People do Newaza more often than Tachiwaza in this judo. Its fitting that for Nakai, his black-belt was awarded due to theunquenchable drive he had to be the best, not allowing anything to hold him back. He competed in the Vale Tudo Japan 1995, where he was greatly outweighed by every opponent in the tournament. This is a truly incredible story that needs to be told and told again. Gerard Gordeau tells Sherdog.coms Greg Savage why he put out Yuki Nakais eye in an MMA fight. Unfortunately his bad boy antics on the ring, namely his less then amicable attitude towards a fellow competitor (Mizuto Hirota) flipping him off after breaking his arm on a match, took Yuki Nakai to publicly apologise and take Aoki off the assistant instructor roster. In the last few posts in the series, weve looked at daring Dutch Muay Thai fighter Ramon Dekkers, innovative boxer Muhammad Ali, and K-1 heavyweight legend Andy Hug. Giant slayer!!! By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. (function(e,a){
Gordeau was in Ogawa's corner along with Kazunari Murakami and Tiger Mask, and when Naoya turned the bout into a shoot by brutally striking Hashimoto, who had no idea what was going on, Gerard and his colleagues had to protect Ogawa from the NJPW crew in the subsequent brawl. how did you even get to this video let alone watch it without a basic understanding of mma. He currently teaches Shooto and jiu-jitsu, and is the president of the Japanese Confederation of Jiu-Jitsu. In one phrase, he loved what would be later known as MMA, or mixed martial arts, or that sport in which sleazy musclemen with tattoos and mohwaks dedicate their lives to the art of violenting each other like scientific manbeasts. Although i outweighed him by 15kg, he handled me easily. In Nakai's second fight he was severely eye gouged in both eyes, one of which would lead to permanent damage. In his next . Although he lost against the respectful Rickson Gracie, his battle was far from over. After winning the brown belt division, Nakai wasapparentlytold he had to fight in the black belt division by the founder of the IBJJF, Carlos Gracie Jr. Stating that he did not have an instructor to give him a black belt, he was given one by the Federation to allow him to fight at the highest level of Jiu Jitsu. Despite the weight differences and despite the suffering a severe eye injury in the first bout, Nakai managed to make it to the finals where he lost to Rickson Gracie. But returning to the match, things didn't changed - Pittman pressed and Nakai resisted, just like a mighty sperm whale and a squishy giant squid intertwined in a murderous embrace. Note that the weight classes in Shooto are different from the Association of Boxing Commissions recognised weight classes. In 1995, as the current Shooto welterweight champion, Nakai was selected by the Shooto Commission to represent Shooto in the Vale Tudo tournament Vale Tudo Japan 1995. t.charset="utf-8";t.async=!0;t.defer=!0;
After retiring from MMA, Nakai became interested on Brazilian jiu-jitsu, not due to his own defeat to Rickson, but Noboru Asahi's loss to Royler Gracie in 1996. He was the smallest competitor in the entire tournament by a significant margin, and that among his probable opponents there were dangerous dudes who could fight and were not afraid to do so, like old school karatekas, tough wrestlers and Brazilian jujutsukas. : r/MMA Go to MMA r/MMA Posted by Traceur_G MMA Historia Obscura Bleeding in the eye: An eye surface hemorrhage (bleeding) can result from straining too hard (such as during a cough) or from trauma to the eye. Nakai was awarded his black belt in BJJ by Carlos Gracie Junior (according to the BJJ Tree website www.bjjtree.com) becoming the first Japanese BJJ black belt in history. Yet Craig was not a mere performer, but a multiple Greco-Roman wresting champion, and particularly one who weighted almost twice as Nakai. So we all ignored him. Yuki Nakai literally sacrificed his eye for the sport of MMA. Not only being much bigger and stronger, the American had come relatively unscathed from his previous match, tapping his opponent out in two minutes, and was motivated to reach the finals and beat Rickson Gracie, a participant whose brother Royce had terrorized United States in the UFC. Open, closed, spider, butterfly guard, he did things not even the Gracies knew at the time, for we would later see in Rickson