?5
|
Mikko Rupponen
|
TKO (strikes)
|
Fight Festival 21
|
March 17, 2007
|
1
|
2:51
|
Finland
|
|
Win
|
11?4
|
Andre Fyeet
|
Submission (rear-naked choke)
|
World Pro Fighting Championships 1
|
September 15, 2006
|
1
|
3:11
|
Nevada
, United States
|
|
Loss
|
10?4
|
Quinton Jackson
|
TKO (punches and stomps)
|
PRIDE 30
|
October 23, 2005
|
1
|
4:05
|
Saitama
, Japan
|
|
Loss
|
10?3
|
Mario Sperry
|
TKO (knees)
|
PRIDE 29
|
February 20, 2005
|
1
|
9:08
|
Saitama
, Japan
|
Return to
Light Heavyweight
.
|
Loss
|
10?2
|
Heath Herring
|
TKO (knees)
|
PRIDE 28
|
October 31, 2004
|
1
|
1:55
|
Saitama
, Japan
|
|
Loss
|
10?1
|
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
|
Submission (anaconda choke)
|
PRIDE Total Elimination 2004
|
April 25, 2004
|
2
|
1:25
|
Saitama
, Japan
|
|
Win
|
10?0
|
Wilson Gouveia
|
TKO (punches)
|
HOOKnSHOOT: Absolute Fighting Championships 2
|
March 28, 2003
|
3
|
2:26
|
Florida
, United States
|
|
Win
|
9?0
|
Jerrel Venetiaan
|
Submission (armbar)
|
PRIDE 23
|
November 24, 2002
|
2
|
3:29
|
Tokyo
, Japan
|
|
Win
|
8?0
|
Bulldozer George
|
Submission (rear-naked choke)
|
UFO: Legend
|
August 8, 2002
|
1
|
0:47
|
Tokyo
, Japan
|
|
Win
|
7?0
|
Memo Diaz
|
Decision (unanimous)
|
DEEP: 4th Impact
|
March 30, 2002
|
3
|
5:00
|
Nagoya
, Japan
|
|
Win
|
6?0
|
Katsuhisa Fujii
|
Decision (unanimous)
|
RINGS: World Title Series Grand Final
|
February 15, 2002
|
3
|
5:00
|
Yokohama
, Japan
|
|
Win
|
5?0
|
Kestutis Smirnovas
|
Decision
|
RINGS Lithuania: Bushido RINGS 3
|
November 10, 2001
|
2
|
5:00
|
Lithuania
|
|
Win
|
4?0
|
Ken Orihashi
|
TKO (lost points)
|
RINGS: World Title Series 4
|
October 20, 2001
|
1
|
3:14
|
Tokyo
, Japan
|
|
Win
|
3?0
|
Masaya Kojima
|
Submission (armlock)
|
RINGS: Battle Genesis Vol. 8
|
September 21, 2001
|
1
|
2:12
|
Tokyo
, Japan
|
|
Win
|
2?0
|
Ricardo Fyeet
|
Submission (armbar)
|
RINGS: 10th Anniversary
|
August 11, 2001
|
1
|
2:34
|
Tokyo
, Japan
|
|
Win
|
1?0
|
Masaya Inoue
|
Decision (majority)
|
Shooto: R.E.A.D. 8
|
August 4, 2000
|
2
|
5:00
|
Osaka
, Japan
|
Light Heavyweight
bout.
|
Submission grappling record
[
edit
]
KO PUNCHES
Result
|
Opponent
|
Method
|
Event
|
Date
|
Round
|
Time
|
Notes
|
Draw
|
Koshi Matsumoto
|
Draw
|
Quintet Fight Night 2
|
February 3, 2019
|
1
|
10:00
|
|
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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