Yuki Nakai (born 18 August 1970, ) is a retired Japanese mixed martial artist. He currently teaches Shootfighting and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and is the president of the Japanese Confederation of Jiu-Jitsu. He competed in Shooto, an early MMA promotion where he won the Shooto World Welterweight Championship, as well as Vale Tudo Japan 1995, where he was outweighed by every opponent in the tournament. Despite this, and despite suffering a severe eye injury in the first bout, Nakai managed to make it to the finals where he lost to Rickson Gracie. Nakai is considered a legend of Shooto by many fighters and fans. He is the founder of the Paraestra Shooto Gym and coaches fighters such as

PRIDE Pride is a human Emotion, secondary emotion characterized by a sense of satisfaction with one's Identity (philosophy), identity, performance, or accomplishments. It is often considered the opposite of shame or of humility and, depending on conte ...

and

DREAM A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensation (psychology), sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around ...

stand out Shinya Aoki, who also earned his A-Class Shooto rank and jiu-jitsu black belt from Nakai.

Career

Nakai started training

Judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

and

Wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

at Hokkaido Sapporo North high school, originally with the dream to be a professional wrestler. After entering

Hokkaido University , or , is a public research university in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. Founded in 1918, it is the fifth-oldest government-authorised university in Japan and one of the former Imperial Universities. The university finds its roots in Sapporo A ...

, he started training under renowned Kodokan master Kanae Hirata. In his fourth year, now as a black belt, Nakai competed at the ''Nanatei Judo'' championship, leading his university to the victory in 1992. At the same time, he joined the amateur division of

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting combat sport, sport based on strike (attack), striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-s ...

promotion Shooto, training under Satoru Sayama at the Super Tiger Gym. When Nakai graduated from college, he joined Shooto as a professional.

Shooto

Nakai made his MMA debut with a 53-second victory by keylock over Hiroki Noritsugu. He would follow with another win, submitting Masakazu Kuramochi via heel hook, but he was stopped short by Noboru Asahi in a decision loss. Still, Nakai recovered with two victories over Jun Kikuwada, both at the Seishinkaikan event representing Shooto and at a proper Shooto event, and another over Kyuhei Ueno by choke. In 1994, Nakai took part in the Vale Tudo Access series of events and fought Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu exponent and Rickson Gracie student Arthur Cathiard in the first of them, getting a draw after an uneventful bout spent at Yuki's guard. Nakai, however, had acquired momentum, and he defeated standout Kazuhiro Kusayanagi for the Shooto Welterweight Championship shortly after. Then, starting 1995, he was chosen again to represent Shooto in Sayama's Vale Tudo Japan event.

Vale Tudo Japan

On April 20, 1995, Nakai entered the Vale Tudo Japan tournament, figuring at 135 lbs as the lightest competitor of the night. His first opponent would be the Dutch Savateur and

Ultimate Fighting Championship The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promoter (entertainment), promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority owned subsidiary of Endeavor ( ...

finalist Gerard Gordeau. Started the match, Nakai immediately rushed his opponent with a takedown attempt, but Gordeau used the ropes to keep himself standing and punched Nakai's head, and they remained entangled on them for the rest of the first round. At the second, the Japanese dropped down and initiated a heel hook entry, only for Gordeau to clamp himself to the ropes again and land strikes on his supine opponent, eye-gouging him illegally several times. Restarted on the center of the ring, a bloody and half-blinded Nakai was forced to lie down on the mat while he and Gordeau probed each other from their respective positions. Finally, after a third round passed on the ropes, Nakai scored a double leg takedown against the ring corner, escaped from a guillotine choke attempt by Gordeau and dropped down for another heel hook, this time managing to submit the Dutchman after half an hour of fighting. Yukinakai-gordeau

Despite his right eye being gravely injured and having lost half of his eyesight, Nakai advanced round in the tournament and went to the ring to fight against American Wrestler Craig Pittman, who sported a full 100-lb weight advantage. The bigger fighter took him down and landed heavy ground and pound near the ropes while Nakai tried repeatedly for armbars from the bottom. Pittman continued his assault on the center of the ring, but Nakai fended him off with a usage of both

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

and spider guard. In the second round, Nakai dropped to the ground and resumed trying to submit Pittman from his guard, which he finally accomplished with an armbar at 7:32 of the round. Now with both of his eyes swollen shut from the punishment and almost totally blind, Yuki would go on to face jiu-jitsu expert Rickson Gracie in the third and final bout of the tournament. Nakai resisted Rickson's earlier attempts of achieving dominant position, but he was too lacerated to keep up his defense and eventually Gracie took the

side control In grappling, side control (often also called side mount, cross mount, 100 kilos) is a dominant ground grappling position where the top combatant is lying perpendicularly over the face-up bottom combatant in such a way that the legs are free an ...

. The Brazilian advanced to a

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position and followed by taking full mount, from where he landed some punches before catching Yuki in a rear naked choke for the tap out, thus winning the tournament. Due to Gordeau's illegal tactics and Nakai's own refusal to get medical attention in order to continue in the tournament, he became permanently blind in his right eye.Yuki Nakai remains committed to teaching true spirit of martial arts
" ''Japan Today''. Retrieved on April 12, 2012. which forced him to retire from

competition. For years he and Sayama kept his blindness a secret to protect the reputation of the sport.

Post-MMA

After retiring from MMA, Nakai became interested in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, not due to his own defeat to Rickson as it is popularly believed, but to Noboru Asahi's loss to Royler Gracie in 1996. He learned it from Enson Inoue, and a year later he participated in his first jiu-jitsu tournament, the Gracie Honolulu Open hosted by Relson Gracie. Nakai soon won the Pan American Championship on the Brown Belt category, and afterwards he was granted the Black Belt by Carlos Gracie Jr, becoming the first person from Japan to hold a Black Belt in BJJ. In 1997, Nakai opened the Paraestra Shooto Gym, and was eventually appointed president of the Japanese Confederation of Jiu-Jitsu.

