| Hirotaka Yokoi | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1978-06-08)June 8, 1978 (age 47) Iwamizawa, Hokkaido, Japan |
| Other names | Kaibutsu-kun ("Monster-kun") |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Weight | 205 lb (93 kg; 14.6 st) |
| Division | Heavyweight Light Heavyweight |
| Style | MMA Shooto |
| Fighting out of | Osaka, Japan |
| Team | RINGS Japan / Alliance Team |
| Teacher | Tsuyoshi Kohsaka |
| Years active | 2000–2007 |
| Mixed martial arts record | |
| Total | 16 |
| Wins | 11 |
| By knockout | 2 |
| By submission | 5 |
| By decision | 4 |
| Losses | 5 |
| By knockout | 4 |
| By submission | 1 |
| Other information | |
| Mixed martial arts record fromSherdog | |
Hirotaka Yokoi (横井宏考) (born June 8, 1978) is a Japanese formermixed martial artist andprofessional wrestler. A professional MMA competitor from 2000 until 2007, Yokoi fought forPRIDE,Shooto,RINGS, andDEEP,[1][2][3] while in professional wrestling he wrestled mainly forPro Wrestling Zero1.
Yokoi originally started training inJudo in high school, but he was more interested inUniversal Wrestling Federation and its offshoots. He participated at aShooto mixed martial arts tournament during his stay at theKinki University, and later moved toFighting Network RINGS. Yokoi gained the nickname "Kaibutsu-kun" (meaning "Monster-kun") for his physical resemblance to the title character from the 1980sanime seriesKaibutsu-kun.[1]
Yokoi made his professional debut in 2000 and won his first eight fights, mostly fighting in theRINGS organization before moving to compete inPRIDE. After RINGS's demise, he followed fellow judokaTsuyoshi Kohsaka and joined his Alliance team.
Yokoi made his debut for the organization on November 24, 2002 atPride 23 against DutchkickboxerJerrel Venetiaan, winning in the second round viaarmbar submission.
After picking up aTKO win overWilson Gouveia, the undefeated Yokoi fought formerPride Heavyweight ChampionAntônio Rodrigo Nogueira in the opening round of thePride Total Elimination 2004 tournament. Yokoi performed unexpectedly well,[1] taking Nogueira down repeatedly with judo throws and pulling out reversals and occasionalground and pound on the Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert, but he ultimately fell to ananaconda choke in the second round for the first loss of his career.
At PRIDE 28, Yokoi facedHeath Herring, but he was soon overwhelmed with a right hook and multiple knees, including illegal strikes to the back to the head that granted Herring a warning. He eventually lost the fight by TKO in the same way. Yokoi looked to make up for his defeat at the next event by taking onMario Sperry, Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion and Nogueira's trainer, but after an uneventful round of clinch striking Yokoi was again downed and hit with knees and soccer kicks for the TKO.
Yokoi's final fight in PRIDE was at PRIDE 30, where he facedQuinton "Rampage" Jackson. Yokoi showed himself active again, gaining dominant position with an earlyomoplatasweep, but Jackson used his superior strength to reverse him and threw heavy punches and kicks until the referee stopped the match.
Yokoi bounced back with a win viarear-naked choke submission win a year after last fight and then fought again a year later in Finland, losing via TKO. With a career record of 11-5, having won only one of his last six fights, Yokoi retired.
Yokoi joinedPro Wrestling Zero1 in May 2002. He started teaming up with othershoot-style wrestlers, namelyWataru Sakata,Yuki Ishikawa andYoshiaki Fujiwara, and also enjoyed significant wins in theFire Festival, beatingKohei Sato andTetsuhiro Kuroda. He spent the rest of the year in random tag team matches, as well as losing efforts toShinjiro Otani and Kazuhiko Ogasawara. Eventually, he formed a tag team with Kohei Sato in midst of thefeud between the native wrestlers andSteve Corino's American faction, and they challenged Corino andCW Anderson for theNWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship in two separate occasions, though coming short in both.
Around the same time, in which their team was named as Rowdy, they started appearing inAll Japan Pro Wrestling as Zero-One representatives. Sato and Yokoi put their eyes in theAll Asia Tag Team Championship, taking part in a special league for the vacated title. Rowdy was successful, winning the belts against Turmeric Storm (Kazushi Miyamoto andTomoaki Honma) in July 2003. They retained the title against challengers like King Adamo andKing Joe and Nobukazu Hirai and Shigeo Okumura, but ended up losing it in October to the Zero-One team ofKintaro Kanemura and Tetsuhiro Kuroda.