Gracie's documentary Choke a scene of his brothers watching the match and trying to illustrate betwene them what was the diminutive Japanese man doing with his legs inside his opponent's. The year was 1995, MMA or NHB or Vale Tudo was still in its infancy . Things progressed for the worst after Boychuk returned home following the Islanders elimination in the Eastern Conference finals. Note: You are reading this message either because you do not have a standards-compliant browser, or because you can not see our css files. MMAstatsbox|name=Yuki Nakai nick= height= 5 7 (170 cm) weight=154 lb (70 kg) birthdate= died= fightingfrom=Tokyo, Japan hometown=Hokkaid, Japan fightstyle=Shooto, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu wins=8 losses=2 draws=0 ko= nocontest= In 1999, a documentary meant to expose the greater public to the greatness of Rickson Gracie was released. But Nakai had to win by all means, and he would die before stopping trying. [19] Refusing to seek medical attention in order to continue in the tournament, Nakai lost the sight in his right eye from the gouge. When I got hit, I realized that it mightve been I wouldnt say a dirty hit but I didnt see him coming, he said. Thanks for writing about Yuki. Truly a great man. The Gracie was, however, in a lengthy debate with his team, as his brothers commended him to forget the family art of Brasilian zhoo-zitzu and just hit Nakai on the face, which was now turned into a watermelon-sized weak spot. He kind of frowned saying muzushashi (hard to explain) then said seishin. Missing an orbital or ocular injury at the outset is also possible in polytrauma cases, where the primary focus is the trauma ABCs concerns that might rapidly take the patient's life. var t,r=e.getElementsByTagName("head")[0],c=e.location.protocol;
This is a brief of his career. But Nakai did. His health turned to shit as his energy became depleted. [2], Through 2001 and 2002, Gordeau participated in various Pro Wrestling Zero1 events, wrestling in singles matches against names like Shinya Hashimoto, Masato Tanaka, Samoa Joe and Steve Corino. Yuki Nakai A True Inspiration To All Martial Artists Firstly, against 6 foot 5 kickboxer Gerard Gordeau, Nakai suffered a life changing injury. More than anything, I remember how he prepared for the end of year NanaDaiGakko (seven University) kosen toirnament. If you liked this article, let us know. He would fight anybody and in any state in order to keep his promise. Attack The Back is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. First Thoughts on the Hykso Punch Trackers, The Most Popular Professional Boxing Gloves, Five Basic Kickboxing Combos To Use In Sparring, What does the 'oz' mean on Boxing Gloves? Yuki Nakai vs MMA fighter Yoshitomi Mishima. Facing three men who all outweighed him, Nakais valiant fighting spirit was on full display. there have always and will forever be freak accidents in every sport. But while sperm whales typically win their contest and eat their enemy whole, Nakai had other plans in mind. In 1995 he was invited to fight at the Vale-Tudo Japan event, a competition that would change his life forever. When the match started, all hope seemed lost. Truly a great man, Nakai was later made president of the JapaneseJiu Jitsu Federation. Islanders defenseman Johnny Boychuk had to abruptly end his career due to lingering effects from the gruesome eye injury he suffered during the 2019-20 regular season, the team announced Wednesday. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Inspirational Fighters Yuki Nakai (The man who sacrificed his eye for MMA), We all love a good rivalry to build some hype for a fight, dont we? Combat sports are an ever-changing landscape of fighters, with new names popping up constantly. There were a lot of draws. Now here he was seriously trashing him body. Strong in heart, body and mind, Nakais story will give you goosebumps, as will the video at the bottom of this article. No hard feelings! Yuki Nakai - Wikipedia I went and did all these tests. Islanders defenseman Johnny Boychuk had to abruptly end his career due to lingering effects from the gruesome eye injury he suffered during the 2019-20 regular season, the team announced Wednesday. He may not have many accomplishments under his belt due to a tragic injury that ended his career entirely way too short, but this man should be the archetype that