Hidehiko suffered his first MMA loss to Wanderlei Silva in the next round of the 2003 tournament. Yoshida faced Royce Gracie at last year’s NYE Shockwave show in a rematch of their grappling bout. This time it was under full MMA rules and though most felt Royce dominated, it was ruled a draw. Then last June, at the Pride Critical Countdown show, Yoshida submitted kickboxer Mark Hunt via armbar.
GARDNER: Wrestler Rulon Gardner is training for his MMA debut with Dan Henderson, Randy Couture, Evan Tanner and the rest of Team Quest. A Wyoming native, Gardner began wrestling at 6 years old. He would participate in a yearly one-week wrestling camp at Star Valley High School until he was 12 and wrestled full seasons from junior high through college. He graduated from Ricks College in 1991 and from the University of Nebraska with a Bachelors of Science degree in Physical Education in 1996.
Gardner won numerous wrestling honors over the years including the Greco-Roman National Championship title in ’95 and ’97, the Greco-Roman World Cup Championship in ’96, the Pan American Games Silver Medal in ’03 and multiple honors from USA Wrestling including the 2000 Greco-Roman Wrestler of the Year, 2001 Man of the Year and the 2003 World Team Trials Champion. Of course his greatest accomplishment was his win over Russian super wrestler Alexander Karelin for the gold medal in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.
MY PICK: Yoshida. Gardner is with an excellent camp and given the time to train and a desire to win, Rulon could be a force in the sport. However, at this point in time he’s facing someone who has been training and competing at this level for more than a year. Other than Gardner’s size and raw strength, I’m hard pressed to find an advantage Gardner has against Yoshida. If Hidehiko can score the early takedown and keep this one on the mat, it may be over early but I’ll give Gardner the fair shake. Yoshida by decision.