We told you a couple of weeks ago that 2008 Olympic judo gold medallist, Satoshi Ishii had made it very clear he only wanted to fight for the UFC and Dana White having got word of this, invited Ishii to UFC 92 this weekend.

MMAFighting.com is reporting that Ishii arrived in Las Vegas and met with UFC president Dana White at the MGM Grand on Friday. Ishii expressed a desire to train in the U.S. and asked White for recommendations. White suggested AKA in San Jose or Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas to the Japanese judoka.

Ishii mentioned that he had considered training with Fedor and Team Red Devil in Russia. White assured Ishii that the best training for MMA was not to be found in Russia, but in the United States. In fact, White invited Ishii to stay in Las Vegas and train at Xtreme Couture for one month. White told him he would learn about real MMA fighters through training with the best and then he would evaluate Ishii based upon feedback from the Xtreme Couture trainers.

White also suggested the alternative of fighting his way up on a season of “The Ultimate Fighter” on Spike TV. Ishii weighs 238 pounds and said he wanted to fight at heavyweight but White said that he should fight at light heavyweight.

Whatever happens with Ishii, it is refreshing to see MMA being validated time and again with high level Olympic athletes making the transition into the sport. The quality of fighters and fighting will continue to evolve.

Editor’s Note: You can view White’s meeting with Satoshi Ishii in White’s UFC 92 video blog #4 here.

2 thoughts on “Satoshi Ishii meets with Dana White in Vegas”
  1. I really hope Ishii puts the time in to learning stand up and the tools necessary to make a successful transition into MMA. For him to turn his back on Japan to want to fight in the UFC is a HUGE deal. The only thing is the UFC doesn’t really bring people into the UFC for their 1st pro fight….unless you’re Corey Hill of course….I guess anything is possible.

  2. It would be a sad day for MMA if Olympic gold medallists stoop to some stupid reality television show. They should dedicate their full efforts to a true training camp and not some ratings driven attempt to push people over the edge.

    It’s not like Ishii needs to make a name for himself, his gold medal speaks for itself.

    It’s surprising that Dana would even mention AKA by name considering his recent witch hunt involving any fighters that train there. Why not Greg Jacksons or ATT instead?

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