Satoshi Ishii to Make MMA Debut Against Hidehiko Yoshida?

When Satoshi Ishii called Fedor out by name in August, it seemed a foregone conclusion that the gold medal judoka from Japan would announce his entry into MMA almost immediately following his Olympic run in Beijing. Instead, there have been numerous fake-outs, false reports and a cancelled almost-encounter with the Russian heavyweight in the lead-up to DREAM.6, one which was allegedly brought to a halt by the All-Japan Judo Federation.

A few weeks ago, the website of Japanese sports rag Tokyo-Sports reported that Ishii and fellow gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida had agreed to a bout, though no date or promotion was mentioned. Yoshida currently fights for World Victory Road and has appeared in two iterations of their Sengoku show thus far. Interestingly, in last week's official announcement of their January 4th show, WVR listed both Yoshida and a "Beijing 2008 medalist" as participants. Nightmare of Battle reports that Japanese paper Yomiuri Shimbun had an article indictating "Satoshi Ishii will make his MMA debut on NYE;" that article has now been removed from their site.

To further complicate the matter, a third highly decorated judoka - Yoshihiro Akiyama - threw himself into the mix when he challenged Yoshida to a New Year battle following Akiyama's second consecutive middling win in DREAM. Generally reviled and labeled a cheater by Japanese MMA fans, Akiyama's cross-promotional call-out neither sat well with DREAM lightweight Shinya Aoki, who has previously called out "Michael Jackson" for a superfight and last week blasted Akiyama in his Kamipro blog for only caring "about his own convenience." (Take it - and all of this, really - for what it's worth, but it was mentioned on the Sherdog boards yesterday that a Korean paper was reporting Akiyama against K-1 superstar Masato in a kickboxing match at the rumored Dynamite!! event on NYE.)

So there you go. Regarding Ishii's debut, nothing is certain as of yet, but one thing is for sure in all of this: with domestic interest in Japanese MMA seemingly stagnant, Ishii's move to the ring will be a massive boon to whichever promotion ends up busting out the checkbook for him.

UPDATE: Just noticed this mention of Ishii in coverage of this weekend's Judo World Team Championships:

Satoshi Ishii, who won gold at over 100 kg in Beijing, cheered his team on from the sideline but did not compete, citing a groin injury.

UPDATE #2: The Japan Times is now reporting that Ishii intends to retire from judo to pursue MMA full-time, and the AJJF does not sound pleased. Ishii is expected to make a statement to the press sometime this week.

Kazuo Yoshimura, chief technical director of the All Japan Judo Federation, said he has been notified of Ishii's intention directly from the 21-year-old and added the federation plans to drop him from the list of top-ranked athletes.

"He said he wants to join the world of mixed martial arts and personally I think he should go his own way," Yoshimura said. Ishii could not be reached for comment on Monday.