Judo Olympian and MMA veteran Satoshi Ishii has just announced that he has signed a new contract to make his return to PFL. Ishii started out his combat sports career as a Judoka and quickly rose through the ranks to win several major tournaments before reaching the peak of the sport in 2008, when he won a gold medal at the Olympics. He made the transition to professional MMA competition shortly after that, and he became one of the most successful Judoka in the sport over the next few years.
Ishii fought primarily in Japan in the early years of his career, putting together a 4-1-1 professional record to earn a chance to fight against the legendary Fedor Emelianenko in 2011. It was a huge challenge very early on in his career and although Ishii didn’t win that fight, he bounced back with 8 straight wins immediately after it. Satoshi Ishii continued fighting over the next few years and made appearances for major MMA promotions like Bellator and RIZIN FF, building his record to 21-8-1 before signing a contract with PFL in 2019.
Ishi made it to the quarter-final of the heavyweight division that season, and chose to return to the regional MMA circuit after he wasn’t able to make it further. His professional MMA record now stands at 25-12-1 and he has won several titles for smaller promotions, making a name for himself all around the world in the process. Now Ishii has been signed to compete for PFL once again, where he will either be competing in the heavyweight season for a second time or may even get the opportunity to welcome the biggest name signed to the promotion in recent years, Francis Ngannou.
Satoshi Ishii announced the news that he had signed a new MMA contract to make his return to PFL in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