After the All Japan affair, Yokoi diversified to his singles career aside from Rowdy, and challengedThe Predator for the Zero-One United States Heavyweight Championship andMasato Tanaka for theNWA United National Heavyweight Championship. He and Sato also challenged for the NWA tag team titles several times, but they failed. From 2004 to 2006, Yokoi competed sporadically inHustle as a member of thebabyface Hustle Army, teaming up with "Hustle K"Toshiaki Kawada, while trying luck in Zero-One'sFire Festival tournaments and keeping his team with Kohei Sato. He was released from Zero-One in February 2007, leaving pro wrestling altogether.
| 16 matches | 11 wins | 5 losses |
| By knockout | 2 | 4 |
| By submission | 5 | 1 |
| By decision | 4 | 0 |
| Res. | Record | Opponent | Method | Event | Date | Round | Time | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loss | 11–5 | Mikko Rupponen | TKO (strikes) | Fight Festival 21 | March 17, 2007 | 1 | 2:51 | Helsinki, Finland | |
| Win | 11–4 | Andre Fyeet | Submission (rear-naked choke) | World Pro Fighting Championships 1 | September 15, 2006 | 1 | 3:11 | Nevada, United States | |
| Loss | 10–4 | Quinton Jackson | TKO (punches and stomps) | PRIDE 30 | October 23, 2005 | 1 | 4:05 | Saitama, Japan | |
| Loss | 10–3 | Mario Sperry | TKO (knees) | PRIDE 29 | February 20, 2005 | 1 | 9:08 | Saitama, Japan | Return toLight Heavyweight. |
| Loss | 10–2 | Heath Herring | TKO (knees) | PRIDE 28 | October 31, 2004 | 1 | 1:55 | Saitama, Japan | |
| Loss | 10–1 | Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira | Submission (anaconda choke) | PRIDE Total Elimination 2004 | April 25, 2004 | 2 | 1:25 | Saitama, Japan | |
| Win | 10–0 | Wilson Gouveia | TKO (punches) | HOOKnSHOOT: Absolute Fighting Championships 2 | March 28, 2003 | 3 | 2:26 | Florida, United States | |
| Win | 9–0 | Jerrel Venetiaan | Submission (armbar) | PRIDE 23 | November 24, 2002 | 2 | 3:29 | Tokyo, Japan | |
| Win | 8–0 | Bulldozer George | Submission (rear-naked choke) | UFO: Legend | August 8, 2002 | 1 | 0:47 | Tokyo, Japan | |
| Win | 7–0 | Memo Diaz | Decision (unanimous) | DEEP: 4th Impact | March 30, 2002 | 3 | 5:00 | Nagoya, Japan | |
| Win | 6–0 | Katsuhisa Fujii | Decision (unanimous) | RINGS: World Title Series Grand Final | February 15, 2002 | 3 | 5:00 | Yokohama, Japan | |
| Win | 5–0 | Kestutis Smirnovas | Decision | RINGS Lithuania: Bushido RINGS 3 | November 10, 2001 | 2 | 5:00 | Vilnius, Lithuania | |
| Win | 4–0 | Ken Orihashi | TKO (lost points) | RINGS: World Title Series 4 | October 20, 2001 | 1 | 3:14 | Tokyo, Japan | |
| Win | 3–0 | Masaya Kojima | Submission (armlock) | RINGS: Battle Genesis Vol. 8 | September 21, 2001 | 1 | 2:12 | Tokyo, Japan | |
| Win | 2–0 | Ricardo Fyeet | Submission (armbar) | RINGS: 10th Anniversary | August 11, 2001 | 1 | 2:34 | Tokyo, Japan | |
| Win | 1–0 | Masaya Inoue | Decision (majority) | Shooto: R.E.A.D. 8 | August 4, 2000 | 2 | 5:00 | Osaka, Japan | Light Heavyweight bout. |
| Result | Opponent | Method | Event | Date | Round | Time | Notes |
| Draw |  Koshi Matsumoto | Draw | Quintet Fight Night 2 | February 3, 2019 | 1 | 10:00 |
