Hideo Tokoro, Japanese MMA veteran, retires on top – Super Rizin 3
Hideo Tokoro was able to finish his long career with a storybook ending. In the very first round, he was able to stop Hiroya Kondo with a series of punches from full mount at Super Rizin 3.
Hideo Tokoro
The Japanese grappler Hideo Tokoro is famed for his incredibly exciting matches. Throughout his lengthy career, he has frequently been in all-time great fights. He is an aggressive grappler who will take the risk to try and earn a submission win. This often leads to wild scrambles and submission attempts. A style that is inspired by shoot wrestling.
Having made his professional debut in the year 2000, ‘Little Volk’ Tokoro has more than 70 MMA matches, half a dozen submission grappling matches, and even an exhibition boxing bout against the phenom Tenshin Nasukawa. In submission grappling he worked with Kazushi Sakuraba to face off against the legendary Wanderlei Silva.
In MMA, his career has taken him across some major organizations such as DREAM, K-1, Bellator, and Rizin, among others. Along the way, he has faced notable opponents such as Caol Uno, Royce Gracie, Joachim Hansen, Masakazu Imanari, John Dodson, Royler Gracie, Kron Gracie, Brad Pickett, and Kyoji Horiguchi, plus several more.
Super Rizin 3
In front of a live audience of over 48,000 in attendance, Hideo Tokoro was able to get a perfect ending to his career. Live from the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo, ‘Little Volk’ needed less than four minutes to take down Hiroya Kondo, advance to mount, and deliver punches to earn the TKO victory. He retired and finished his iconic career with an impressive win. Michael Schiavello was clearly emotional on commentary which reflected the feelings of the collective MMA community, we’re all happy to see a figure such as this retire on top.
