 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Yoji Anjo" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Yoji Anjo | |
|---|---|
 Anjo in 2008 | |
| Born | (1967-03-28)March 28, 1967 (age 57) Tokyo, Japan |
| Other names | Mr. 200% |
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Weight | 90 kg (198 lb) |
| Division | Light Heavyweight |
| Style | Wrestling |
| Team | Team Kingdom |
| Teacher(s) | Yoshiaki Fujiwara Nobuhiko Takada Akira Maeda |
| Years active | 1985–2015 |
| Mixed martial arts record | |
| Total | 6 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Losses | 5 |
| By knockout | 1 |
| By submission | 3 |
| By decision | 1 |
| Draws | 1 |
| Other information | |
| Mixed martial arts record fromSherdog | |
Yoji Anjo (Japanese:安生 洋二,Anjō Yōji) (born March 28, 1967)[1] is a retired Japaneseprofessional wrestler,mixed martial artist andkickboxer. Anjo is considered to be one of the pioneers of theshoot style movement during the 1980s and early 90s.
A former practitioner ofjudo,sumo andmuay thai, Anjo triedprofessional wrestling after meetingNobuhiko Takada. He passed the originalUniversal Wrestling Federation's entrance tests and had his debut on July 6, 1985, against Osamu Hoshina. He only wrestled a handful of matches for the company, as it collapsed later in the year and its roster moved back toNew Japan Pro-Wrestling, where Anjo debuted as a low-ranking member of the UWF "invading" army. Often teaming with fellow shooter Tatsuo Nakano, he feuded with names likeAkira Nogami,Osamu Matsuda andMasakatsu Funaki as part of the NJPWjunior heavyweight division. He eventually left the company in 1988 following Takada, Akira Maeda and the rest of his crew to form the second incarnation of UWF.
In 1988, already inUWF Newborn, Anjo climbed up the card and adopted a more eccentric image for himself, wearing zebra tights andbondage gear and usingheelish sneaky tactics in the ring. He participated in a different style fight at the U-COSMOS event againstChangpuek Kiatsongrit, and also wrestled Holland exponentDick Vrij. Just before the promotion disgregated in several companies, Anjo got a high level victory againstMinoru Suzuki.
In 1991 he joinedUWF International, following his mentor Takada, and had success as the top native heel. He feuded with Takada andKazuo Yamazaki, and had also an humbling match withThe Iron Sheik.
In December 1994, Anjo was involved in a famous incident withBrazilian jiu-jitsu masterRickson Gracie. After Gracie declined to work with UWF International, Yoji travelled to California along with executive Shinji Sasazaki and a huge Japanese press contingent to perform adojo challenge on Rickson. However, he lost the subsequent fight, with Rickson dominating him with brutalground and pound and choking him out after the Japanese refused to give up.
With the UWFi's formerly fearsome reputation in tatters, the bookers had the idea of co-promoting events with NJPW in 1995, and Yoji earned a victory overMasahiro Chono in an interpromotional match. He and young wrestlersYoshihiro Takayama andKenichi Yamamoto formed a stable called the "Golden Cups" (a reference topop rock bandThe Golden Cups) to feud intag team and six-man matches againstSuper Strong Machine as the masked "200% Machines". They also forayed intoWAR to feud withGenichiro Tenryu and others.
On August 17, 1996, Takada defeated Yoji Anjo at Tokyo'sMeiji-Jingu Stadium.Despite the effort, UWF's attendance numbers swiftly decreased, with the federation closing its doors once and for all in December 1996. In their final show it wasKazushi Sakuraba who at long last headlined, defeating Anjo by submission. Following UWFI's collapse he joinedKingdom but then wandered into independent promotions and also began competing in MMA matches.
In 2000 Anjo returned to professional wrestling to help outAll Japan Pro Wrestling's rebuilding. He appeared as a partner to old foeGenichiro Tenryu, winning theWorld Tag Team Championship from Johnny Smith andTaiyo Kea. They retained the titles for a long times, including a double title match withAJPW All Asia Tag Team ChampionsArashi andKoki Kitahara, against the teams ofGeorge Hines and Johnny Smith andToshiaki Kawada and Nobutaka Araya, coming victorious after Anjo pinned Araya with a knee strike. After some weeks, Tenryu and Anjo finally lost the title toKeiji Mutoh and Taiyo Kea, dissolving the team.
After some single ventures and a failed team withMitsuya Nagai, he quit All Japan and wandered again, joiningFighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling. He fought again alongside Tenryu, feuding with Takao Omori, and also teamed up with Ichiro Yaguchi to take part in the WMG Tag Team Championship tournament, but they were eliminated byJinsei Shinzaki and Shiro Koshinaka.
After many months of inactivity, Anjo resurfaced in the sports entertainment promotionHustle run by old comrade Takada. He debuted asCommander An Jo,Generalissimo Takada's right hand, wearing military uniforms and ornated eye masks.
On March 19, 2015, Anjo retired from professional wrestling, putting on a small interpromotional card calledY.A. is Dead (a reference to his entrance songJames Brown Is Dead by LA Style) where he reformed his "Golden Cups" stable with Takayama and Yamamoto, to take on former UWF and New Japan foesMasakatsu Funaki,Minoru Suzuki andSanae Kikuta in a best-of-three-falls six-man match. Anjo was forced to submit by Funaki in two straight falls, but Anjo demanded the match go to a third fall and was pinned by Suzuki.
