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Yuji Hisamatsu

Notes from the MMA jobber file #29: I never got to watch Pancrase, back in the day--I had to go back and discover it, and the eclectic mixture of styles and personalities it provided, in retrospect. I had already seen folks like Kondo and Marquardt elsewhere, and was well aware of the pioneers like Shamrock and Rutten, but the sheer volume of fighters that went through Pancrase meant each event had some new, weird point of interest.

WIth that in mind: Here's The Pink Typhoon, Yuji Hisamatsu, who came to the ring in a pink gi, fought in pink trunks and/or leggings, and proudly wore the slogan "NO PINK, NO LIFE" on the back of his tights.

I still have no idea why.

Hisamatsu got a relatively late start in the sport--a student of the Wajyutsu Keishukai, he turned 30 just one year and six fights into a thirteen-year, 44-fight career--and got off to a reasonable start, losing his first two Pancrase appearances before winning the one-night TItan FIghting Championship tournament, TKOing a baby Hideo Tokoro in the process. He was a strong presence in GCM, and got invited up to Pride for Pride: The Best Vol. 3, where he took a strong decision over Canadian middleweight Demetrius Gioulacos, giving him the most visible win of his career.

And that was...actually kind of it for success in his career. In those first two and a half years of his time in fighting he went 9-5; in the remaining eleven years, he went 7-17-6 and never won two fights back-to-back again. He was prolific as hell, with 2007 being the only year he didn't fight multiple times, and more importantly he was -tough- as hell, going the distance with fighters like Kondo, Kawamura, Chonan, Misaki and Marquardt. His striking was aggressive and creative, his grappling was defensively solid--but he just couldn't get over the hump, particularly as he approached and eventually passed 40 and his athleticism began to fail him. In the last three years of his career he went 2-8-2, retiring on a decision victory over fellow longtime Pancrase vet Keiichiro Yamamiya and a lifetime supply of deep-pink fighting attire.

I still don't know where the "Typhoon" part of the pinkness came from, but he took a Nate Marquardt punch to the face and didn't die, so he can call himself whatever he wants.

Moveset, stats, logic and four attires (Pancrase: Trans 5 vs Gassaway / Pancrase: Hybrid 8 vs Marquardt / Pancrase: Progress Tour 7 vs Nagamura / Pride: The Best Vol. 3 vs Gioulacos).