Hideo Tokoro
| Hideo Tokoro | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 22, 1977 Gifu, Japan |
| Other names | Little Volk Han, The Magician of the Ring |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Height | 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) |
| Weight | 134 lb (61 kg; 9.6 st) |
| Division |
Bantamweight Lightweight Featherweight |
| Style | Shooto, Vale Tudo, Kickboxing, Shoot wrestling, |
| Fighting out of | Gifu, Japan |
| Team | Reversal Gym Tokoro Plus |
| Teacher(s) | Kenichi Yamamoto |
| Mixed martial arts record | |
| Total | 65 |
| Wins | 34 |
| By knockout | 5 |
| By submission | 20 |
| By decision | 9 |
| Losses | 29 |
| By knockout | 12 |
| By submission | 6 |
| By decision | 11 |
| Draws | 2 |
| Other information | |
| Mixed martial arts record from Sherdog | |
Hideo Tokoro (born August 22, 1977) is a Japanese mixed martial artist currently competing in Bellator's Bantamweight division. A professional competitor since 2000, Tokoro has also formerly competed for Vale Tudo Japan, ZST, Shooto, RINGS and K-1 Hero's.
Tokoro got his first contact with mixed martial arts in 1999, joining Kenichi Yamamoto's Power of Dream gym. He debuted in Titan Fighting Championship in 2000 and moved to multiple promotions, among them Fighting Network RINGS, Shooto, ZST and K-1, the latter of which signed him up for its HERO'S MMA promotion. Up to that point, as fighting wasn't enough to make a living, Tokoro had worked part time as a janitor, an aspect which K-1 promoted heavily in order to show him as a humble, hard-working underdog figure.
Tokoro had his debut in HERO'S in 2005 in the Lightweight Grand Prix Quarterfinal. He went against the well regarded Alexandre Franca Nogueira, and shocked pundits by knocking him out with a spinning backfist at the end of a fast-paced, back and forth match. Tokoro advanced round against Shooto veteran Caol Uno, but he was controlled and damaged for an unanimous decision loss.
On December 31, 2005, Tokoro faced Royce Gracie from the Gracie family at the K-1 PREMIUM Dynamite!!! event in a much publicited match. The bout had special stipulations, as Royce had demanded no judge decision and 10-minute rounds, and was fought at openweight, with the Brazilian outweighing Tokoro by 40 ibs. Still, Hideo gave an excellent performance, controlling the stand-up and forcing Gracie to play conservatively on his own field of strength.
Immediately landing a punch combo and a high kick, the Japanese passed the first round in Gracie's guard, slamming him several times and bloodying his opponent's face with ground and pound, while Gracie kept himself active with heel kicks and short hammerfists. At the second, Tokoro fell in bad position upon trying a spinning kick, becoming entangled into a series of reversals both in the clinch and on the ground and being forced to defend a rear naked choke, but he ended the match again attacking Royce's guard. The match ended in a draw as stipulated, but Tokoro was seen by many as a moral victor, which boosted his popularity.
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