) is a former Japanese

mixed martial artist Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorp ...

and

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

of Korean descent. A professional MMA competitor from 1998 until 2012, he found success in Fighting Network RINGS, gaining notable victories over

Valentijn Overeem Valentijn Overeem (; born 17 August 1976) is a retired Dutch professional mixed martial artist and kickboxer currently signed with United Glory. A professional competitor since 1996, he has previously fought for the PRIDE Fighting Championships, ...

, Alexandre Ferreira, former

King of the Cage King of the Cage (KOTC) is a mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion based in Southern California, United States. History KOTC was founded in 1998 by Terry Trebilcock. KOTC features mostly amateur as well as up and coming MMA stars and former mainstr ...

Light Heavyweight Champion

Jeremy Horn Jeremy Graham Horn (born August 25, 1975) is an American mixed martial artist. Horn is best known for fighting in smaller American promotions, he has also competed in some of the premiere mixed martial arts organizations around the world, inclu ...

, former RINGS Light-Heavyweight Champion

Masayuki Naruse (born March 15, 1973) is a Japanese mixed martial artist and professional wrestler, competing in the light heavyweight division who fought most of his career in Fighting Network RINGS (RINGS). As a professional wrestler, he notably competed in ...

and former UFC Middleweight Champion

Dave Menne David Jeremy Menne (born July 29, 1974) is an American mixed martial artist. He was the first ever UFC Middleweight Champion and has also competed for Cage Rage, Bellator, Shooto, ADCC and RINGS. Background Menne was born in Minneapolis, Mi ...

. He later competed for

PRIDE Fighting Championships PRIDE Fighting Championships (Pride or Pride FC, founded as KRS-Pride) was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion company. Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts even ...

DEEP Deep or The Deep may refer to: Places United States * Deep Creek (Appomattox River tributary), Virginia * Deep Creek (Great Salt Lake), Idaho and Utah * Deep Creek (Mahantango Creek tributary), Pennsylvania * Deep Creek (Mojave River tributary), ...

Pancrase Pancrase Inc. is a mixed martial arts promotion company founded in Japan in 1993 by professional wrestlers Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki. The name was based on pankration, a fighting sport in the Ancient Olympic Games. Suzuki and Funaki pr ...

and

K-1 HERO'S Hero's was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion operated by Fighting and Entertainment Group, the parent entity behind kickboxing organization K-1. Grown from and branched off of K-1's earlier experiments in MMA, including the ''K-1 Romanex' ...

to mixed success. Kanehara also once competed in professional kickboxing. Kanehara initially started his career as a professional wrestler and competed mostly in

shoot style Shoot wrestling is a combat sport that originated in Japan's professional wrestling circuit of the 1970s. Professional wrestlers of that era attempted to use more realistic or even "full contact" moves in their matches to increase their exciteme ...

wrestling with

UWF International Union of Professional Wrestling Force International, better known as UWF International, U-Inter, or simply UWFi, was a shoot style professional wrestling promotion in Japan from 1991 to 1996. The UWF international was the successor to the ''Newb ...

and its successor

Kingdom Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

. He later made appearances for

Pro Wrestling Zero1 (stylized as Pro Wrestling ZERO1), formerly known as Pro Wrestling Zero-One and Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max (stylised in all capital letters) and often referred to simply as Zero1, is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded in 2001. I ...

and

Real Japan Pro Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling and martial arts promotion founded in 2005 by Satoru Sayama as , before being renamed in 2019. It runs shows every two or three months, and feature both pro wrestling activities and a variety of martial arts ...

before retiring in 2020.

