Older mixed martial arts fans likely know Yoshihiro Takayama from his time with Pride Fighting Championship. This included a legendary fight with one of MMA’s first well-rounded fighters, Don Frye. Younger fans of mixed martial arts might not know Yoshihiro Takayama at all. At a glance, Takayama’s 1-4 MMA record might suggest that fans don’t need to know his story. However, Takayama is one of the most underappreciated figures in the early history of mixed martial arts.
His story demonstrates the physical toll of combat sports. It also gives us insight into why professional fighters do what they do. It is a story of a Japanese fighter and wrestler who always gave everything his all to entertain the fans. That was the only way Yoshihiro Takayama knew how to do things: with everything he had.
Yoshihiro Takayama Begins His Professional Wrestling Career
While many know Takayama from his time in MMA, he spent the majority of his career competing in professional wrestling. In addition to spending some time as a lifeguard and a rugby player, Takayama was also a kendoka.
A kendoka is a term that refers to a practitioner of kendo. Kendo is a modern martial art from Japan that involves typically one-on-one duels between practitioners. These practitioners use bamboo swords (known as shinai). The practitioners also wear a form of protective armor (known as bogu).
Kendo started out as the customary exercises of samurai warriors but it is still widely practiced in Japan today. Yoshihiro Takayama first entered the Japanese professional wrestling scene in 1992 when he joined the Union of Wrestling Forces International. This promotion was a shoot-style promotion, meaning that shoot-style wrestling involved realistic or even fully real moves. This was in contrast to the theatrical nature of many other professional wrestling promotions.
Takayama Makes His Pro Wrestling Debut
Nobuhiko Takada was the top Union of Wrestling Forces International star at the time. He tutored Takayama during Takayama’s early years as a professional wrestler. Takayama made his promotional debut in a match against Hiromitsu Kanehara. After this, Takayama regularly competed in the promotion’s Junior League Tournaments.
The interpromotional feuds that pitted the Union of Wrestling Forces against Wrestle Association R (commonly known as WAR) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling saw Takayama take the side of Kenichi Yamamoto and Yoji Anjo. Together, the three wrestlers created the Golden Cups. The Golden Cups was a semi-serious professional wrestling ‘stable’. Stable is a slang term sometimes used to describe a team of three professional wrestlers or more.
The trio competed often against wrestlers who were part of the New Japan Pro-Wrestling promotion. Additionally, they also often put on comedic skits to parody their opponents. The Golden Cups put on masks and called themselves the “200% Machines”. They did so in order to make fun of Junji Hirata, an NJPW wrestler with the nickname ‘Super Strong Machine’.
The Golden Cups also pretended to be a pop band and released a CD album in July 1996. Such gimmicks were commonplace in that era of Japanese professional wrestling. The Golden Cups also had a feud with Hiromichi Fuyuki, Gedo, and Jado (real name Shoji Akiyoshi). Gedo’s real name is Keiji Takayama. The Golden Cups competed in several crucial matches against Jado, Hiromichi Fuyuki, and Gedo in the WAR promotion. Hiromichi’s stage name is Kodo Fuyuki.
Yoshihiro Takayama Joins All Japan Pro Wrestling
The Union of Wrestling Forces International held its final event, known as UWF Final, on December 27, 1996. As a result, Takayama would have to join another wrestling promotion to continue his career. Takayama decided to join Kingdom Professional Wrestling, but that promotion also collapsed relatively quickly.
Takayama was now a free agent. He decided to join All Japan Pro Wrestling. Another former member of Union of Wrestling Forces International was Masahito Kakihara. Kakihara became a member of All Japan Pro Wrestling alongside Takayama. All Pro Wrestling soon placed Takayama into a feud with a former opponent who had beaten him, Toshiaki Kawada.
However, Takayama did not find immediate success in All Japan Pro Wrestling. In fact, he lost matches frequently and this caused the promotion to place him in the undercard of their events.
Amidst these struggles, Takayama formed a new team in 1999 with the aforementioned Masahito Kakihara and an American former member of Union of Wrestling Forces International, Gary Albright. This team was known as the ‘Triangle of Power’. 1999 would mark a turnaround in Takayama’s professional wrestling career.
Yoshihiro Takayama Becomes a Full-Time Member of All Japan Pro Wrestling and Experiences Success
One of the co-founders of All Japan Pro Wrestling, Shohei Baba, better known as ‘Giant Baba’, his ring name, passed away in 1999. After this, another All Japan Pro Wrestling wrestler named Mitsuharu Misawa made the decision to make Takayama and Kakihara full-time members of All Japan Pro Wrestling.
