is a retired

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

ka and

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 ...

from

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice (Japan), Minister of Justice, in 1889. ...

. He won a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

at the Half Middleweight category of the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. __TOC__

Judo career

Takimoto was relatively unknown entering the

Sydney, Australia Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...

with his biggest victory before 2000 coming in the 1995 Asian Games. He recorded a

Sode tsurikomi goshi is a Judo throw and one of the techniques adopted by the Kodokan into their Shinmeisho No Waza (newly accepted techniques) list. It is categorized as a hip technique, or Koshi-waza. Sode Tsurikomi Goshi translates as sleeve lifting pulling hip th ...

and two

Yukos OJSC "Yukos Oil Company" (russian: ОАО Нефтяна́я Компа́ния Ю́КОС, links=no, ) was an oil and gas company based in Moscow, Russia. Yukos was acquired from the Russian government by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovs ...

in the gold medal match vs. In-Chul Cho. Throughout his career, Takimoto defeated many notable judoka, including Olympic medalists

Djamel Bouras Djamel Bouras (born 11 August 1971 in Givors, Rhône) is a French judoka of Algerian origin. He won a gold medal in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. See also *List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences The following i ...

, Bertrand Damaisin and

Flávio Canto Flávio Vianna de Ulhôa Canto (born April 16, 1975 in Oxford, England) is a Brazilian judoka who competed in Men's 81 kg Judo. He won the bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He is founder and president of the Instituto Reação, an ...

Mixed martial arts career

Takimoto began to consider a career in

MMA 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 strike (attack), striking, grappling and ground f ...

after attending

Pride 28 The year 2004 is the 8th year in the history of the Pride Fighting Championships, a mixed martial arts promotion based in Japan. 2004 had 10 events beginning with, ''Pride 27 - Inferno''. Title fights Debut Pride FC fighters The followi ...

on Oct. 31, 2004 and seeing his friends and fellow judoka have success in the sport. He announced on Dec. 7, 2004 that he would make his debut at

Pride Shockwave 2004 The year 2004 is the 8th year in the history of the Pride Fighting Championships, a mixed martial arts promotion based in Japan. 2004 had 10 events beginning with, ''Pride 27 - Inferno''. Title fights Debut Pride FC fighters The followi ...

against any fighter at any weight, as long as it was a "non-judo fighter." He got his wish and made his debut vs. former

Sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by thr ...

Maegashira , or , is the top division of the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers (''rikishi''), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments. This is the on ...

Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical ref ...

, winning via unanimous decision. He outlanded Miller almost 2-to-1 in significant strikes and took him down twice despite being significantly outweighed. He fought for Pride six times in his career, posting a 3-3 record with the organization. His victories came against the aforementioned Miller, fellow judoka Dong-Sik Yoon and

Taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. T ...

expert Zelg Galešić. After Pride was disbanded in 2007, Takimoto earned the biggest victory of his MMA career, a split decision win over former UFC Middleweight Champion

Murilo Bustamante Murilo Bustamante (; born 30 July 1966, in Rio de Janeiro) is a retired Brazilian mixed martial artist and former UFC Middleweight Champion. He is one of the founders of the ''Brazilian Top Team'' and is the current leader. In addition to compe ...

Yarennoka ''Yarennoka!'' () was a mixed martial arts (MMA) event that took place on December 31, 2007 at the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo, Japan. The event was promoted by the Yarennoka! Executive Committee, composed of former Pride Fighting Championships e ...

on Dec. 31, 2007. He then joined the

Sengoku Raiden Championship World Victory Road (WVR) is a defunct Japanese mixed martial arts (MMA) organization which promoted the Sengoku Raiden Championship (SRC) in Japan. The organization was formed in 2007 following the purchase of PRIDE FC by Zuffa. It operated in c ...

and fought four times with the organization. Takimoto was expected to participate in ASTRA, the farewell event for

Hidehiko Yoshida is a Japanese gold-medalist judoka and retired mixed martial artist. He is a longtime veteran of Japan's PRIDE Fighting Championships, competing in the Middleweight (93kg) and Heavyweight divisions. He won gold at the 1992 Sum ...

on April 25, 2010. However, he pulled out of the event and announced his retirement alongside Yoshida.

Mixed martial arts record

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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 ,

Welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...

debut , - , Loss , align=center, 4-5 ,

Frank Trigg Dewey Franklin Trigg III (born May 7, 1972) is an American retired mixed martial artist, color commentator, pro wrestler, MMA referee and TV host. Trigg is a veteran of the UFC, Pride Fighting Championships, Rumble on the Rock, Icon Sport-(Icon S ...

, Decision (unanimous) , World Victory Road Presents: Sengoku 4 , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 5:00 , Saitama, Japan , , - , Loss , align=center, 4-4 ,

Evangelista Santos Evangelista Santos ( born December 12, 1977) is a Brazilian retired mixed martial artist. A professional from 1997 until 2016, Santos competed for Strikeforce, Bellator MMA, the PRIDE Fighting Championships, Cage Rage, International Vale Tudo Cha ...

, Submission (achilles lock) , World Victory Road Presents: Sengoku First Battle , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 4:51 ,

, Japan , , - , Win , align=center, 4-3 ,

, Decision (split) ,

Yarennoka! ''Yarennoka!'' () was a mixed martial arts (MMA) event that took place on December 31, 2007 at the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo, Japan. The event was promoted by the Yarennoka! Executive Committee, composed of former Pride Fighting Championships ...

, , align=center, 2 , align=center, 5:00 , Saitama, Japan , , - , Win , align=center, 3-3 , Zelg Galešic , Submission (kimura) ,

Pride 34 ''Pride 34: Kamikaze'' was a mixed martial arts event held by Pride Fighting Championships on April 8, 2007 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Background This was the last Pride show promoted by Dream Stage Entertainment before the ...

, , align=center, 1 , align=center, 5:40 , Saitama, Japan , , - , Loss , align=center, 2-3 ,

Gegard Mousasi Gegard Mousasi (born 1 August 1985), is a Dutch mixed martial artist and former kickboxer, currently competing in Bellator MMA, where he is the former two-time Bellator Middleweight Champion. As of December 13, 2022, he is #10 in the Bellator MMA ...

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Sanae Kikuta is a Japanese mixed martial artist currently competing in the Welterweight division. A professional competitor since 1996, he has competed for the UFC, PRIDE Fighting Championships, Pancrase, DREAM, World Victory Road, DEEP, Shooto, and ...

, Decision (unanimous) ,

Pride Shockwave 2005 The year 2005 is the 9th year in the history of the Pride Fighting Championships, a mixed martial arts promotion based in Japan. 2005 had 10 events beginning with, ''Pride 29 - Fists of Fire''. Title fights Debut Pride FC fighters The ...

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, , align=center, 3 , align=center, 5:00 , Saitama, Japan , , - , Loss , align=center, 1-1 ,

Kiyoshi Tamura is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and mixed martial artist. Once a student of legendary professional wrestlers Billy Robinson, Lou Thesz and Akira Maeda, Tamura was known for his skills in catch wrestling and is considered to be one of ...

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, Decision (unanimous) ,

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References

External links

* *
Takimoto's biography on PrideFC.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Takimoto, Makoto 1974 births Living people Japanese male judoka Japanese male mixed martial artists Welterweight mixed martial artists Mixed martial artists utilizing judo People from Ibaraki Prefecture Judoka at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic judoka of Japan Nihon University alumni Olympic medalists in judo Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Japan