Mixed martial arts career

Fighting Network RINGS

Kanehara debuted in RINGS with a submission win against

Sander Thonhauser Sander Thonhauser is a Dutch professional mixed martial artist. He competes in the Heavyweight division. He is a RINGS Holland veteran and has also fought for many other top promotions. His Mixed martial arts debut was on June 29, 1997. Sander ...

and followed it with a victory on May 29, 1998, against

Lee Hasdell Lee Hasdell (born 13 December 1966)Sherdog profile
Retrieved 4 April 2019Carlson Gracie Carlson Gracie (August 13, 1932 – February 1, 2006) was a practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. A member of the Gracie family, he was the eldest son of Carlos Gracie, and nephew to Hélio Gracie, founders of Gracie jiu-jitsu. Carlson Gr ...

apprentice

Ricardo Morais Ricardo "The Mutant" Morais is a Brazilian former mixed martial artist, who competed in Pride Fighting Championships, Jungle Fight, and Rings - MMA. Morais trained with the Banni Fight Combat Jiu-Jitsu to support, Banni Cavalcanti, even af ...

. The 60 pound heavier Morais controlled Kanehara positionally with the aid of his size, leaving the Japanese relegated to try

Kimura lock An armlock in grappling is a single or double joint lock that hyperextends, hyperflexes or hyperrotates the elbow joint or shoulder joint. An armlock that hyper-extends the arm is known as an armbar, and it includes the traditional armbar, pr ...

s from underneath and trying to escape unsuccessfully. On May 22, Kanehara faced

from RINGS Holland. Again facing a heavier opponent, Kanehara was hit with knees and kicks to the head and downed in the initial minute, but he managed to execute a takedown on Overeem, who fell badly and dislocated his knee. Judges and referee deliberated about letting the match continue after the knee was relocated, and they eventually conceded. Returning to action, Overeem landed a body kick which Kanehara grabbed for another takedown, but Hiromitsu fell into a guillotine and was forced to spend a rope escape. The sequence repeated itself before Overeem knocked Kanehara out with a high kick. Kanehara had his debut in worldwide MMA at the 1999 edition of the ''King of Kings'' tournament, where he faced tough opposition. Kanehara eliminated

in a prolonged grappling affair in the first round, winning the unanimous decision thanks to his superior wrestling and ground work, and then went to face eventual winner

Dan Henderson Daniel Jeffery Henderson (born August 24, 1970) is an American retired mixed martial artist and Olympic wrestler, who last competed as a middleweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He was the last Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champi ...

. The match was harsh and brutal, with Kanehara getting his nose broken and finally being dominated with repeated takedowns for a majority decision loss. After the tournament, Kanehara avenged his defeat to

, knocking out the Dutch fighter via punch from the clinch in a much shorter match. He was next sent as a RINGS representative to the event Colosseum 2000, where he found himself in front of Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend

Mario Sperry is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the '' Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his c ...

; even at loss, Kanehara performed impressively, countering and escaping all the bad positions he was caught with by Sperry. Before the next edition of the tournament, Kanehara still fought the former finalist Renato "Babalu" Sobral, losing by decision. Kanehara returned to KoK format facing popular

luta livre Luta Livre (, lit. ''freestyle fighting''), known in Brazil as Luta Livre Brasileira (lit. ''Brazilian freestyle fighting'') or Luta Livre Submission, and also Brazilian Submission Wrestling, is a Brazilian martial arts and combat sport created ...

practitioner and

ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship The ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship, is an international submission wrestling, submission grappling competition, organised by the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC). The inaugural tournament was held in Abu Dhabi, UAE in 1998. It has been ...

champion Alexandre "Cacareco" Ferreira. Although believed to be technically outmatched, Kanehara fought a long, strategic match and ended submitting the decorated grappler by kimura. He then won his next match, quickly knocking out

Tommy Sauer Thomas Sauer (November 11, 1970 — March 24, 2020) was an American retired mixed martial artist. A professional competitor from 1998 to 2012, he competed for RINGS and the World Fighting Alliance. Background A native of Cleveland, Sauer move ...

with punches, and reached the tournament's final event. There, Kanehara fought and defeated another tough opponent in the form of

, dominating the stand-up and knocking him out for a TKO win in round 3, although there was some controversy when Menne's corner protested the stoppage had been premature. Finally, Kanehara faced the eventual winner, Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...

