Hidehiko Yoshida: One Judoka's Career Scorned

ASTRA is just a day away now, and the complete and utter lack of media coverage is actually deafening. I don't mean in the United States, even, as there seems to be a sense of complete apathy in Western media towards Hidehiko Yoshida's retirement and that is expected. What is disturbing is Yoshida, a man considered a national hero in Japan is getting little-to-no media coverage for his retirement in his home country of Japan. Yoshida was a go to fighter for years for PRIDE and then the launch of World Victory Road's Sengoku when they needed to draw media attention and eyeballs to the television screen. 

His most recent bout was against a debuting Satoshi Ishii, who was in a very similar spot to Yoshida, but got into the game during his physical prime and could have a much longer career in MMA. When things fell through for SRC while planning the fight, FEG put the fight in a prime spot alongside the retirement of heart throb K-1 MAX kickboxer Masato with both fights being the sole draws on New Year's Eve's Dynamite!! show. So of course when Yoshida announced that he would be withdrawing from SRC along with his gym and was planning a retirement show for April, more feathers should have been ruffled. Instead it seemed like his management was forced out by the alliance with FEG, with his management went him and his stable mates, such as the underdog sensation Michihiro Omigawa and former UFC fighters Kazuhiro Nakamura, Ryo Chonan and Strikeforce fighter Daisuke Nakamura. 

U.S. MMA is on the rise in Japan, with UFC, Strikeforce and WEC news taking center stage over Japanese news lately on the major sports pages. This of course illustrates two big points here, the first being that SRC lost possible areas of interest in Yoshida and former UFC fighters, the second being that the major media in Japan that usually covers MMA has had very little interest in Yoshida's retirement event. Even stories like UFC fighter Yoshihiro "Sexyama" Akiyama as a special commentator on the PPV has seemed to slip through the cracks.

Most of the major Japanese press has been covering the K-1 MAX -63kgs tournament (not that we can complain), which is full of a lot of lesser-known fighters, but has FEG's muscle behind it. Seeing what is for K-1 a rather minor event get daily coverage while Yoshida's retirement is an afterthought just shows how Japan works, not only is the media and fanbase fickle, but it is about knowing the right people and not upsetting those in power. Yoshida spent the lead-up to Dynamite!! heavily criticizing FEG for their business model, believing it to be crooked and disrespectful to fans and has refused to fight for them again. 

Ironically, the best coverage I've seen for the event has come from MMAfighting.com, who recently brought our friend and photographer Daniel Herbertson on (formerly photographer for Sherdog), who has been going out of his way to cover the ASTRA event. [Kaz Nakamura Interview | Enson Inoue Interview]

SBN coverage of ASTRA: Yoshida Retirement Match