Tsuyoshi Kosaka

Tsuyoshi Kosaka (高阪 剛) is a retired Japanese mixed martial artist, submission grappler and professional wrestler who competed in the Heavyweight division.

A professional MMA competitor from 1994 till 2022, he has competed for the UFC, PRIDE Fighting Championships, RIZIN, RINGS, Pancrase, and DEEP.

Kosaka is the former King of Pancrase Super Heavyweight Champion.

Kosaka is considered to be one of the early pioneers of mixed martial arts and was one of the top ranked Japanese fighters for several years.

Known for his grappling skills, Kosaka is trained in Judo and Shoot Wrestling, His "TK guard" position, a precursor to modern butterfly guard, is famous for its efficiency; former UFC champions Frank Shamrock and Maurice Smith have both credited him with having vastly improved their grappling from that particular position.

Training in judo since highschool, Kosaka competed extensively during his stay at the Senshu University, where he befriended future world judo champion Hidehiko Yoshida.

After graduating, Kosaka became a professional judoka under the sponsorship of Toray Industries, but was forced to retire after a knee injury.

After a year, he joined shoot-style promotion Fighting Network RINGS where he began training in catch wrestling under mentor Akira Maeda.

Kosaka had his first mixed martial arts venture when, thanks to his strong judo background, he was sent to represent RINGS in the gi-clad MMA event Lumax Cup 1995.

He won the tournament by knocking out Hiroyuki Yoshioka, submitting Susumu Yamasaki with a heel hook, and finally outclassing Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion Egan Inoue at the finals with a mix of judo throws and positional reversals.

After his return to RINGS, Kosaka was put in opening shoot matches, defeating names like Maurice Smith and Willie Peeters.

In September 26, 1997, however, he was thrown to a greater challenge when he faced former Pancrase star Frank Shamrock.

Tsuyoshi controlled the match, throwing and taking down the lighter Shamrock and threatening him with submissions, but couldn't lock any of them, while Shamrock was successful at defending from half guard and counterattacking with his own hold attempts.

After a failed takedown, the judoka was caught in a guillotine choke by Frank and had to spend a rope escape.

Even although Kohsaka later clamped a Kimura lock which appeared to carry potential to finish the match, the time ended without Kosaka completing the hold, thus giving the win to Shamrock for his scored point.

The loss, however, was instrumental in Kohsaka's career, as it made him close friends with Frank Shamrock and Maurice Smith, who became his training partners in the team The Alliance shortly after.

In April 1999, after a series of matches in UFC, Kohsaka fought Dutch kickboxer Gilbert Yvel in RINGS.

The match saw a worn Kosaka getting ahead in points by multiple fouls from Yvel, but he failed at submitting him while Yvel landed several knockdowns, until one of them caused the fight to be stopped.

They rematched in August, when an improved Kohsaka immediately threw Yvel down, hit him with numerous body punches and submitted him with a toehold for a rope escape; however, the bout was interrupted for Kohsaka falling out the ring in another hip throw, getting injured.

As TK had scored a point before the bout went to no contest, the match was counted as a victory for him.

Finally, Yvel and Kohsaka had a rubber match during the King of Kings Tournament, but it was short and uneventful, as TK was stopped again by a bleeding cut.

In August 2000, TK faced the King of Kings semi-finalist Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Started the fight, Kohsaka blocked a takedown and transitioned it into an uchi mata, but Nogueira pulled him to the ground and mount him.

The judoka escaped from under him, only for Nogueira to regain position, but this time it was Kohsaka who reversed him into a leglock attempt and pressed into his guard when it failed.

At the next round, Kohsaka stopped another takedown with a leg hook tawara gaeshi and continued pressing, blocking Nogueira's attempts to work submissions from the bottom and striking when possible.

Nogueira mounted him again and threw punches, but Kohsaka performed again his signature escape into leglock and keep attacking his guard.

A pair of sweeps later, Kohsaka controlled position until the end of the time.

The match was ruled a draw.

During the next King of Kings tournament, Kosaka advanced over Mikhail Ilyukhin by knockout and Mikhail's teammate Fedor Emelianenko by doctor stoppage.

The latter was again a controversial technical victory, as the cut was caused by a missed looping punch where Kosaka's elbow struck Emelianenko's head, reopening a cut sustained in his previous fight against Ricardo Arona.

Since the fight was in a tournament format, a winner and loser were required because draws and no-contests were not awarded, and as Emelianenko could not advance due to the injury, Kosaka did.

At the finals, TK faced Randy Couture in a back and forth match.

Kosaka controlled the first round of a match fought mostly in the clinch, throwing down the wrestling champion with a harai makikomi and landing abundant ground and pound, but his activity stopped when he received an accidental headbutt.

After the injury was checked, Couture took Kosaka down, and although the judoka used his "TK scissors" move to counter an unfavourable north/south position, the American still controlled the second round.

The match ended with a trade of strikes in which Couture got the best part, being granted the split decision and eliminating the Japanese.

In June 2001, Kosaka fought luta livre specialist Renato Sobral, who had defeated Kosaka's countrymen Kiyoshi Tamura and Hiromitsu Kanehara.

Sobral controlled the stand-up segments via wrestling and knee strikes, while Kosaka worked from the bottom and pursued submissions.

Action increased at the second round, where Kohsaka and Sobral exchanged positions and reversals, but the Brazilian kept the dominance and it forced Kosaka to resort to sacrifice techniques like kani basami and flying kneebars.

Victory by majority decision was given to Sobral.

After a quick KO victory over RINGS Russia exponent Koba Tkeshelashvili in August, Kosaka fought Koba's teammate Bazigit Atajev in December 2001 in what would be his last fight in RINGS.