, losing a very back and forth grappling contest when he was caught in a choke and forced to submit. After his KoK tenures, Kanehara went to fight another Brazilian exponent and ADCC winner,

Ricardo Arona Ricardo Arona (; born 17 July 1978) is a retired Brazilian mixed martial artist. A professional from 2000 until 2009, he competed in PRIDE Fighting Championships and RINGS in his mixed martial arts career, and was a member of Brazilian Top Te ...

, who he had already wrestled in ADCC in a losing effort. Though Kanehara was able to survive several striking combinations, holding his own on the mat, he was reversed in one of his own kneebar attempts and submitted. Right after he fought future

Ultimate Fighting Championship The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...

welterweight champion Matt Hughes, losing by unanimous decision.

PRIDE Fighting Championships

At the twilight of his career, Kanehara debuted in

as a RINGS veteran, and was pitted against a series of world-level opponents as PRIDE was known for doing with Japanese professional wrestlers. The first of them would be Wanderlei Silva in a challenge fight in PRIDE 23 for the PRIDE Middleweight Championship, but Kanehara was knocked down with strikes and hit with soccer kicks and stomps until his corner threw the towel. Hiromitsu returned to PRIDE as part of the Bushido series, taking on another feared striker in

Mirko Cro Cop Mirko Filipović (; born 10 September 1974), better known by his ring name Mirko Cro Cop, is a retired Croatian professional mixed martial artist, kickboxer and amateur boxer. He is mostly known for his time in Pride Fighting Championships. Cro ...

. The match went to the judges this time, as Kanehara absorbed a surprising amount of punishment, including Mirko's dreaded left high kick. He got similar results against

Alistair Overeem Alistair Cees Overeem (born 17 May 1980) is a Dutch professional heavyweight mixed martial artist and kickboxer, currently competing in the heavyweight division of Glory. He is a former Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion, Dream Heavyweight Cha ...

in PRIDE 28; he survived a barrage of punches,

flying knee A knee strike (commonly referred to simply as a knee) is a strike with the knee, either with the kneecap or the surrounding area. Kneeing is a disallowed practice in many combat sports, especially to the head of a downed opponent. Styles such as ...

s and even a

German suplex A suplex is an offensive move used in sport wrestling as well as amateur wrestling and professional wrestling. It is a throw that involves lifting the opponents and bridging or rolling to slam them on their backs. Professional wrestling featu ...

-like takedown, until he was finished by doctor stoppage. His final appearance in PRIDE was in its 29th event, being defeated by

Maurício Rua Maurício Milani Rua (; born 25 November 1981), also known as Shogun, is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and former model. He competes in the Light Heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He is a forme ...

via TKO (stomp) in the first round.

Championships and accomplishments

* Fighting Network RINGS **2000 RINGS King of Kings Tournament Semifinalist **2000 RINGS Rising Stars Middleweight Tournament Semifinalist *

Union of Wrestling Forces International Union of Professional Wrestling Force International, better known as UWF International, U-Inter, or simply UWFi, was a shoot style professional wrestling promotion in Japan from 1991 to 1996. The UWF international was the successor to the ''Newbo ...

**Junior League Tournament (1992)

Mixed martial arts record

, - , Loss , align=center, 21–27–5 ,

Yuki Kondo is a Japanese mixed martial artist currently competing in the Welterweight division. He has officially 111 professional fights, making him one of the most experienced mixed martial artists ever. He has also competed for the UFC, PRIDE, Sengoku ...

, Decision (points) , U-Spirits: U-Spirits Again , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 5:00 ,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan , , - , Loss , align=center, 21–26–5 ,

Ryuta Sakurai Ryuta Sakurai (born September 8, 1971) is a Japanese mixed martial artist who currently competes in the middleweight division. A veteran who fought for many companies such as Shooto, Pancrase and PRIDE. Nicknamed Mr. DEEP, he is best known for ...