Championships and accomplishments

* Shooto ** Shooto Welterweight Championship (one time; former)

Mixed martial arts record

, - , Loss , align=center, 9–2–1 , Rickson Gracie , Submission (rear-naked choke) , rowspan=3, Vale Tudo Japan 1995 , rowspan=3, , align=center, 1 , align=center, 6:22 , rowspan=3,

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, Japan , , - , Win , align=center, 9–1–1 , Craig Pittman , Submission (armbar) , align=center, 2 , align=center, 7:32 , , - , Win , align=center, 8–1–1 , Gerard Gordeau , Submission (heel hook) , align=center, 4 , align=center, 2:41 , , - , Win , align=center, 7–1–1 , Hiraoki Matsutani , Submission (heel hook) , Shooto - Vale Tudo Access 3 , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 0:20 ,

, Japan , , - , Win , align=center, 6–1–1 , Kazuhiro Kusayanagi , Decision (unanimous) , Shooto - Vale Tudo Access 2 , , align=center, 4 , align=center, 4:00 ,

, Japan , , - , Draw , align=center, 6–1–1 , Arthur Cathiard , Draw , Shooto - Vale Tudo Access , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 8:00 ,

, Japan , , - , Win , align=center, 5–1 , Kyuhei Ueno , Submission (arm-triangle choke) , Shooto - Shooto , , align=center, 5 , align=center, 0:52 ,

, Japan , , - , Win , align=center, 4–1 , Jun Kikawada , Submission (heel hook) , Shooto - New Stage Battle of Wrestling , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 0:27 ,

, Japan , , - , Win , align=center, 3–1 , Jun Kikawada , N/A , Seishinkaikan , , align=center, N/A , align=center, N/A , Japan , , - , Loss , align=center, 2–1 , Noboru Asahi , Decision (unanimous) , Shooto - Shooto , , align=center, 5 , align=center, 3:00 ,

, Japan , , - , Win , align=center, 2–0 , Masakazu Kuramochi , Submission (heel hook) , Shooto - Shooto , , align=center, 2 , align=center, 1:36 ,

, Japan , , - , Win , align=center, 1–0 , Hiroki Noritsugi , Submission (kimura) , Shooto - Shooto , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 0:53 ,

, Japan ,

Submission grappling record

, - style="text-align:center; background:#f0f0f0;" , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Result , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Opponent , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Method , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Event , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Date , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Round , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Time , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Notes , - , Loss, , Roberto de Souza , , Submission (triangle choke) , , Rizin 21 – Hamamatsu , , 2020 , , 1 , , 3:38 , , , - , Draw, , Ricardo de la Riva , , Draw , , Ground Impact Revival , , 2013, , , , , , , - , Win, , Ricardo de la Riva , , Points , , Professional Jiu Ground Impact 05 , , 2004, , , , , , , - , Loss, , Mario Reis , , Points , , Professional Jiu DESAFIO 02 , , 2004, , , , , , , - , Loss, , Mitsuyoshi Hayakawa , , Points , , Professional Jiu Ground Impact 04 , , 2004, , , , , , , - , Win, , Albert Crane , , Points , , Professional Jiu Ground Impact 03 , , 2004, , , , , , , - , Loss, , Alexandre “Soca” Freitas , , Points , , Professional Jiu Ground Impact 02 , , 2003, , , , , , , - , Loss, , Leonardo Vieira , , Submission (rear-naked choke) , , Professional Jiu GI um Ground Impact , , 2002, , , , , , , - , Loss, ,

Vítor Ribeiro Vítor de Souza Ribeiro (born February 24, 1979) is a retired professional mixed martial artist who competed in the Lightweight division. A professional competitor since 2001, he has formerly competed for Strikeforce, Sho ...

, , Points , , Vale Tudo Japan '99 , , 1999, , , , , , , - , Win, , Tsutomu Fujimoto , , Points , , Daido-Juku THE WARS V , , 1999, , , , , , , - , Win, , Masato Fujiwara , , Points , , Daido-Juku THE WARS IV , , 1997, , , , , , , - , Draw, , Kazuya Abe , , Draw , , KP X WK: Koppo vs. Keisyukai , , 1996, , , , , , , - , Loss, , Jean-Jacques Machado , , Submission (triangle choke) , , Shooto: Vale Tudo Perception , , 1995, , , , , , , -

References

* Abu Dhabi Combat Club
Yuki Nakai's Jiu Jitsu 'Mook'
''news.adcombat.com''. URL last accessed April 6, 2006. * Frymer, William

''boutreviewusa.com''. URL last accessed April 6, 2006.. * Sherdog.com
Nakai talks Vale Tudo, SHOOTO and RicksonGerard GordeauYuki Nakai
''www.sherdog.com''. URL last accessed April 6, 2006.

External links

*
Paraestra
(his gym)
Sherdog MMA Profile
* (interview) {{DEFAULTSORT:Nakai, Yuki 1970 births Living people Japanese male mixed martial artists Mixed martial artists utilizing judo Mixed martial artists utilizing shoot wrestling Mixed martial artists utilizing catch wrestling Mixed martial artists utilizing freestyle wrestling Mixed martial artists utilizing Brazilian jiu-jitsu Japanese practitioners of Brazilian jiu-jitsu People awarded a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu Japanese male judoka Japanese catch wrestlers Martial artists from Hokkaido