Satoshi Ishii: The Olympic Factor

Ishii is under exclusive contract with the UFC, but his debut has not yet been scheduled.

When I speak optimistically about Satoshi Ishii, people sometimes look at me like I’m crazy.

There are a lot of problems with thinking that Ishii is capable of breaking into the top tier of MMA. The first is that his career hasn’t even started. The second is that he’s short, and reputed as a poor striker at this point in his training. The third is that judo has never really been demonstrated as an incredibly effective style with respect to transitioning to full contact (sure, there are a few exemplary judoka, if we choose to include Fedor, though I dispute that to some degree).

Now, it’s only fair to address these issues, because I think that Ishii’s future in the sport is worth defending, as I’ve been quick to criticize fighters who land on the big stage when they haven’t demonstrated that they’ve earned it. I didn’t like Lesnar coming to the UFC so quickly, and I don’t really approve of Ishii debuting in the UFC, but bringing him in after three or four solid victories would have been reasonable (which is the standard for the UFC bringing in athletes accomplished in other combat sports: see Pat Barry ). Ishii’s already under contract, though, so what done is done.

But Ishii is a more promising prospect to me than most athletes who attempt to bridge the gap, and it has nothing to do with him being an Olympic judoka. After Hidehiko Yoshida, we’ve seen what judo can do in MMA, we’ve also seen what it can’t, if the entire skillset isn’t pursued. What excites me about Ishii is his status as an Olympic gold medalist, his position as an athlete, and what that indicates about his willingness to learn, especially with what we’ve seen from Ishii as he’s started to study MMA.

Ishii wants to be a champion, and he’s got the work ethic .

Every great instructor has a story about an athlete that came into their academy from another field with a totally different skillset, but he had that willingness to learn and the sense of discipline that comes from being an elite athlete. All of the elite athletes in the sport, like Brock Lesnar (and Kevin Randleman, and Mark Coleman, and Mark Kerr, if we’re to use some older names) have that sense of discipline and that athleticism, but not all of them have the desire to expand their skillset, and so they fall into one dimensionalism. That’s not how Lesnar is, but that’s a path he may end up going down.

Ishii isn’t doing that, and that’s what makes him so endearing to me. Randy Couture is one of those fighters who came in with that athletic discipline and that willingness to learn. He was an elite wrestler who showed that willingness to learn boxing and jiu-jitsu. He developed the submission game that Mark Coleman, his predecessor, had always failed to develop, and the boxing that Mark Kerr had never cultivated.

My answer to those who say that Ishii’s striking sucks: Of course it does. The guy has never done any striking before. But he’s working with Lyoto Machida and focussing on developing that part of his game. A guy who’s an elite level athlete, who has that kind of discipline, is going to have striking skills after six months to a year of training. He won’t be starching people, but he’ll be mildly ellusive and he’ll be able to string together a decent combination.

His jiu-jitsu game is already solid. He has a brownbelt in BJJ, not to mention the additional, open style guard that judoka often develop. If he entered the UFC tomorrow, he’d be the most dominant grappler they have. The question is whether he can integrate strikes and use his short stocky physique to pass the guard and deliver a Monson-esque groundnpound with his short limbs.

I’m not going to call my shot before the ball is thrown. I’m not Babe Ruth.

I want to see how Ishii does, but I think that the potential, whether people like his striking or not, is there, as is his athleticism, and it’s definitely worth acknowledging that this young, talented athlete may have a future in the heavyweight division.

NOTE: The great athletes that have debuted in the UFC generally include Randy Couture and B.J. Penn (a world champion in jiu-jitsu, who has displayed that desire to learn, even if he hasn’t demonstrated the conditioning), so there is a historical precedent for Ishii’s debut, which is still unscheduled. However, the UFC is in a different place now, as it traffics in only the most elite athletes in the sport, and requires a demonstration of ability in full contact, no holds barred style fighting, which we don’t have from Ishii. As much as I wish Ishii were fighting somewhere else, he’s not, and I’ve resigned myself to that.

EDIT: This article might lead one to believe that Ishii has signed with the UFC (because it says so). This is not true. Ishii has entered a contract with Dream, and the author was wrong initially.