Takayama seized this opportunity. He formed the ‘No Fear’ team with Takao Omori and immediately became successful. The duo beat Jinsei Shinzaki and Hayabusa to win the Asian tag team title. After this, Takayama and Omori defeated American duo Bart Gunn and Johnny Ace to win the Double Cup.
However, their successful run came to an end at the hands of Yoshinari Ogawa and the aforementioned Mitsuhara Misawa. Still, Takayama, who had frequently lost professional wrestling matches up until this point, had experienced success as part of the ‘No Fear’ team with Takao Omori. Misawa announced that he was going to create a new professional wrestling promotion called ‘Pro Wrestling Noah’ in 2000.
After this, Takayama decided to follow Misawa and join the newly-created promotion as the next step in his professional wrestling career.
Takayama Competes in Pro Wrestling Noah
Takayama didn’t spend much time competing as part of the Pro Wrestling Noah promotion, but his short time in the promotion was memorable. Yoshihiro Takayama entered the GHC Heavyweight Championship, the first tournament of its kind in the history of the Pro Wrestling Noah promotion.
Takayama did well in the tournament, making it to the final match. However, Mitsuhara Misawa defeated him in the final match and won the tournament. Takayama’s focus would shift to the GHC Tag Team championship, which he won alongside his teammate Takao Omori.
In 2002, Takayama took part in some noteworthy matches with Pro Wrestling Noah. He defeated Yoshinari Ogawa to win the GHC Heavyweight Championship on September 7th, 2002. Misawa ensured that Takayama’s success was short-lived, though, beating Takayama once again to win the GHC Heavyweight Championship for a second time.
Takayama became a free agent in 2001 due to his desire to compete in mixed martial arts and New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Takayama would make his mixed martial arts debut in 2001, marking a new chapter in his career.
Yoshihiro Takayama Debuts at PRIDE 14
Pride Fighting Championships is a mixed martial arts organization that held its first event in 1997. In the early 2000s, Pride FC experienced a rapid rise to prominence and became the most popular mixed martial arts promotion in the world. Yoshihiro Takayama joined Pride FC during this time and made his mixed martial arts debut on May 27th, 2001 at Pride 14: Clash of the Titans.
Kazuyuki Fujita was Takayama’s first opponent in mixed martial arts. Takayama competed well despite his lack of mixed martial arts experience, exchanging strikes with Fujita and even escaping from underneath his heavier opponent on multiple occasions. However, Takayama’s stamina faltered later in the fight.
As a result, Fujita defeated Takayama in round two of their fight via an arm-triangle choke submission. Despite the disappointing loss, Takayama had impressed pundits and audience members by keeping the fight competitive for a time against a larger opponent. Takayama then fought another large opponent, Semmy Schilt, who was a superheavyweight kickboxing champion at the time.
Schilt knocked out Takayama in the first round of their fight at Pride 18 on December 23rd, 2001. Takayama would fight again at Pride 21, replacing Mark Coleman on short notice and facing Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Don Frye. Takayama’s fight with Don Frye at Pride 21 on June 23rd, 2002, would go down as one of the greatest fights in Pride FC’s history.
Takayama Puts It All on the Line in an All-Time Classic vs. Don Frye
Don Frye and Yoshihiro Takayama engaged in an all-out slugfest at Pride 21, with each fighter holding their opponent’s head using their left hand and unleashing powerful punches to each others’ faces with their right hand. Takayama interrupted the brutal striking battle by pulling off a belly-to-belly suplex on Frye and hitting Frye with a heavy knee. Frye managed to get up and the two of them resumed their bloody slugfest.
The fans at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan roared as the two men continued battling. However, Takayama was unable to withstand the damage after two additional minutes of exchanging punches with the American Don Frye. He went down and Frye got on top of him, hitting him with hammerfists (a punch using the side of a closed hand rather than the knuckles) until the referee stopped the fight.
Frye vs. Takayama at Pride 21 was far from a technical masterpiece, but critics lavished praise on it due to its bloody nature and the resilience of the two fighters. Many MMA fans still remember this fight to this day as one of the best in the history of Pride Fighting Championships. Takayama lost, but he gained the respect and admiration of everyone who watched that fight.
Takayama Wraps Up His MMA Career
Following this legendary fight, Takayama fought Bob Sapp, who weighed 350 pounds at the time, at Inoki-Bom-Ba-Ye 2002. Due to Sapp’s massive size advantage, it was a one-sided fight. Sapp took Takayama down and forced Takayama to tap using an armbar submission.
Takayama had his last MMA fight in 2013 at U-Spirits Again, beating Hikaru Sato by performing a suplex that knocked Sato out. This was Takayama’s only win in mixed martial arts. However, some dispute that this fight was a mixed martial arts bout and claim that it was a professional wrestling match.
