Hidehiko Yoshida

Hidehiko Yoshida (吉田 秀彦) is a Japanese gold-medalist judoka and retired mixed martial artist.

He is a longtime veteran of Japan's PRIDE Fighting Championships, competing in the Middleweight (93kg) and Heavyweight divisions.

This ruleset had been proposed by Royce due to the 50th anniversary of the Masahiko Kimura vs. Hélio Gracie fight, and as such the bout was touted as another "judo vs. Brazilian jiu-jitsu" contest.

As Yoshida wasn't a ne-waza expert, he prepared his submission skills with close friend and fellow judoka Tsuyoshi Kohsaka.

Odds were stacked against him in popular perception, and Mário Sperry predicted Royce would not have a problem with Yoshida on the ground.

Started the fight, Royce immediately pulled guard in order to avoid Yoshida's powerful nage-waza, frustrating his initial gameplan of entering the ground through a throw.

The Brazilian fighter attempted an armbar from his back, but Hidehiko blocked it and looked for a gi choke, so Gracie switched to a heel hook.

After a stagnant leglock exchange between the two grapplers, action was restarted on the feet.

Gracie pulled guard again, but Yoshida turned the action into a daki age, advanced to Royce's half guard and tried a Kimura lock.

Although the Brazilian managed to hold off the technique, the Japanese passed his guard with a brief struggle and gained side control.

Finally, the judoka fully mounted Gracie and executed a sode guruma jime.

A moment of inactivity passed, and then Yoshida asked referee Daisuke Noguchi if Royce was unconscious, as he couldn't see his face.

Believing it to be so, Noguchi stopped the match and gave the victory to Yoshida.

Getting up at the moment, Royce protested the decision and went to physically assault the referee, causing a brief brawl between the contenders' cornermen on the ring.

After the event, the Gracie family apologized but argued not only that Royce had not passed out, but also that the referee had not authority to stop the match anyway, and demanded the fight result to be changed to no contest.

Slo-motion footage of the stoppage shows Gracie's chin out and his neck free from the choke resulting in both Stephen Quadros and Bas Rutten, longtime PRIDE FC commentators agreeing Gracie had not been choked out.

Yoshida first came onto the judo scene at the 1991 World Judo Championships in Barcelona, taking third place at 78 kg. He then took gold in the 1991 All Japan Judo Championships and 1992 A-Tournament in Sofia before entering the 1992 Summer Olympic Games.

He swept the competition in Barcelona, winning all six matches by Ippon en route to his first Olympic gold medal.

He won gold at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games at 78 kg.

Yoshida also had two famous fights with MMA pioneer Royce Gracie that resulted in a no-contest and a time-limit draw.

He went on to medal in the 1993, 1995 and 1999 World Championships, but didn't win gold at the Olympics again.

He finished in fifth place at the 1996 Summer Games and ninth at the 2000 Summer Games.

Yoshida's first true MMA bout came at PRIDE 23 against former UFC 8 Tournament Champion and UFC Ultimate Ultimate 1996 Tournament Champion Don Frye.

During the match, Yoshida threw Frye down with ouchi gari and attempted again the sode guruma jime, but Frye escaped, so then Hidehiko executed an armbar, breaking Frye's arm when he refused to tap out.

It marked the first time in six years that Frye had been defeated.

Secondly, Yoshida submitted former world karate champion Masaaki Satake by neck crank at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye.

He retired from Judo after the 2000 Summer Games.

In 2002, Yoshida turned fully his attention to the world of mixed martial arts, where he had already worked as a color commentator, and signed up with Pride Fighting Championship to become a fighter.

He accepted the premise of having to fight high level opponents, wanting to avoid implications that he was transitioning to MMA for not being competitive enough for judo anymore.

He also vowed to compete in a judogi in order to draw interest to judo as a martial art.

Yoshida later founded the team Yoshida Dojo, which focuses both in judo and MMA.

Yoshida had his first appearance in Pride in a special grappling match against UFC pioneer Royce Gracie at PRIDE Shockwave.

The rules of the match would feature limited striking to the body while standing and no judges decision, and would require both to use a gi.

At PRIDE Total Elimination 2003, Yoshida faced shoot-style ace Kiyoshi Tamura in the first round of the Middleweight Grand Prix Tournament.

Yoshida was dominated for most of the first round, receiving leg kicks and punches from the veteran Tamura and having his back taken on the ground, but he eventually managed to throw down Tamura with harai goshi and performed a sode guruma jime for the tap out.

Yoshida's first loss was to the PRIDE Middleweight Champion Wanderlei Silva via unanimous decision at PRIDE Final Conflict 2003.

Wanderlei had already knocked out Japanese fighters like Tamura and Kazushi Sakuraba, but Yoshida broke expectations when he gave a back-and-forth against Silva.

At the first round, the two fighters exchanged attacks both from and against the guard, with Silva landing knees on the feet and Yoshida pressing with a neck crank, while at the second, Wanderlei blocked Yoshida's takedown attempts and scored violent head kicks and knees, only for Yoshida to absorb most of the most punishment and even stay at punching range in order to trade with him.

The match ended with Silva knocking down Yoshida and getting swept in return for a final assault.

The judges gave the decision to the Brazilian fighter, and the match itself earned Fight of the Year honors from Wrestling Observer Newsletter.