Problems for Satoshi Ishii and Sengoku in Japan
Published by Zach Arnold on June 25th, 2009 in Current Events

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Three days ago, Japanese 2008 Olympic judoka gold medalist Satoshi Ishii did a bizarre photo-op with legend Nobuhiko Takada at the Takada Dojo in Tokyo. It was bizarre for several reasons. First, the media backdrop used included Hustle logos. Hustle is the Japanese pro-wrestling promotion created by Nobuyuki Sakakibara, who was the boss of PRIDE when it existed in Japan. Why would Ishii agree to do a photo-op with the Hustle logo if he is part of Sengoku? Ah ha, that’s where politics come in. When PRIDE split, a good portion of ex-Dream Stage Entertainment workers went to DREAM, which is backed by K-1. The rest went to Sengoku and it is said that Takada is closer to the ex-DSE members in the Sengoku world. Trying to figure out Japanese fight politics is like reading a rubix cube.

Nonethelss, Ishii talked about training and his future MMA plans at the photo-op. Two days later, reports surfaced that Ishii was preparing to have surgery on the 25th for a hernia-related problem. The surgery was described as ‘minor’ and a short procedure that would halt his current training plans in Holland.

Last night, reports surfaced that Ishii would not likely fight on August 2nd at Saitama Super Arena and instead would fight on November 7th in Tokyo at Ryogoku Kokugikan.

What is going on here?

There are several guesses that could be made here, all of them plausible explanations for what is going on.

First potential reason: Training isn’t going so well.

This would make the most sense out of all the possible options. One does not become an MMA star overnight and given how much attention there will be on Ishii when he makes his debut, the pressure will be on in a big way. Despite some training with American Top Team and training in Holland, Ishii is going to need to work very hard if he is going to be a long-term player in the MMA business. His contract is two years in length and while it’s possible that he could be protected over the time of the contract, it’s unlikely that Sengoku will give him constantly easy opponents to face.

We asked Jordan Breen of Sherdog.com for his thoughts.

“The biggest problem with any prized convert transitioning to MMA is that people tend to view all of these subjects as equally malleable,” said Breen. “What makes any one MMA fighter great? It’s a total pacakage of a mental or larger intangible suitability meeting physical and technical preparedness. Yet people act like if people just “train hard” that it rectifies anything. The famous example is any K-1 fighter. In the past, and even now, people have always said about any worthwhile K-1 competitor that if they transitioned to MMA and had “a year or two of wrestling and BJJ” they’d destroy everyone. People never seem to realize how asinine that is. Many fighters have been wrestling and grappling for literally decades, and still get submitted on the regular. Is that people all people think it takes? It seems that many people figured Ishii was well-suited for MMA because he was a legit MMA mark to begin with. Surely, people can’t expect someone to be great at MMA because they really like the sport.”

We asked a high-profile agent in the Japanese MMA scene his thoughts on Ishii making the transition from the Judo world to MMA.

“While he’s a hot prospect, the transition from Judo to getting punched in the face takes some time getting used to. The more hard punches you take, the more you realize you need to toughen up for this aspect of MMA.”

Second potential reason: His management team is not happy with the choice of opponents being given to them.

Ishii stated that there’s a 50% chance that he could have faced Hidehiko Yoshida on August 2nd. However, Yoshida has his own health problems and has maybe one or two fights left in him. After Yoshida, then who is available? Kazuyuki Fujita seems to be the most talked-about choice, but he would be a terrible opponent for Ishii. Even with a declining chin, Fujita is still a tank and could muscle Ishii around for three rounds in a fight. Ishii could submit him but it would not be easy to do. Past Yoshida and Fujita, then you get onto foreign heavyweights like Josh Barnett or Jeff Monson who all could beat Ishii at his current MMA talent level. Things do not get easier here the longer Ishii hangs around.

Breen says that he expects management to carefully treat Ishii’s path to stardom.

“In fact, I’d be rather surprised if he fought anyone with any real skill — faded or not — at least until he gets into the ring and actually fights. Takahiro Kokuho is fairly astute in looking at fighters and finding them fights that are productive in fostering their development and making them better fighters. The only real tough part with Ishii is that he’s a heavyweight, and it’s extremely difficult to find a warm body who can at least be a servicable workout, but isn’t a complete lame case.”

