Naoya Ogawa

Naoya Ogawa (小川 直也 Ogawa Naoya, born 31 March 1968) is a Japanese former world judo champion, Olympic silver medalist, professional wrestler and mixed martial artist. He won a total of seven medals at the All-Japan Judo Championships (second only behind Yasuhiro Yamashita), and a set a record of seven medals at the World Judo Championships (tied with Robert van de Walle).

In professional wrestling, Ogawa was two-time National Wrestling Alliance world heavyweight champion.

Ogawa had his first MMA fight the same year of his debut in NJPW, taking part in an event promoted by Chris Dolman in Holland in which he faced Rens Vrolijk. Ogawa submitted him relatively fast, throwing him to the mat and choking him out.

His first high level match, however, would be for Pride Fighting Championships at the event Pride 6 against the kickboxer and Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Gary Goodridge. Naoya evidenced his lack of MMA experience, receiving heavy blows and almost failing his first double leg takedown, but he eventually took Goodridge down. Ogawa immediately tried several submissions and captured his back, while Goodridge spent his energy trying a reversion until the round ended. At the second one, Ogawa swept Goodridge down and locked a keylock, making him tap out.

It was rumored that Goodridge had been paid to throw the fight, but Gary himself said in an interview that, albeit he was effectively proposed an anonymous money bribe to let Ogawa win, he rejected it and fought for real, losing legitimately to Ogawa.

In 2000, Ogawa took part in negotiations with Rickson Gracie for a match between them at the Colosseum promotion, in which Gracie had just defeated Masakatsu Funaki. The fight was scheduled for the next year, and Ogawa vacated his NWA World Heavyweight Championship in order to focus in his fight with Gracie, but all the plans were suspended upon the news of the death of Rickson's son Rockson, and the event never had place.

Ogawa returned to Pride at Pride 11 - Battle of the Rising Sun, facing world karate champion Masaaki Satake in which was called a classic style vs. style matchup. Satake had recently defeated Kazunari Murakami, Naoya's former teammate, so it also had a shade of revenge. During the match, Satake opened the action with punches and kicks, avoiding Ogawa's takedowns but at the same time being unable to land decisive blows, while Ogawa threw punches as well in an attempt to keep the pace. At the second round, however, Ogawa swiftly took the karateka down and executed a rear naked choke for the win.

In 2002, Naoya participated in the first event of Universal Fighting-Arts Organization against another Olympic medalist, the Greco-Roman wrestling champion Matt Ghaffari, who had claimed that he would knock Ogawa out with knee strikes. However, the match was quite differente, as although Ghaffari did take Ogawa down in an instance, Ogawa controlled the standing exchanges and landed a right punch which made Ghaffari stumble and fall. The wrestler tapped out before receiving further damage. Rickson Gracie attended the event and was invited to train with Ogawa, and again talked about the possibility of a match with Naoya, but it did not happen.

Two years after, Ogawa took part in the PRIDE Grand Prix tournament as a representative of his home pro wrestling promotion HUSTLE. His first opponent was K-1 veteran Stefan Leko, who was doing his debut in MMA. Shockingly, Naoya knocked Leko down with a punch, locking then an arm triangle choke for the win. Ogawa's next match was against fellow HUSTLE wrestler Giant Silva, who outweighed him by 130 pounds, but the judoka took him down and overcame and rained ground and pound for the referee stoppage. His next match would be against the Russian Fedor Emelianenko, a match especially asked by fan voting. Fedor overpowered Ogawa and submitted him by armbar in just 54 seconds, giving him his first MMA loss.

Ogawa's last fight in mixed martial arts was at PRIDE Shockwave 2005, facing the man who took from him the world judo championships the last time they fought, Hidehiko Yoshida. The bout was highly anticipated, and was one of the most expensive fights in MMA history, being both Ogawa and Yoshida paid $2 million USD. The fight was a difficult perspective for Ogawa, as was clearly behind in training and experience: while Yoshida had focused in MMA since 2002, Ogawa had fought only occasionally aside from his work in the pro wrestling circuit. However, Ogawa accepted the fight, and made his entrance to the arena with the hachimaki and music theme of his late friend Shinya Hashimoto as a tribute and proof of motivation. Started the battle, Yoshida threw punches and took Ogawa down, and then a long and aggressive exchange of reversions and ground and pound happened. At the end, Ogawa looked to have dominant position, but Yoshida locked an armbar from the guard, making his judo rival submit.

Mixed Martial Arts

 * PRIDE Fighting Championships
 * 2004 PRIDE Heavyweight Grand Prix Semifinalist

Professional wrestling

 * NWA Northeast
 * NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * New Japan Pro Wrestling
 * NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * Pro Wrestling Illustrated
 * PWI ranked him #152 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2010
 * PWI ranked him #302 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003
 * Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE
 * NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Shinya Hashimoto
 * ZERO-ONE United States Heavyweight Championship (1 time)