Nobuhiko Takada

Nobuhiko Takada (Japanese:髙田延彦, born April 12, 1962) is a Japanese mixed martial arts fighter and professional wrestling legend. Best known for helping to popularize shoot-style professional wrestling, as one of the biggest stars of the Universal Wrestling Federation and Union of Wrestling Force International in the 80's and 90's. Has also competed for PRIDE Fighting Championships and New Japan Pro Wrestling.

UWF Days

Nobuhiko Takada made his professional wrestling debut in 1980 against Norio Honaga, for New Japan Pro Wrestling. Where he started his career as a Junior Heavyweight, and was considered to be arguably the best Junior Heavyweight worker of his era. He left NJPW in 1984, along with Rusher Kimura, Akira Maeda, Ryuma Go, Mach Hayato, and Gran Hamada, to form the original Universal Wrestling Federation.

The original UWF dissolved in 1986, Takada and Akira Maeda returned to NJPW and formed a UWF stable. Only a few months later, Takada defeated Shiro Koshinaka to capture the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, which he held for four months. In 1987, Takada moved to the Heavyweight ranks. Along with Akira Maeda, he won the IWGP World Tag Team Championship from rival, Koshinaka & Keiji Muto. He left NJPW in 1988 to form the second incarnation of the Universal Wrestling Federation, becoming one of it's top stars.

In 1990, the UWF closed it's doors for the last time. Takada formed Union of Wrestling Force International, using former UWF wrestlers, while Maeda formed Fighting Network RINGS. As the top star of the UWFI, Takada had legendary fueds with the late Gary Albright and Vader. In 1992, Takada was awarded an old NWA World Heavyweight Title belt by Lou Thesz, after defeating the late Gary Albright, and was proclaimed the "Real Pro-Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion". He defended the Title until Thesz withdrew the belt in 1995, losing the Title once, to Vader. The high point of his reign came on December 5, 1993, when he defeated Vader before 46,168 fans at Tokyo's Meiji-Jingu Stadium.

Return to New Japan

In 1995, Takada returned to NJPW as the key figure in the landmark New Japan vs UWFI program. On October 9, 1995, Takada's match against IWGP Champion, The Great Muta, drew 67,000 fans to the Tokyo Dome, drawing the largest crowd and gate in Japanese Wrestling history, at the time. Three months later, Takada defeated Muta in a rematch, before 64,000 fans, to capture the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, becoming the only wrestler to hold all three major New Japan Titles. Takada dropped the Title to Shinya Hashimoto on April 29, 1996, drawing a crowd of 65,000 and a gate of $5.7 million. When it was all said and done, the New Japan vs UWFI feud was the biggest moneymaking feud in Japanese pro-wrestling history.

Transition to MMA

In 1996, the UWFI folded. Takada entered the world of mixed martial arts by joining PRIDE Fighting Championships.

Though Takada's shoot wrestling skills were never doubted either by the Japanese public or the matchmakers, it was his conditioning that would make the essential difference. Takada, being in his 30's at the time of his debut and in less then perfect conditioning, owing to the grueling Japanese pro wrestling circuit, posed little challenge for the experienced, well conditioned mixed martial arts fighters.

Nobuhiko Takada's very debut in MMA was against the legendary Rickson Gracie, which ended in Gracie winning via armbar. Takada would then go on to finish maverick Kyle Sturgeon by a heel hook at PRIDE 3. Takada wanted a rematch with Rickson Gracie, to which Gracie agreed, saying that "I feel Takada is a warrior and deserves the chance to try and redeem himself"^*. The match however, ended by Takada losing via armbar in a match that would last all of 9 minutes and 30 seconds, a feat rarely achieved by most who fought Rickson Gracie. Takada fought his next match at PRIDE 5, against Mark Coleman. Though, in better conditioning, Coleman was caught unprepared by a heel hook from Takada and submitted, resulting in Takada's greatest victory to date. Critics have questioned the outcome of both this fight and the Kyle Sturgeon fight, suspecting that both were worked in Takada's favor to prevent his record from becoming too poor. Takada was then pitted against Mark Kerr, a freestyle wrestler with similar ground and pound fighting style as Mark Coleman. However, Kerr was able to slip on a submission hold and make Takada tap out in just over 3 minutes at PRIDE 6.

Arguably, the most interesting match in Takada's career occurred at PRIDE Grand Prix 2000-opening Round. He was pitted against Royce Gracie, the match went the distance and to a decision. The Brazilian master could neither control nor submit Nobuhiko Takada for all of the assigned 15 minutes time duration. However, the judges ruled in favor of Gracie and he advanced to the next round. Takada's next MMA event participation was in PRIDE 11, where he lost to a young Igor Vovchanchyn via submission (strikes). Nobuhiko Takada would then go on to draw the likes of Mike Bernardo and Mirko Filipovic before entering his final match against former student, Kiyoshi Tamura (Tamura won by a KO).

The impact of these performances was immense. Though Takada was originally bought in to attract fans, the show of strength and resilience against the likes of Rickson Gracie, Mirko Filipovic and Royce Gracie and the win over Mark Coleman, even after the age and condition disadvantage established to some his legendary status in mixed martial arts history. Takada would then go on to establish one of the "super gyms"^* in mixed martial arts, the Takada Dojo.

On the other hand, portions of the MMA community today have cast doubt upon Takada's achievements in the sport. His two wins are widely rumoured to have been worked matches with the Coleman match in particular taking much scrutiny. Dave Meltzer of the widely respect Wrestling Observer website and newsletter himself has backed up this claim ^*. whilst other matches of his have also cast doubt on the integrity of his MMA career. One example of this can be seen in the 2000 Pride GP Opening Round against Royce Gracie where Takada attempted no offense throughout the fight and seemed content to lie in Gracie's guard whilst grabbing his Gi to avoid submission attempts. This was noted on numerous occasions by the commentary team. His match with Mirko Filipovich at Pride 17 is another such example with Takada spending almost the entire 15 minutes avoiding his Croatian opponent (the match was not surprisingly removed from the US release of the Pride 17 DVD).

Post MMA contributions

Takada has a MMA dojo of his own, where he's helped train such fighters as Kazushi Sakuraba.

Takada is the figurehead of PRIDE Fighting Championships, as well as the president of the HUSTLE promotion in Japan.

Personal life

Takada is married to actress Aki Mukai, whose battle with ovarian cancer is well known in Japan. Takada and Mukai attempted to have children through the use of IVF on an American surrogate mother, but the Japanese courts have so far refused to consider the resulting twins as their natural sons.