45 Facts About Naoya Ogawa

Naoya Ogawa was born on 31 March 1968 and is a Japanese Olympic and world champion judoka, retired professional wrestler, and mixed martial artist.

Naoya Ogawa won a total of seven medals at the All-Japan Judo Championships, and set a record of seven medals at the World Judo Championships.

Naoya Ogawa is known for his career in professional wrestling, where he primarily worked for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and took part in one of the promotion's most high-profile feuds of the 1990s with Shinya Hashimoto.

In professional wrestling, Naoya Ogawa was a two-time National Wrestling Alliance World's Heavyweight Champion.

Naoya Ogawa first started in judo in his high school years.

Naoya Ogawa continued on in college attending Meiji University in 1986.

Naoya Ogawa won many more championships before graduating from the College of Business Administration at Meiji University, setting a record of seven medals at the World Judo Championships.

Naoya Ogawa gained a total of seven medals at the All-Japan Judo Championships in two separate winning streaks, from 1989 to 1993 and from 1995 to 96, second only to Yasuhiro Yamashita's nine medals.

Naoya Ogawa was a silver medalist in judo of 1992 Summer Olympics and fifth at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Naoya Ogawa was known for his slow, cerebral style of judo, nicknamed "Three Minutes Judo" due to his usual strategy of investing the first three minutes in pressing on his opponent before trying to score.

Naoya Ogawa was not a user of newaza, preferring to attempt only osaekomi-waza from failed throws.

In 1997, Naoya Ogawa was recruited by Antonio Inoki, chairman of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, for his UFO project.

Naoya Ogawa was put to train under Satoru Sayama, legendary professional wrestler and mixed martial arts pioneer.

Naoya Ogawa made his debut in NJPW on April 12,1997 at the Tokyo Dome, replacing the stipulated Ken Shamrock as the opponent for Shinya Hashimoto, then IWGP Heavyweight Championship titleholder.

Naoya Ogawa defeated shoot-style wrestler Kazuo Yamazaki, arm wrestler Scott Norton, Ultimate Fighting Championship exponents Brian Johnston and Don Frye, and Dutch martial artist Erwin Vreeker.

In March 1998, Naoya Ogawa took part in the Inoki Final Tournament, but he was eliminated by Frye at the finals after beating Johnston and Dave Beneteau.

On January 4,1999, Naoya Ogawa was involved with one of the most controversial moments in NJPW history.

The NJPW and UFO crews flooded the ring and a legitimate fracas erupted, with Ogawa's cornerman Kazunari Murakami having to be hospitalized by a beatdown by Takashi Iizuka and Naoya himself being slapped by NJPW executive Riki Choshu.

Many years later, in August 2021, Naoya Ogawa confessed he had been pressed by Antonio Inoki into shooting on Hashimoto in order to hijack the match and increase his popularity.

Naoya Ogawa toured through United States, retaining the title before Dan Severn, Doug Gilbert and Biggie Biggs, trading it with Steele in a three-way match that involved Brian Anthony on September 25,1999, and finally coming back to Japan to meet Hashimoto.

Under Antonio Inoki's eye, the match was restarted, with Naoya Ogawa's team losing when Iizuka choked out Murakami.

Naoya Ogawa's opponent carried out and performed a retirement ceremony, while Inoki and other tried to convince him not to do it; even Ogawa declared in a segment that he repented having finished off the career of his rival.

Naoya Ogawa vacated the NWA title on July 2,2000 in order to focus on training for his fight against Rickson Gracie, which never took place.

In 2001, after Shinya Hashimoto founded Pro Wrestling Zero-One, Naoya Ogawa left NJPW and moved in, forming a tag team with his former rival which was called "OH Gun".

In 2004, Naoya Ogawa took part in the foundation of the sports entertainment promotion Hustle, a combined effort between Zero-One and mixed martial arts league Pride Fighting Championships.

Naoya Ogawa opened the storyline of Hustle during a staged press conference with Pride chairman Nobuyuki Sakakibara.

Naoya Ogawa became the leader of the army, being nicknamed "Captain Hustle" and debuting a characteristic hip thrust gesture to chant Hustle's name.

In 2007, Naoya Ogawa disappeared from the Hustle Army and sided shockingly with Takada.

Naoya Ogawa changed his persona to an arrogant socialite gimmick and called himself "Monster Celebrity", wearing sunglasses and ornated coats.

Takada explained Naoya Ogawa had been brainwashed by him to turn him in one of his henchmen, and he proved Naoya Ogawa's newfound loyalty by sending him to attack Hustle Army member Banzai Chie.

Naoya 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.

Naoya Ogawa submitted him relatively fast, throwing him to the mat and choking him out.

Naoya Ogawa evidenced his lack of MMA experience when he suffered heavy blows and almost failed his first morote gari, but he eventually took Goodridge down and gained dominant position as expected.

Naoya Ogawa immediately tried several submissions, and although he didn't manage to lock them, he kept his stronger opponent busy through the round.

At the second one, Naoya Ogawa swept Goodridge down and finally locked an ude-garami, making him tap out.

Naoya Ogawa added that PRIDE executive Nobuyuki Sakakibara had promised him "to write his own ticket" if he defeated Ogawa in order to increase his motivation.

In 2000, Naoya 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.

Naoya Ogawa returned to Pride at Pride 11 - Battle of the Rising Sun, facing world karate cup champion Masaaki Satake in which was called a classic style vs style matchup.

At the second round Naoya Ogawa took over, cutting the karateka's eye with a hard punch and swiftly taking him down for a rear naked choke.

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 he would knock Ogawa out with knee strikes.

Two years after, Naoya Ogawa took part in the PRIDE Grand Prix tournament as a representative of his home pro wrestling promotion HUSTLE.

Fedor overpowered Naoya Ogawa and submitted him by armbar in just 54 seconds, giving him his first MMA loss.

Naoya Ogawa's last fight in mixed martial arts was at PRIDE Shockwave 2005 against the man who took from him the world judo championships the last time they fought, Hidehiko Yoshida.

Naoya Ogawa 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, while Yoshida took off his usual gi after making his own entrance.

Naoya Ogawa won the mixed team gold medal at the 2018 World Judo Championships, representing Japan.