(born Choi Young-ii June 3, 1980) is a Japanese

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 ...

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 promoter who currently owns and operates

Pro Wrestling Land's End (Land's End) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established in 2016 by Ryoji Sai. History In January 2016, Ryoji Sai left Pro Wrestling Zero1 to launch a new promotion named Land's End. The promotion held its first event on Marc ...

, where he is a former All Asia Heavyweight Champion. He is best known for working 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 ...

, where he is a former two-time

World Heavyweight Champion At boxing's beginning, the heavyweight division had no weight limit, and historically the weight class has gone with vague or no definition. During the 19th century many heavyweights were 170 pounds (12 st 2 lb, 77 kg) or less, tho ...

. He is the older brother of mixed martial artist Young Choi.

Career

Ryoji Sai is a 3rd Generation

Zainichi Korean comprise ethnic Koreans who have permanent residency status in Japan or who have become Japanese citizens, and whose immigration to Japan originated before 1945, or who are descendants of those immigrants. They are a group distinct from South ...

that was born in

Osaka, Japan is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third most populous city in Ja ...

. His parents own a restaurant near

Tsuruhashi Station is a railway station complex in the Tsuruhashi district of Ikuno-ku and Tennoji-ku, Osaka, Japan. It is served by the JR West Osaka Loop Line, the Kintetsu Nara Line, and the Osaka Metro Sennichimae Line. Kintetsu Railway This station has ...

in Osaka. At 15 years old, Ryouji attended the Sidmouth International School in

Sidmouth Sidmouth () is a town on the English Channel in Devon, South West England, southeast of Exeter. With a population of 12,569 in 2011, it is a tourist resort and a gateway to the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. A large part of the town has ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He then attended Bloxham School in Oxfordshire between 1996 and 1999. While in Europe he studied martial arts under

Gerard Gordeau Gerard Gordeau (born March 30, 1955) is a Dutch former Savateur, Karateka, Kickboxer, and mixed martial artist. He is the 1991 World Champion Savate and holder of the Dutch Champion Karate title for 8 consecutive years, but foremost known interna ...

in the Netherlands. When he returned to Japan he joined

Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE (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 Professional wrestling in Japan, Japanese professional wrest ...

, debuting on September 1, 2001 at the ZERO-ONE "FIRE FESTIVAL 2001" versus Igor Meindert. in a non-tournament match. From 2002 to 2004, he would be out of pro wrestling with an unknown ailment. Returning in 2004, he would begin to regularly team with

Kohei Sato is a Japanese professional wrestler contracted with Pro Wrestling Zero1. Sato is also a former mixed martial artist. Career A former judoka and amateur wrestler, Sato made his transition to mixed martial arts after meeting Kazunari Murakami a ...

winning the

NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship The Intercontinental Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling tag team title in Japanese promoting Pro Wrestling Zero1, typically reserved for (but not exclusive to) heavyweight (>) wrestlers. It was created on June 14, 2001, three month ...

in 2005 and 2006. Ryoji twice finished as the runner-up in ZERO1

Fire Festival is an annual professional wrestling round-robin tournament held by Pro Wrestling Zero1 to determine the top wrestler in the promotion, typically contested in late July/early August. Within the English-speaking professional wrestling world, th ...

tournaments in both 2007 and 2006, losing to

Masato Tanaka is a Japanese professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) in Japan where he was a one-time FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion and a one-time WEW World Heavyweight Champion and in Ext ...

. He also regularly appeared for the HUSTLE wrestling promotion during

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 ...

's working agreement with them. In late 2008 and early 2009, Sai took part on the popular Japan

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network Sys ...

show

Ainori , literally "Ride together", or "Car pool" but can also be read as "love ride", is a popular television program that runs Monday evenings from 11 pm in Japan on Fuji TV. It debuted on October 11, 1999. The show originally ended on March 23, 2009 ...

(あいのり) under the name of "Wrestler" (レスラー).

