| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1965-02-02)February 2, 1965 (age 60) Tomakomai, Hokkaido, Japan |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Takuma Sano Yuhi Sano Naoki Sano Mr. Sato |
| Billed height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Billed weight | 110 kg (243 lb) |
| Trained by | NJPW Dojo |
| Debut | March 3, 1984 |
| Retired | January 7, 2020[1] |
| Mixed martial arts careerMartial arts career | |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Height | 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Weight | 110 kg (243 lb; 17 st 5 lb) |
| Style | MMA Shooto |
| Team | NJPW Dojo |
Naoki Sano (佐野 直喜,Sano Naoki)[2] (born February 2, 1965) is a Japanese retiredprofessional wrestler and formermixed martial artist most notable for being the generational rival of legendary Japanese pro wrestlerJushin Liger. During the last years of his career he went by the name Takuma Sano (佐野巧真,Sano Takuma).
Sano was a member of the 1984NJPW Dojo class, and in his first few years wrestled in preliminary matches. In 1987, he went on an overseas excursion to Mexico, wrestling for theUniversal Wrestling Association (UWA). In August 1987, he won his first championship, theDistrito Federal Trios Championship with fellow NJPW wrestlers Hirokazu Hata andYoshihiro Asai. Upon his return to the promotion in January 1989, he won the Young Tokyo Dome Cup on April 24, becoming the first NJPW wrestler to wrestle inside the Tokyo Dome, along withHiro Saito. He went on to have numerous acclaimed matches againstJyushin Liger. Sano defeated Liger for theIWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship on August 10, 1989, but lost it to Liger on January 31, 1990.[3][4] In April 1990, he went on an overseas excursion to Canada, wrestling under the name Mr. Sato for the Canadian National Wrestling Alliance promotion in Calgary, where he won the promotion's World Mid-Heavyweight Championship.
After several returns representing other promotions, Sano returned to NJPW for the last time in January 2020, at theirWrestle Kingdom 14 events. On January 5, he andJushin Liger were defeated byHiromu Takahashi andRyu Lee, after which Liger retired.[5] Two days later on January 7, Sano retired.[1]
During his Canadian excursion in July 1990, Sano moved to theSuper World of Sports (SWS) after a big money offer from Megane Super, the company backing the promotion. In SWS he became the top junior heavyweight, feuding with native talent and outsider talent from theUnited States,Mexico, and outsider promotionsUniversal Lucha Libre andPro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi. In December 1991, Sano won the tournament for theSWS Light Heavyweight Championship.[6] He was the only titleholder.[6]
After SWS collapsed in June 1992, Sano worked a few matches for Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi, but soon moved toUnion of Wrestling Force International (UWFI) upon recommendation from former NJPW comradesNobuhiko Takada andKazuo Yamazaki, the top stars of UWFI.
In UWFI, he adopted the nameYuhi Sano. Adopting the shinguards and trunks typical ofshoot style wrestlers, Sano had more opportunities to face actual heavyweights. Nevertheless, during the 1995-96 feud against NJPW, Sano participated on UWFI's side, beating old rival Liger one more time but losing toShinya Hashimoto. In the feud against theWAR promotion, which had been born out of the ashes of SWS, Sano lost to old patronGenichiro Tenryu in a singles match. Upon UWFI's collapse later in December 1996, Sano joined its successor promotion,Kingdom.
He returned to wrestling, entering Battlarts and feuding withMinoru Tanaka over theIndependent World Junior Heavyweight Championship.[7] Sano won the belt from Tanaka in May 1999 and dropped it to him the following year. In 2000 he participated in the thirdSuper J-Cup tournament held byMichinoku Pro Wrestling. He advanced to the final four before losing to eventual runner-upCima.[8]
In 2001, he joinedPro Wrestling Noah. He became Takuma Sano, for a year wearing tights and wrestling junior heavyweights, but after fully turning heavyweight, he returned to the shinguards and trunks. As part of the faction led byAkira Taue and also composed ofDaisuke Ikeda, Sano had opportunities for theGHC Heavyweight Championship held byKenta Kobashi and later,Mitsuharu Misawa, but failed both times. In 2010, he teamed withYoshihiro Takayama to win theGlobal Tag League.[9] On September 18, 2010, Sano and Takayama defeatedAkitoshi Saito andBison Smith to win the vacantGHC Tag Team Championship. They would lose the title toNew Japan Pro-Wrestling'sGiant Bernard andKarl Anderson on June 18, 2011, atDominion 6.18 in a match contested also for theIWGP Tag Team Championship.[10] After his contract with NOAH expired in January 2012, Sano became a freelancer.
As a former UWF-i member, Sano was also amixed martial artist and participated in thePride Fighting Championships, which were originally created to pit Sano's trainerNobuhiko Takada andRickson Gracie. Sano debuted atPride 2, where he faced Rickson's brotherRoyler. The Brazilian opened the fight by taking Yuhi down andmounting him, only to Sano tosweep him aside and block atriangle choke attempt before returning to standing position. Sano blocked a takedown, but was swept by Royler and the jiu-jitsu expert gained top position, though he was unable to finish him due to Yuhi's defensive skills. After Yuhi swept him again, Royler tried another triangle choke and managed to draw blood from Sano with upkicks and strikes from theguard. The end of the fight came when Royler finally took his back and performed anarmbar to make Sano submit.[11][12]
In October of that year atPride 4, Sano faced a striker instead of a grappler, in the shape ofShooto's karate stylistSatoshi Honma. Sano resisted his punches and clinched knees and took Honma down, but the karateka kept hitting from the guard and nullified his offensive. Back to standing, Honma struck Sano with more punches and knees, cutting Yuhi's eyes and delivering a hard punishment before the referee called the knockout in Honma's favour.[13][14] Sano had his last fight for Pride atPride 9, being submitted byCarlos Newton in a short bout.[15] In addition to his active career, Sano helped train fighters at theTakada Dojo.[16]
| 4 matches | 0 wins | 4 losses |
| By knockout | 0 | 2 |
| By submission | 0 | 2 |
| By decision | 0 | 0 |
| By disqualification | 0 | 0 |
| Draws | 0 | |
| No contests | 0 | |
| Res. | Record | Opponent | Method | Event | Date | Round | Time | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loss | 0–4 | Carlos Newton | Submission (armbar) | Pride 9 | June 4, 2000 | 1 | 0:40 | Nagoya, Japan | |
| Loss | 0–3 | Keiichiro Yamamiya | TKO (strikes) | Pancrase - Breakthrough 3 | March 9, 1999 | 1 | 10:43 | Tokyo, Japan | |
| Loss | 0–2 | Satoshi Honma | TKO (punches) | Pride 4 | October 11, 1998 | 1 | 9:25 | Tokyo, Japan | |
| Loss | 0–1 | Royler Gracie | Submission (armbar) | PRIDE 2 | March 15, 1998 | 1 | 33:14 | Yokohama,Kanagawa, Japan |
,Internet Wrestling Database