30 Facts About Mitsuya Nagai

1.

Hirokazu Nagai, better known as Mitsuya Nagai, is a Japanese mixed martial artist, professional wrestler and former kickboxer.

2.

Once a student of legendary professional wrestlers Satoru Sayama and Akira Maeda, Nagai holds notable victories over Yoshihisa Yamamoto, former King of Pancrase Super Heavyweight Champion Tsuyoshi Kosaka, Nobuaki Kakuda, four-time world kickboxing champion Andre Mannaart, RINGS King of Kings 2000 Tournament runner up Valentijn Overeem, ADCC bronze medallist and RINGS Light Heavyweight title contender Chris Haseman, and Pancrase veteran Takaku Fuke.

3.

Mitsuya Nagai later transitioned to traditional puroresu and notably wrestled for Battlarts, New Japan Pro-Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he is a former three time All Asia Tag Team Champion.

4.

Mitsuya Nagai became a trainee under Akira Maeda, training in the shoot wrestling style, but he got injured and UWF closed his doors before he could debut.

5.

Mitsuya Nagai eventually followed Maeda to his new promotion, Fighting Network RINGS.

6.

Mitsuya Nagai debuted in RINGS on August 1,1991 in a match against Herman Renting.

7.

In 1994, Mitsuya Nagai looked to ascend the scale by taking part on the Mega Battle Tournament 1994, eliminating Ameran Bitsadze on the first round, but then losing to Chris Dolman in the second.

8.

However, Mitsuya Nagai would get booked for a trend of victories back in Japan, beating the likes of Andrei Kopylov, Yoshihisa Yamamoto and Carl Greco.

9.

Mitsuya Nagai then fought Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, overwhelming the judoka with kicks, palm strikes, body punches and knees while Kohsaka fended off the strikes with takedowns and submission attempts.

10.

However, when the fight was brought back to standing Mitsuya Nagai beat him with knees, earning a TKO victory and one of the biggest wins of his RINGS career.

11.

Mitsuya Nagai then got another MMA victory against Willie Peeters, winning via heel hook, but his momentum got cut short by a submission loss to Kiyoshi Tamura at the Mega Battle Tournament 1996.

12.

In 1997, Mitsuya Nagai competed in several MMA fights, losing his first three, with two of those losses coming via mismatched contests against heavyweight fighter Joop Kasteel.

13.

Mitsuya Nagai then got notable wins against Valentijn Overeem, Andre Mannaart and Chris Haseman, all by heel hook.

14.

In 1997, Mitsuya Nagai got a license by the All Japan Kickboxing Federation and competed at the Kick Over IX event as a RINGS representative.

15.

On March 2013, Mitsuya Nagai returned to MMA after 15 years away from the sport, beating Takaku Fuke by ankle lock in the first round at a U-SPIRITS event.

16.

Mitsuya Nagai turned his hand to professional wrestling and joined Yuki Ishikawa's shoot style promotion Battlarts.

17.

Mitsuya Nagai's run was somewhat successful, with Nagai earning victories over established wrestlers like Takeshi Ono, Yuki Ishikawa and Katsumi Usuda.

18.

Almost immediately after Battlarts began its hiatus, Mitsuya Nagai was announced for the 2000 Real World Tag League in All Japan Pro Wrestling, the promotion he had originally hoped to join in high school.

19.

Mitsuya Nagai was paired up with fellow UWF alumnus Masahito Kakihara, calling themselves "Team Strongs".

20.

In only his second match, Mitsuya Nagai lost to AJPW's top star Toshiaki Kawada, and, even though he lost, he earned Kawada's respect and was selected to be his new tag partner.

21.

Mitsuya Nagai excelled in the qualification league which granted him entry to the Champion Carnival where he struggled, again earning just one win and two points.

22.

On June 6,2001, Mitsuya Nagai was involved in an incident during a match against NJPW wrestler Takashi Iizuka at an NJPW show, where Mitsuya Nagai delivered a kick to Iizuka's face which resulted in Iizuka being severely concussed and needing over a year off to recover.

23.

Mitsuya Nagai teamed up with Kawada again for the 2001 Real World Tag League, seeing much greater success than the previous year, earning 10 points and making it to the final where they lost to Keiji Mutoh and Taiyo Kea.

24.

In what would be his final tour with All Japan, Mitsuya Nagai partnered with Yoji Anjo for the 2002 Real World Tag League, earning 4 points and failing to reach the final.

25.

Immediately after leaving AJPW, Mitsuya Nagai was signed by New Japan Pro-Wrestling, whom he had previously worked for during the inter-promotional relationship between both promotions.

26.

Around this time, Mitsuya Nagai joined Black New Japan while keeping his team with Naruse, which caused friction between them.

27.

In January 2006, Mitsuya Nagai was one of a number of New Japan wrestlers who opted not to renew their contracts with the promotion and became a freelancer.

28.

Mitsuya Nagai aligned himself with Poison Sawada Julie's Serpent Council in late 2006, and began competing for Tatsumi Fujinami's Muga World Pro Wrestling around this time.

29.

Mitsuya Nagai held the title for nearly a year before dropping it to Super Tiger in July 2011.

30.

Mitsuya Nagai won it back from Tiger in March 2012, and again dropped it to Tiger in December.