In either case, Takayama never competed in MMA again after 2013. Takayama spent most of the 2000s competing in professional wrestling.
Takayama Competes in Professional Wrestling Throughout The 2000s
Aside from his time in Pride Fighting Championships, Takayama remained mostly focused on professional wrestling during the 2000s. He competed in New Japan Pro-Wrestling G1 Climax tournaments in 2003 and 2004. Takayama teamed up with Minoru Suzuki, a former member of the Pancrase mixed martial arts promotion, in mid-2004.
Their time together proved fruitful as the two won the IWGP Tag Team Championship later in 2004. Takayama endured a brutal match against Kensuke Sasaki and suffered a stroke. After this, Takayama took time away from competing as a professional wrestler to recover and provided occasional commentary for Pro Wrestling Noah events. Takayama attracted attention when he attacked his former teammate, Takao Omori, at a Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX event on December 27th, 2006. While there, Takayama promised that he would return at the next Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX event.
Takayama’s next notable success came at Pro-Wrestling Love in Ryogoku Vol. 7 on March 14th, 2009 when he defeated Keiji Muto (ring name the Great Muta) and won the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship. Due to this victory, Takayama was now the second wrestler to win all three Japanese major professional wrestling heavyweight titles. Kensuke Sasaki was the only professional wrestler that achieved this feat before Takayama.
Satoshi Koijma defeated Takayama and won the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship on September 26th, 2009, ending Takayama’s nearly seven-month reign.
Takayama’s Professional Wrestling Career Continues into the 2010s
Takayama challenged Shinsuke Nakamura for Nakamura’s IWGP Heavyweight Championship on January 4th, 2010. However, the much younger Nakamura beat Takayama and retained his title. Takayama competed in the first Global League tournament held by Pro Wrestling Noah from March 28th, 2010 to May 2nd, 2010. He won this tournament, beating Jun Akiyama in the tournament’s final match.
September 18, 2010 marked the day that Takayama and Takuma Sano beat Bison Smith and Akitoshi Saito to win the GHC Tag Team Championship, which was vacant at the time. Takayama continued competing in professional wrestling throughout the 2010s. He started competing mainly for DDT Pro-Wrestling in 2016.
Takayama won the Right to Challenge Anyone, Anytime contract pertaining to the KO-D Openweight Championship in April 2017. In that same month, Takayama teamed up with Akiru Miyashita, better known by his ring name Danshoku Dino, and together, the two won the KO-D Tag Team Championship.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck Takayama later in 2017.
Takayama Suffers a Spinal Injury
On May 4th, 2017, Takayama competed against Yasu Urano in a DDT Pro-Wrestling event. Takayama attempted to perform a sunset flip (a professional wrestling move where one wrestler dives over their opponent, puts them in a waistlock from behind, and rolls into a sitting position while landing on the mat). Sadly, Takayama landed on his head while trying to perform this sunset flip.
The match ended immediately and Takayama was quickly taken to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with a cervical spinal cord injury. Reports on August 6th, 2017 indicated that Takayama was paralyzed from the neck down due to the injury. Takayama recovered to the point where he could breathe on his own by September 4th, 2017.
Minoru Suzuki, a close friend of Takayama’s, and DDT Pro-Wrestling created a foundation that they named ‘Takayamania’ in order to aid Takayama and his family with Takayama’s medical bills. Across Japan, professional wrestling promotions set up donation boxes at their events for the foundation.
On April 27th, 2021, via a post on the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), Takayama revealed that he has been training on a workout bike as part of his physical rehabilitation. It is inspiring to see Takayama continue to work on his recovery after such a terrible injury.
Takayama’s Filmography
Takayama has also appeared in various films and anime. Takayama’s most recent appearance in film was in 2016, when he was credited as ‘Large Man’ in Martin Scorsese’s film Silence.
Takayama’s Legacy
Yoshihiro Takayama’s story is the story of a man who loved to entertain the crowd. He did so both in professional wrestling and mixed martial arts, achieving fame and popularity. Takayama’s recovery from a horrible injury in 2017 further demonstrates the indomitable spirit of the man many view as a legend in professional wrestling and as an important part of MMA’s early history.
Takayama is an underappreciated figure in MMA history, but every MMA fan should know his name and his story. His involvement in Pride Fighting Championships helped the promotion rise to prominence at a time when mixed martial arts was largely underground and illegal in the United States. Pride FC became defunct in 2007, but its legacy contributed to popular MMA promotions that still exist today such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship, ONE Championship, and PFL/Bellator.
Takayama’s resilience as he recovers from his injury is an inspiration to us all and a reminder that overcoming great adversity is possible with support and determination. No one should ever forget Yoshihiro Takayama, how he entertained fans, and his role in the history of mixed martial arts.