Ayaka Hamasaki (浜崎 朱加, Hamasaki Ayaka; born March 31, 1982) is a Japanese female mixed martial artist, judoka and…
Ayaka Hamasaki (浜崎 朱加, Hamasaki Ayaka; born March 31, 1982) is a Japanese female mixed martial artist, judoka and submission grappler. She is the former Rizin Super Atomweight Champion. She has fought in MMA promotions Shooto, Jewels and Rizin in Japan, and Invicta FC in the United States. Hamasaki won the first Jewels 115 lb (52 kg) Queen tournament to become the first lightweight champion of the promotion. Hamasaki vacated her title due to injuries on August 31, 2013 (2013-08-31). She is a former Invicta FC Atomweight Champion. Hamasaki is the first Asian to win a North American premier MMA promotion title. Fight Matrix and MMARising.com list her as the number 2 atomweight fighter in the world, and one of the top 10 pound for pound female fighters in the world.
Famous People from Yamaguchi Prefecture
Yamaguchi Prefecture: 3 people
Kuniyoshi Hironaka (Japanese: 弘中邦佳, Hironaka Kuniyoshi; born June 17, 1976) is a Japanese mixed martial artist who…
Kuniyoshi Hironaka (Japanese: 弘中邦佳, Hironaka Kuniyoshi; born June 17, 1976) is a Japanese mixed martial artist who competes in the Lightweight division. He has formerly competed for the UFC, Shooto, DREAM, and Pancrase.
Satoru Sayama (佐山 聡, Sayama Satoru; born November 27, 1957), best known as the original Tiger Mask, is a Japanese…
Satoru Sayama (佐山 聡, Sayama Satoru; born November 27, 1957), best known as the original Tiger Mask, is a Japanese writer, retired professional wrestler, martial artist, mixed martial arts (MMA) and wrestling promoter, and trainer. He is the founder of Shooto, a pre-Ultimate Fighting Championship MMA promotion, and is widely considered to be one of the most influential masked Japanese wrestlers of all time (alongside his contemporaries Jushin Thunder Liger and Último Dragón). The only man to hold the WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship and the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship simultaneously, Sayama became widely known in the wrestling world for his all-round prowess of high-flying, technical abilities, and martial combat skills (as he was a practitioner of judo and freestyle wrestling in his youth). Primarily trained under New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) founder Antonio Inoki and his mentor Karl Gotch, Sayama made his professional wrestling debut in 1976 at 18 years old. He was sent on an excursion to Europe for World of Sport Wrestling and Mexico for Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre, where he not only found his ground as a technical wrestler, but also found his niche in Lucha libre. Sayama became Tiger Mask in 1981, brought from Ikki Kajiwara's 1968 manga series of the same name and the popular anime of the decade. He became involved in highly publicized feuds with Black Tiger (portrayed by Mark Rocco), Dynamite Kid, and Yoshiaki Fujiwara, who was one of Sayama's own trainers. He left NJPW at the height of his popularity in 1983 due to political disenfranchisement, and later became a founding member of the UWF brand in Japan. He then became dissatisfied with wrestling as a whole, leading him to write Kay Fabe (1985), which detailed the kayfabe and secrets of puroresu at the time. After declaring retirement from professional wrestling in 1985 after the collapse of UWF, he founded Shooto, one of the first MMA organizations in the world. Sayama also started mixed martial arts training and developed his own Shooto syllabus for learning what could be considered the first put together MMA training of its kind, with a focus on striking from arts like boxing, muay thai, and karate, and grappling from wrestling, judo, and sambo. The curriculum would help produce the first well rounded fighters of MMA several years before the first UFC event. While on Shooto, Sayama promoted the Vale Tudo Japan events, more rules free events inspired by Brazilian Vale Tudo and early UFC, helping to popularize MMA in Japan. He retired from his post in Shooto in 1996, and returned to professional wrestling soon after. In 2005, Sayama founded his own promotion, Real Japan Pro-Wrestling (RJPW), which later became Strong Style Pro-Wrestling. Sayama likened the promotion to include wrestlers from the past, as well as martial artists, Sayama's students, and modern stars from the likes of Battlarts, Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJPW), and more. Although he hasn't officially declared retirement, Sayama last wrestled on December 7, 2016. It was announced in 2020 that he had several health problems, which linked him to Parkinson's disease and immobility.