31 Facts About Masaaki Satake

Masaaki Satake is a Japanese former heavyweight karateka, kickboxer, professional wrestler and mixed martial artist.

Masaaki Satake is one of the pioneering heavyweight fighters in K-1, having been a member of Kazuyoshi Ishii's Seidokaikan school.

The match went to sudden death via a tameshiwari content, wherein Masaaki Satake bested his Swiss opponent to become world champion.

Masaaki Satake made his kickboxing debut against WKA US Cruiserweight Champion Don Nakaya Nielsen.

Nielsen placed his opponent on the defensive in the opening moments, but Masaaki Satake fought back with repeated headbutts that led to a foul being ruled.

Masaaki Satake bested future Olympic bobsledder Todd Hays in the quarterfinals before suffering his first defeat to Branko Cikatic, who would go on to win the tournament.

Masaaki Satake next defeated Stan Longinidis in a title-versus-title match, but Longinidis retained his WKA World Super Heavyweight Championship after arguing that the match was not conducted under WKA rules.

Masaaki Satake made up for this denial by winning the KICK World Super Heavyweight and ISKA World Heavyweight Championships in a match against American Jeff Hollins at the K-2 Grand Prix '93.

Masaaki Satake moved on to arguably the most important match of his career: the World Grand Prix final against Peter Aerts.

Again, Masaaki Satake rebounded from his grand prix loss with a world title win, this time securing the WKA World Muay Thai Super Heavyweight Championship in a match with Dennis Lane at K-1 Revenge.

On October 3,1999, Masaaki Satake attempted to qualify for the WGP one more time in a match against Musashi.

At the time of his retirement, Masaaki Satake was the most successful Japanese fighter active in the heavyweight division.

Masaaki Satake was a four-time world champion, a winner of two regional tournaments, and is one of only 18 competitors to have reached the WGP finals.

Masaaki Satake debuted in professional wrestling in the shoot-style promotion Fighting Network RINGS.

Masaaki Satake had matches against Willie Peeters, Herman Renting and Maurice Smith.

Masaaki Satake participated in the Mega Battle Tournament 1992, eliminating Mitsuya Nagai in the first round but retiring prematurely due to an injury sustained in training.

In 2002 and 2003, Masaaki Satake appeared in the first WRESTLE-1 event, promoted by All Japan Pro Wrestling and K-1.

Masaaki Satake made the transition to mixed martial arts with Pride Fighting Championships in 2000.

At 34 years old, Masaaki Satake was considered too old to perform adequately but sought to defy critics by joining the Takada Dojo, training under Kazushi Sakuraba.

Masaaki Satake was selected to participate in the Pride Grand Prix 2000, for which he tried to set up a match with Naoya Ogawa by trash-talking the world judo champion.

Masaaki Satake lost the fight, being taken down easily by the American wrestler and submitted via neck crank.

Masaaki Satake's second fight was a non-tournament bout against former Pancrase fighter Guy Mezger.

Masaaki Satake successfully resisted Mezger's repeated takedown attempts during the first round but was taken down and controlled during the second for a unanimous decision loss.

At Pride 10, Masaaki Satake earned his first victory over professional wrestler and judo specialist Kazunari Murakami.

Masaaki Satake eventually fell on top of Murakami during a scramble and applied ground and pound until a doctor stoppage.

However, Ogawa eventually accepted a fight against Masaaki Satake, which took place at Pride 11.

At Pride 13, Masaaki Satake was pitted against retired sumo and professional wrestler Tadao Yasuda.

Heavily outweighed, Masaaki Satake was repeatedly driven against the ropes by his adversary, impeding him from landing solid strikes and resulting in an eventual unanimous decision loss.

Masaaki Satake eventually managed to stand, only for Jackson to grab his torso and execute a German suplex, making Masaaki Satake land on his head.

Masaaki Satake's final fight was a bout against judo gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2000, during which he fell to a guillotine choke.

In 2013, Masaaki Satake was approved by the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and received a candidacy for the 23rd House of Councilors regular election.