Nikkan Sports in Japan reports that Beijing Olympic judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii has been attracted by Mixed Martial Arts which is huge in Japan and is giving up judo to begin a career in MMA.
Ishii is not the first Olympic judo gold medalist to switch to the lucrative MMA. The man who won the Beijing gold medal in the men’s over 100 kilogram category is the third Japanese to switch to Mixed Martial Arts.
After the 1992 Barcelona Olympics 78 kilogram judo champion Hidehiko Yoshida turned pro and joined the MMA competitions while following the 2000 Sydney Olympics Makoto Takimoto also switched to the MMA.
The report said Ishii had informed Japanese judo officials about his decision last Friday.
MMA is so popular in Japan that events sometimes attract as many as 60,000
Popularity: 4% [?]
