Who is considered the godfather of Judo in MMA?

[JustOnce]

After making many Judo based threads over the years, I can't believe I can't come to a clear conclusion on this but, who do you consider is the godfather of Judo in MMA?

For BJJ, it's fairly straight forward in Royce who fought in 1993 in UFC 1. Then for wrestling, it would be Dan Savern who fought in UFC 4 in 1994.

The challenge with this is, the most prominent Judoka that comes to mind that one could argue for is Hidehiko Yoshida, whom in my opinion had most beautiful display of Judo ever seen in MMA. However, he debuted in 2002.

I mean the names that comes to mind are guys like Sakurai and even Sanae who debuted in 1996, but their Judo credentials aren't really one tenth what Yoshida's is, but Sanae won ADCC in 2001, beating Saulo Riberio of all people. Sakurai on the other hand, won silver and bronze in ADCC in 1999 across two weight classes, in -77kg and the open weight class. But I'd imagine there may have been some great Judoka who competed in Shooto or whatever in the earlier years.

So the question is, who really is the godfather of Judo in MMA?

 

[theincognito]

Karo

 

[JustOnce]

Karo

lol no

 

[gentel]

Not tryna be a memer but my first thought was Fedor, insofar as sambo is Russian judo

 

[koa pomaikai]

Rousey.

 

[theincognito]

lol no

Probably one of your Japanese guys who weren't able to use it 1/10th as well then.

 

[Pierce 34]

Satoshi?

 

[cmw43]

lol no

Karo was a beast, he was the first guy that came to mind for me in UFC, he had a great diverse judo offence.

It's a shame his career got derailed by his back and leg injury that led to a painkiller addiction.

There's other guys like Yoshida and Ishi who are better credentialed but id say Karo was more effective in those early days of the sport.

Look at his wins - Nick Diaz, Nick Thomson, Antonio McKee, Matt Serra, Drew Fickett, Josh Burkman, Stun Gun and Chris Lytle.


Guys speak very highly of his judo even today.

 

[Thy]

ken flo cause he's very ju lookin and kinda doughy

 

[JustOnce]

Not tryna be a memer but my first thought was Fedor, insofar as sambo is Russian judo

i made a lot of fedor judo threads, but i don't think he consider himself a judo fighter so.



he has better judo credentials than karo mentioned above for example

but he's probably more sambo than judo since that's what he thinks

 

[JustOnce]

Rousey.

for wmma sure

 

[JustOnce]

Probably one of your Japanese guys who weren't able to use it 1/10th as well then.

i dont know thus the thread

 

[JustOnce]

Satoshi?

no he came way after aforementioned folks.

but it was criminal that someone thought it was good for him to fight fedor and yoshida early lol

 

[JustOnce]

Karo was a beast, he was the first guy that came to mind for me in UFC, he had a great diverse judo offence.

It's a shame his career got derailed by his back and leg injury that led to a painkiller addiction.

There's other guys like Yoshida and Ishi who are better credentialed but id say Karo was more effective in those early days of the sport.

Look at his wins - Nick Diaz, Nick Thomson, Antonio McKee, Matt Serra, Drew Fickett, Josh Burkman, Stun Gun and Chris Lytle.


Guys speak very highly of his judo even today.

i dont know, his judo to me was a bit ugly to me. yoshida had beautiful judo.

i do know he would win this poll though if there was a poll

 

[JustOnce]

ken flo cause he's very ju lookin and kinda doughy

"just throw"
-ken flo

 

[cmw43]

i dont know, his judo to me was a bit ugly to me. yoshida had beautiful judo.

i do know he would win this poll though if there was a poll

Yeah Karo was pretty scrappy.

 

[JustOnce]

Yeah Karo was pretty scrappy.

he was very good though

too bad we couldn't see hughes fight. would've been great. i can guess who would have won but still.

but yeah his judo wasn't really easy on the eyes like, even original dong's or akiyama's.

i remember getting into a debate over rousey and yoshida being better in judo years back, but still think yoshida had the most baeutiful judo in mma. my opinion though.

but to be honest, whether it's karo or yoshida that is godfather of judo, i can't say I guess. it feels wrong to say karo is but i don't have better answers.

 

[Rampage_Jackson]

Fedor

 

[theincognito]

i dont know, his judo to me was a bit ugly to me. yoshida had beautiful judo.

i do know he would win this poll though if there was a poll

Godfather would be the first to successfully use it. At least that's how Coleman got the godfather of GNP moniker. That would be Karo as far as I know (1999-).

There are still few purists who have used it well in MMA. Karo, Ronda, Kayla, Rick Hawn (my actual favorite), Yoshida, maybe a couple others.

 

[Shaolin Alan]

Karo = UFC
Yoshida = Pride
Sexyama = Showed out in both orgs

P.S: I was always impressed with Melvin Guillard’s Uchimata

Richard Crunkelton gets an honorable mention