, Decision (unanimous) , DEEP: Haleo Impact , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 5:00 ,

, Japan , , - , Draw , align=center, 21–25–5 , Yuki Sasaki , Draw (unanimous) , Grabaka: Grabaka Live 2 , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 5:00 ,

, Japan , , - , Loss , align=center, 21–25–4 , Yusuke Sakashita , Decision (unanimous) , DEEP: Cage Impact 2012 in Tokyo: Over Again , , align=center, 2 , align=center, 5:00 ,

, Japan , , - , Draw , align=center, 21–24–4 ,

Daijiro Matsui is a Japanese mixed martial artist and professional wrestler. A professional MMA competitor since 1998, he has competed for the PRIDE Fighting Championships, Cage Rage, DEEP, Pancrase, and King of the Cage. Professional wrestling career Afte ...

, Draw (majority) , DEEP: 57 Impact , , align=center, 2 , align=center, 5:00 ,

, Japan ,

Light Heavyweight Light heavyweight, also referred to as junior cruiserweight or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the division is above and up to , falling between super middleweight and cruise ...

bout. , - , Loss , align=center, 21–24–3 , Hideto Tatsumi , Decision (unanimous) , DEEP: 54 Impact , , align=center, 2 , align=center, 5:00 ,

, Japan , , - , Win , align=center, 21–23–3 , Hiroki Sato , Decision (unanimous) , DEEP: 51 Impact , , align=center, 2 , align=center, 5:00 ,

, Japan , , - , Draw , align=center, 20–23–3 , Yong Choi , Draw , DEEP: 49 Impact , , align=center, 2 , align=center, 5:00 ,

, Japan , , - , Loss , align=center, 20–23–2 ,

Riki Fukuda , is a Japanese mixed martial artist currently competing in the Middleweight division. A professional competitor since 2004, he has formerly competed for the UFC, EliteXC, DEEP, DREAM, K-1 (MMA), Shooto, and Pancrase. Mixed martial arts caree ...

, Decision (unanimous) , DEEP: 46 Impact , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 5:00 ,

, Japan , , - , Win , align=center, 20–22–2 , Makoto Miyazawa , TKO (punches) , DEEP: 44 Impact , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 0:25 ,

, Japan , Catchweight (87 kg) bout. , - , Draw , align=center, 19–22–2 ,

, Draw , DEEP: 42 Impact , , align=center, 2 , align=center, 5:00 ,

, Japan , , - , Win , align=center, 19–22–1 , Kenji Nagai , TKO (punches) , DEEP: 41 Impact , , align=center, 2 , align=center, 3:02 ,

, Japan , Catchweight (85 kg) bout. , - , Loss , align=center, 18–22–1 , Ichiro Kanai , Decision (unanimous) , Pancrase: Shining 8 , , align=center, 2 , align=center, 5:00 ,

, Japan , , - , Loss , align=center, 18–21–1 ,

Keiichiro Yamamiya Keiichiro Yamamiya (born July 12, 1972) is a Japanese former professional mixed martial artist. A veteran of 89 fights who began his career in 1996 and last competed in 2015, he fought in the UFC, Pancrase, DEEP, and World Victory Road. He was th ...

, Decision (unanimous) , Pancrase: Shining 5 , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 5:00 ,

, Japan , , - , Loss , align=center, 18–20–1 ,

Izuru Takeuchi Izuru Takeuchi is a retired Japanese mixed martial artist who competed in the middleweight division. He is a veteran of both the Pancrase and Shooto organizations, and is the former Middleweight King of Pancrase. Outside of mixed martial arts, ...

, Decision (unanimous) , Pancrase: Shining 2 , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 5:00 ,

, Japan , , - , Loss , align=center, 18–19–1 , Ryo Kawamura , KO (punches) , Pancrase: Rising 3 , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 1:36 ,

, Japan , , - , Loss , align=center, 18–18–1 , Marcelo Brito , Technical Submission (armbar) , MARS 5: Marching On , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 0:49 ,

, Japan , Catchweight (85 kg) bout. , - , Win , align=center, 18–17–1 , Ruslan Abdulkhamidov , Submission (

heel hook Heel hook may refer to: * Heel hook, in grappling * A climbing technique {{disambig