Our anonymously-quoted agent isn’t as positive.

“World Victory Road’s matchmaking is a dog’s breakfast and is limited by a poor roster, certainly at heavyweight, so I can’t imagine who would be a ‘good’ opponent for Ishii in Sengoku.”

So how would our agent manage Ishii if the fighter was his client?
“There”s a tried and true formula for the building of a heavyweight superstar, especially one doing a Judo crossover. The first fight should be an aging name — hopefully a kickboxer with no ground game. For this, DREAM would have been perfect. For the general public, it looks like a spectacular match-up between big names (think: Stefan Leko vs. Naoya Ogawa) but it’s a gimme for the judo fighter in an MMA match.”
“Depending on the problems identified in the first fight, you would look to choose opponents who suited your fighter to build a winning record. Once Ishii had the ring sense and experience, at a big event, you might want to set up a serious fight which will test the fighter’s development.”
“You don’t take risks with the only marketable Japanese fighter that exists now (including Aoki, Gomi, and every fighter not named Kid). Then again, the stupidity of some of the matchmakers in DREAM & Sengoku wouldn’t surprise me if his first fight was a genuine threat with little-to-no-name.”

Third potential reason: The fan interest in the debut isn’t as strong as first thought.

If Ishii had made his debut in August, it would have been about a year removed from his Olympic gold medal win. He’s still a hot property in terms of media exposure, but is the fan interest declining? Given that Sengoku has a television deal with TV Tokyo, it’s not the kind of platform that has the same amount of exposure as being aligned with K-1 on Fuji TV or Tokyo Broadcasting System.

Signing with Sengoku was a risk for Ishii in that it’s not as visible as DREAM and the promotion’s history of drawing big crowds has been poor so far. Jordan Breen says that it was a risk worth taking.

“Sengoku is going to pay him by the truckload, no questions asked. Chairman Yasuda of Don Quijote is a massive mark for judoka, and you can’t do better than Ishii in that capacity. Also, he’ll have the best chance to be treated suitably as a young and developing fighter, background aside, in Sengoku.”

Of all the Saitama Super Arena shows the company has run, not once has the company ever released an attendance figure for a Saitama event. Despite reported money problems certain fighters have had with DREAM, the DREAM platform is a far bigger megaphone than anything Sengoku will ever be able to produce.

“I can guarantee that people are speaking and whispering to him on a daily basis,” claims our anonymously-quoted Japanese fight agent. “His choice of Sengoku was a crap idea as he risks falling into total obscurity fighting in front of a couple of thousand people. The lure of TV coverage offered by TBS, including all of the promotion will go with it (such as variety TV shows) is something that he seriously needs from now on for the public to remember him. If he’s not listening to the whispers, his career is already going backwards.”

Sengoku, Japanese Boxing Commission offer help to major pro-wrestling promotions

After last week’s political meetings in the capital of Tokyo to discuss ways to improve the health and safety of professional wrestlers, groups outside of pro-wrestling in the fight industry are publicly expressing a helping hand to wrestling promoters.

An official from Sengoku said that the in-ring death of 46-year old Mitsuharu Misawa has caused management to tighten up precautionary measures in terms of managing and watching fighters the company books. Misawa, whose body was heavily damaged due to years of physical in-ring punishment, died on June 13th in Hiroshima when he head was reportedly severed from his spinal cord due to a back-drop. Sengoku features several names of fighters who have participated or who are interested in pro-wrestling including Satoshi Ishii and Josh Barnett.

A spokesman for the JBC (Japanese Boxing Comission) offered a deal for the major pro-wrestling companies, saying that if they are serious about improving the health and safety of workers that the JBC would be willing to give guidance to the major companies in terms of building a database of wrestlers so that medical history and injuries could be recorded, along with guidance on how to improve the frequency of medical testing and making sure that wrestlers that are too hurt to work shouldn’t be in the ring. The JBC said that despite wrestling being different than boxing, the two industries fall under the same genre and that it is important to raise the level of awareness for a health care system amongst all fighters