smaller grapplers should strive to be. OG Fantasy Baseball 2023 - Yuki Nakai's Eye | Fantasy Baseball | Yahoo He kept his blindness a secret. According to Gordeau, Royce had been warned by the UFC doctors about his injuries and took advantage of this to overpower him. while he eye-poked him. Even if Nakai wrongly believed this and the stiff yet predetermined UWF were one and the same thing, the route was already drawn in the map of his heart. all of these illegal and had gotten gordeau all but banished from mma. Rickson is a legend in himself, who stepped into the ring undefeated. Cookie Notice Nakai stumbled to his locker room, where his cornermen, aghast of the look of his eye, urged him to forfeit the tournament and go to the hospital to get it treated. [3], Gordeau later justified his illegal attack as, "If you go down, you might as well give him something to remember you by," but he also commended Gracie as the better fighter. He waited for his opportunity, and in the precise instant he sensed it through his already closed shut eyes, he snatched the kaiju-sized arm of his opponent and swtiched his body for what we call today an armbar from the guard, pretty much the second fighter the world use such thing in MMA after Royce Gracie. Yuki Nakai ( Japanese: , Nakai Yki) is a retired Japanese mixed martial artist. When somebody tells you that youre not going to play again, or you shouldnt, or else youre going to get seriously hurt, its been really tough.. Famous students are Cem Senol of the Dojo Osaka Netherlands, and Robert Pepels of the Ashigaru Honbu Dojo Netherlands and founder of the Ashigaru Ryu style. [1] After entering Hokkaido University, he started training under renowned Kodokan master Kanae Hirata. Left lying on the mat, the corageous Yuki composed himself as best as he could and meditated a way to beat his opponent. knee ripper Yuki Nakai becomes a legend. He was going all out to cleanse himself of fear. And then he said further the world would never know about the loss of his eye. Yuki Nakai is a mixed martial artist, coach, and president of the Japanese Confederation of Jiu-Jitsu. Yuki Nakai is a legendary martial arts fighter and Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt, who became well known by mixed martial arts (MMA) fans after his famous contest against Gerard Gordeau in 1995, where he was illegally eye-gouged and partially lost his eyesight, winning the fight highly debilitated and reaching the final against Rickson Gracie. Gordeau later criticized Ogawa's action. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Though Yuki Nakai was by far the smallest competitor on the event, he was sure that his skills were superior to those of the westerners and that his weight would not be an issue. As explained to Metropolis Magazine (www.metropolis.co.jp) a few years ago, Nakai chose not to disclose that he was partially blinded because of fear that MMA would be seen as a brutal activity and stop the growth of the sport in Japan, he confessed to it years later. He currently teaches Shooto and jiu-jitsu, and is the president of the Japanese Confederation of Jiu-Jitsu. [3][9] However, Gracie eventually repeated the throw and floored the Dutchman. Like many other youngsters in Japan, Yuki Nakai loved pro wrestling. Yuki was our assistant captain and one the smallest guys there. The announcers claimed that the third tooth landed underneath their table, although other reports say it landed on the crowd. Nakai went on to fight Craig Pittman (a 250lbs American fighter), and though disfigured he beat the odds again winning another submission (armbar). He began his martial arts training by attending the Judo classes at his University (Hokkaido University) a sport he holds the rank of black belt. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. In the first fight, Nakai faced 6 foot 5 kickboxer Gerard Gordeau. Traditional martial artists would speak in foul tongues against the mixing of the martial arts for allowing such a brutality, sanctimonious moral guardians would brainwash parents from all over the world to forbide their children from renting UFC tapes, boxing promoters would rightfully scorn those who fought in cages like animals and rolled on the ground like lovers, and even worse, John McCain would be so empowered by this eventuality that nobody could stop his crusade to make "human cockfighting" illegal.