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Satoshi Ishii, a Judoka and MMA fighter, has brought several accolades for his home country of Japan. He won the Silver Medal in the 2006 Asian Games, and on 2008, he brought home an Olympic Gold Medal from the Beijing Olympics. Since then, he has made the jump to MMA and is currently 1-1 as a professional.
On the Judo World Championships held in Tokyo, Ishii announced that he's targeting another Olympic berth on 2016, but there's a twist -- He wants to represent Team USA this time. Why? Nightmare of Battle has it:
Beijing Olympic Judo Gold Medalist and MMA fighter Satoshi Ishii announced on the 9th that he plans to return to Judo and compete in the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics.
From now on he will train in Los Angeles and he aims at becoming an American citizen before the 2016 Olympics. The reason for that is that unlike in Japan, in the U.S. you can both be a professional fighter and compete in amateur Judo, something that is not possible in Japan.
