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Kazuo Takahashi

MMA was not always a universal term. Its adoption is fairly modern, and only truly set in during the UFC's mainstream breakthrough--beforehand, when people talked about MMA, they would say vale tudo, or no-holds-barred, or shootfighting, or pankration. The chaos inherent to this wasn't just a factor of split terminology, but each separate term, while being a technically correct answer, carried the expectation of different rules. If you said "vale tudo," you were probably referring to almost entirely unrestricted combat, replete with eye gouges and groin shots. If you said "no-holds-barred," you were probably thinking of grappling-focused combat with limited standup. "Pankration," the oldest term for the sport, was the baseline behind Pancrase, the foundational MMA organzation built by the exodus of top talent from the Fujiwara Gumi wrestling promotion. Kazuo Takahashi--known more commonly by his ring name, Yoshiki--was one of the first to leave Fujiwara Gumi when Pancrase's plan was unveiled.

Takahashi was a lifelong wrestler and karateka, and after graduation sought training in catch wrestling and professional wrestling alike--mixed martial arts not being a thing quite yet, it was safer to follow in Antonio Inoki's footsteps. He had only recently started in the Fujiwara Gumi when the Pancrase exodus shattered it. Takahashi was reportedly excited about the transition: Real competition appealed to him more than the dying embers of the Fujiwara Gumi.

Of course, Pancrase wasn't entirely real. We've written many words about the tendency of early Pancrase and RINGS to feature worked fights, but the real meat of questionable matchmaking has always come from the careful art of setting up legitimate fights on an entirely uneven playing field. When the first-ever Pancrase card was held--the wonderfully-named Yes, We Are Hybrid Wrestlers 1--four of the five fights were competitive, well-matched affairs. The co-main event, on the other hand, saw the 24 year-old wrestler, grappler and karateka Kazuo Takahashi facing George Weingeroff--a professional wrestler with no combat training who'd recently retired from performing because in addition to turning 41 he was legally blind.

Takahashi knocked him out in ninety seconds. Somehow, it wouldn't be the strangest fight of his career.

After a relatively rough run in early Pancrase--by 1996 he was 9-7-1, having been bounced from top contention on every attempt--he was asked to enter UFC 12's lightweight tournament. (At the time, "Lightweight" didn't mean 155 pounds as much as "Not Heavyweight.") It was a one-night, four-man bracket, and Takahashi was part of the bracket that could be gently described as chum: Takahashi's opponent was the undefeated jiu-jitsu world champion Wallid Ismail, and the other lane saw 5-1 former champion Jerry Bohlander facing the 0-0 Rainy Martinez. The intended final was clear.

As of this writing, the UFC has been around for 24 years and has promoted 436 events and thousands of fights. Kazuo Takahashi vs Wallid Ismail genuinely might be the weirdest one.

Just seconds into the fight, Ismail shoots for a single-leg takedown and Takahashi responds by grabbing his trunks and giving him a giant wedgie. When Wallid continues the takedown, Takahashi grabs the fence and -refuses to let go-. A very young Big John McCarthy is screaming at him to obey the rules, but not only does Takahashi clearly not understand the rules, he doesn't speak English, and continues repeatedly grabbing the cage to defend takedowns until McCarthy physically slaps his hand off the fence and Ismail immediately completes the takedown--but Takahashi shockingly gets back to his feet within moments and much more shockingly drops Wallid with a monstrous pair of right hooks immediately afterward--and then begins screaming at McCarthy for letting Ismail get up instead of administering a standing eight-count, at which point it becomes apparent that Takahashi has no idea the UFC is not operating under Pancrase rules. When Wallid tries to take the fight back to the ground, Takahashi engages in a one-two punch of the most effective cheating I've ever seen in my life: He grabs the fence and steadies himself, then reaches into Wallid's trunks, rips out his cup, and begins violently kneeing him in the groin.

And that was just regulation time. In the following five minutes of overtime Wallid repeatedly gouges Takahashi's eyes and Takahashi lands an illegal kick (he was wearing shoes) and both men's corners go hoarse screaming at each other. By the end, Takahashi had taken an upset decision victory over the bruised, battered, and I have to imagine incredibly groin-sore Wallid Ismail. But He'd also broken his hand on Wallid's face. Jerry Bohlander would go on to win the tournament by defeating its alternate, the 1-0 Nick Sanzo--whose one fight had happened earlier that night in the tournament reserve bout.

The UFC never asked for Takahashi again, which suited him just fine. He returned to Pancrase and eventually established a name for himself as one of its best gatekeepers, and when Pancrase finally adopted weight divisions at the turn of the century he became its first heavyweight champion. (He'd also be the only person to defend it: He vacated the title when he left Pandcrase in 2003, and while the title found two further owners both vacated or were stripped. The title has been dormant since 2008.) When Pride's boom period hit, Takahashi was offered a contract and took it eagerly.

Unfortunately, he didn't get any mid-tier competition. Takahashi would fight three times in Pride, and his three opponents were Heath Herring, Igor Vovchanchyn and Vitor Belfort. All three knocked him out; the first fight didn't make it out of the first round, the second barely made it past one minute, and the third lasted thirty-six seconds. Kazuo Takahashi's prime in Pancrase lasted twelve years--his Pride career lasted 346 seconds.

Takahashi retired in 2013 at 30-27-3 (1). He fought a who's who of MMA royalty, met champions across the world, fought in many of the major MMA organizations in history, and ended his career 20 years to the week after his debut, back home in his native Pancrase. Unfortunately, he ended it by getting punched in the face until he couldn't move anymore. But he'd probably tell you that was appropriate.

Moveset, stats, logic and four attires (Pancrase: Yes, We Are Hybrid Wrestlers 1 vs Weingeroff / UFC 12 vs Ismail / Pride: Total Elimination 2004 vs Herring / Pancrase 252 20th Anniversary vs Kawamura).