Ikuhisa Minowa

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Ikuhisa Minowa (Japanese:美濃輪育久, January 12, 1976-) is a Japanese mixed martial arts fighter. He goes by the nicknames "The Real Pro-Wrestler"^[1] and "The Punk"^[2] He has a professional MMA record of 35-24-8 as of November 2006.

Ikuhisa Minowa

Statistics
Nickname	The Punk
Height	5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
Weight	181 lb (82 kg)
Born	January 12, 1976
Town of birth	Gifu Prefecture, Japan
Fighting style	"Puroresu"
Mixed martial arts record
Wins	35
By knockout	4
By submission	22
Losses	24
Draws	8

[edit] Career

Minowa is a popular fighter in the PRIDE Fighting Championships due to his entertaining entrances and sporting of the Japanese flag as a cape as well as his aggressive, high-risk style of fighting which has seen him employ flying dropkicks amongst other pro-wrestling derived maneuvers.

Originally beginning his career in the Pancrase 176-pound division and never weighing in at more than 185 pounds, he has taken on fighters at 205 lb and heavier throughout his career.

Minowa is also known for training methods with are both eccentric and intense. They include dodging baseballs and training in environments such as rivers. He has trained Muay Thai in Thailand, catch wrestling in Japan, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil with the Brazilian Top Team^[2].

Minowa has won against the likes of Golden Glory member Gilbert Yvel, K-1 kickboxer Stefan Leko, and UFC fighters Kimo Leopoldo and Phil Baroni. Minowa is known for his grappling and submission skills, having won 22 matches via submission^[2].

He participated in the PRIDE Fighting Championshipss first 185 lb Tournament where he made up for a previous loss to Phil Baroni, but would lose in the second round to former Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu mentor Murilo Bustamante^[1]. On December 31, 2005 Minowa fought PRIDE legend Kazushi Sakuraba, in which he almost landed a kneebar and then a heel hook, but was caught with a Kimura lock and defeated at 9 minutes into the first round^[2]. Minowa next fought at Bushido 10, where he faced the 7-foot-2 Giant Silva in what looked like a precursor to PRIDE's upcoming open weight tournament. Minowa dominated the fight, using a perfectly executed forward roll to get past Silva's enormous reach and then landing a textbook single leg takedown putting the giant on his back. Minowa promptly ended the fight after that, landing multiple knees to the head of Silva, upon which, a referee stopped the fight at 2:23 of the first round^[2]. Following that, he fell to Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović due to strikes in the first round. However, he rebounded with wins over Park Hyun Kab, Butterbean, and Mike Plotcheck.