MMA in Japan

In May 2001, 5 months after arriving in Japan, I met Nobuhiko Takada right after Pride 14 through a mutual friend. We ate yakiniku in Roppongi and I expressed my interest in training with Kazushi Sakuraba. He asked me why I was interested in MMA

It was 2001 when I first came to Japan and decided I wanted to try competitive MMA with a view to turning professional. My initial interest was a combination of a natural competitiveness coupled with the urge to see if the martial arts I’d begun practicing in Scotland at Rick Young’s Black Belt Academy would work. I was told that if I didn’t have previous fight experience abroad then I would have to win an amateur tournament in order to be considered for a professional bout.