Yoji's first shootfight was inUWF Newborn, after offering himself to fightmuay thai championChangpuek Kiatsongrit in the 1989 event U-Cosmos. Under mixed rules, Changpuek chose to wear gloves while Anjo did not. Started the fight, Yoji immediately clinched Changpuek to avoid his striking and repeatedly tried to take him down, but the Thai fighter kept holding the ring ropes in order to avoid it. After rounds, they traded kicks and Yoji cornered him in the turnbuckle several times, with Kiatsongrit never releasing the ropes. The Japanese wrestler managed to threaten him with submissions at the final round, but he couldn't lock them due to the rope escape rule, so the fight ended in a draw.
He had his official MMA debut at U-Japan, facing famed grapplerSean Alvarez in a half-hour losing effort.
In 1997, he took part inUltimate Fighting Championship'sUFC Japan tournament representing Kingdom along withKazushi Sakuraba, and was pitted against the much bigger and experiencedDavid "Tank" Abbott. The American took advantage of his own wrestling superiority to take Anjo down repeatedly and useground and pound, while Yoji answered with multiple submission attempts andleg kicks whenever he could. At the end of the fight, judges gave the decision to Abbot for keeping control during the fight. However, he had got a hand injury and had to retire from the tournament. Anjo's partner Sakuraba ended winning the tournament instead.
At the second UFC event in Japan,UFC 25, Anjo fought an even more dangerous grappler,Murilo Bustamante, considered one of the best in the world. The Japanese wrestler was immediately taken down and mounted, but he managed to perform a rolling reversal off the cage and fend off anarmbar attempt, and for a time seemed to have secured aguillotine choke, but only briefly. At the second round, Anjo was taken down and submitted with anarm triangle choke. Anjo kept facing high level opponents in the form of Olympic wrestlerMatt Lindland, inUFC 29. This time was Anjo the first in initiating the takedown, but Lindland used the fence to avoid it and maneuver to mount, from where he executed intense ground and pound until the referee stopped the fight.
Three years after getting a draw withSeikendo fighter Gia Chirragishvili inDeep, Anjo was invited toPride Fighting Championships to fightRyan Gracie, in remembrance of Anjo's past challenge to Rickson. The young Brazilian took Anjo down, but couldn't get the choke, and even shoved the referee away after the restart, earning a yellow card. Again Ryan got a takedown and gained half guard, taking Anjo's back, but Yoji defended it and they struggled for position until he fell in an armbar and had to tap out. This was Anjo's last MMA fight, although he still helped to train fighters likeDaiju Takase andKenichi Yamamoto.
| 6 matches | 0 wins | 5 losses |
| By knockout | 0 | 1 |
| By submission | 0 | 3 |
| By decision | 0 | 1 |
| Draws | 1 | |
| Res. | Record | Opponent | Method | Event | Date | Round | Time | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loss | 0–5–1 | Ryan Gracie | Submission (armbar) | Pride Shockwave 2004 | December 31, 2004 | 1 | 8:33 | Saitama, Japan | |
| Draw | 0–4–1 | Gia Chirragishvili | Draw | Deep - 1st Impact | January 8, 2001 | 3 | 5:00 | Nagoya, Japan | |
| Loss | 0–4 | Matt Lindland | TKO (strikes) | UFC 29 | December 16, 2000 | 1 | 2:58 | Tokyo, Japan | |
| Loss | 0–3 | Murilo Bustamante | Submission (arm triangle choke) | UFC 25 | April 14, 2000 | 2 | 0:31 | Tokyo, Japan | |
| Loss | 0–2 | David Abbott | Decision | UFC Japan | December 21, 1997 | 1 | 15:00 | Yokohama, Japan | |
| Loss | 0–1 | Sean Alvarez | Submission (punches) | U - Japan | November 17, 1996 | 1 | 34:26 | Japan |
| 1 match | 0 wins | 0 losses |
| By knockout | 0 | 0 |
| By submission | 0 | 0 |
| By decision | 0 | 0 |
| Draws | 1 | |
| Res. | Record | Opponent | Method | Event | Date | Round | Time | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | 0–0–1 | Changpuek Kiatsongrit | Draw | UWF U-Cosmos | November 29, 1989 | 5 | 3:00 | Tokyo, Japan |
| 1 win, 2 losses, 3 draws | ||||||||
| Date | Result | Opponent | Event | Location | Method | Round | Time | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 22, 1999 | Loss |  Issei Nakai | K-1 Spirits 1999 | Tokyo, Japan | KO (punch) | 2 | 1:22 | 1–2–2 |
| June 6, 1999 | Win |  Tommy Glanville | K-1 Survival 1999 | Tokyo, Japan | KO (mid kick) | 2 | 2:46 | 1–1–2 |
| March 23, 1999 | Draw | Duncan James | K-1 The Challenge 1999 | Tokyo, Japan | Decision Draw | 5 | 3:00 | 0–1–2 |
| August 28, 1998 | Loss | Masaaki Satake | K-1 Japan Grand Prix '98 | Tokyo, Japan | TKO (high kick) | 2 | 1:02 | 0–1–1 |
| January 27, 1996 | Draw | Manson Gibson | Shoot boxing "Carnival Ground Zero Yokohama" | Tokyo, Japan | Decision Draw | 1 | 20:00 | 0–0–1 |
| Legend: Win Loss Draw/No contest | ||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