Championships and accomplishments

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established on October 21, 1972 when Giant Baba split away from the Japanese Wrestling Association and created his own promotion. Many wrestlers had left with Baba, ...

World Tag Team Championship The world tag team championship is the name usually given to the primary tag team championships in professional wrestling promotions. Nomenclature The name of the promotion is often preceded to the term "world tag team championship" as the ...

(

2 times "2 Times" is a song co-written and recorded by British Italian-based singer Ann Lee. It was released in 1999 as the lead single from her debut album, ''Dreams'' (1999). The single entered and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Outside ...

) – with

Dylan James Dylan James (born 25 May 1991) is a New Zealand professional wrestler and mixed martial artist. He is currently signed to Rizin Fighting Federation and Pro Wrestling Land's End. He is best known for working for All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he i ...

(1) &

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(1) *

Apache Pro-Wrestling Army was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion operating from 2004 to 2009 and from 2010 to 2016. History Following the closure of Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling in 2002, Hiromichi Fuyuki formed his own promotion, which ran under the names F ...

WEW World Tag Team Championship The WEW (World Entertainment Wrestling) World Tag Team Championship is a tag team professional wrestling championship formerly contested in the Japanese promotion Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling and World Entertainment Wrestling and currently con ...

( 1 time) – with Tetsuhiro Kuroda * HUSTLE :* Hustle Super Tag Team Championship ( 1 time) – with

Wataru Sakata is a Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist. Career A former Kyokushin karateka, Sakata trained in professional wrestling at Animal Hamaguchi's gym and joined Akira Maeda's Fighting Network RINGS immediately after. F ...

All Asia Heavyweight Championship The is a title owned and promoted by the Pro Wrestling Land's End promotion. The title was originally created in 1955 in Japan Wrestling Association (JWA), with the inaugural champion crowned on November 22, 1955. Being a professional wrestling ...

( 1 time) *''

Pro Wrestling Illustrated ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publish ...

'' **Ranked No. 220 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the

PWI 500 ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publishi ...

in 2014 *

( 3 times) – with

(2) and Osamu Namiguchi (1) :*

NWA United National Heavyweight Championship The United National Heavyweight Championship (often shortened to UN Championship) is a professional wrestling title in the Japanese promotion Pro Wrestling Zero1. It is one of ZERO1's top two singles titles, along with the Zero1 World Heavyweigh ...

( 1 time) :* World Heavyweight Championship (

) :*

(

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

) :*Passion Cup Tag Tournament (2008) – with

MMA record

, - , Loss , align="center", 1-1-1 (1) , Kenichi Serizawa , TKO ( Punches) , Titan Fighting Championship 2 , , align='center', 2 , align='center', 3:32 ,

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 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 ...

, , - , Win , align="center", 1-0-1 (1) , Koichi Sato , TKO ( Punches) , Titan Fighting Championship 2 , , align='center', 1 , align='center', 2:54 ,

, , - , NC , align="center", 0-0-1 (1) , Koichi Sato , No contest (illegal knees) , Titan Fighting Championship 2 , , align="center", 1 , align="center", 0:26 ,

, , - , Draw , align=center, 0–0–1 ,

Masakazu Imanari is a Japanese former professional wrestler and current mixed martial artist currently competing in the Bantamweight division of Rizin Fighting Federation. A professional competitor since 2000, he is a veteran of ONE Championship, DEEP, ZST, Panc ...

, Technical Draw , Titan Fighting Championship 1 , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 1:29 , Tokyo, Japan ,

References

External links

ZERO1 USA English language website

Sai's Official Japanese language blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sai, Ryoji 1980 births Living people Japanese people of Korean descent Japanese male professional wrestlers Sportspeople from Osaka Zainichi Korean people World Tag Team Champions (AJPW) WEW World Tag Team Champions 21st-century professional wrestlers All Asia Heavyweight Champions