Takeya Mizugaki – A Second Chance in Sports; A First Chance to Make History

By Thomas Gerbasi

Athletes don’t get many second chances in this world, especially not after spending years and years trying to perfect a craft, only to find out they didn’t have what it took to make it to the next level.

Picture a football player hitting the gridiron from Pee Wee to Pop Warner to high school, and finishing his final game with no recruitment offers from college. Does he all of a sudden switch to baseball and make it to the majors? Highly unlikely, if not impossible.

But then there’s Takeya Mizugaki, who practiced the art of Kendo (or Japanese fencing) from first grade through his senior year of high school (where his team won the state (prefecture) championship), eventually discovering that he didn’t have that special something to take his art further.

“Kendo requires more than just an athletic ability,” explained Mizugaki through manager / translator Shu Hirata, “something that only works in Kendo and I felt that I didn't have that.”

Yet as Mizugaki prepared for his last Kendo match, mixed martial arts was getting bigger and bigger in Japan, and the teenager was intrigued by this mix of combat disciplines into one sport. For him, the move to MMA following high school was “a natural transition,” and by the time he was 21, he was making his professional debut with a decision win over Satoshi Yamashita in Shooto in February of 2005.

Of course, the transition wasn’t going to be a natural one for Mizugaki’s family. Surprisingly though, while his father disapproved at first, his mother was always in his corner.

“My father was so against the idea of me doing the mixed martial arts,” he said. “So I actually never told him until I finished my first MMA fight. Right now, I think he came to accept the fact that this is my passion. On the other hand, my mother was very supportive from the very beginning.”

Influenced by Shooto legend Rumina Sato, Mizugaki began to make his own name in the organization, taking the 2005 Rookie of The Year award and winning his first six pro fights.

In his seventh fight, on July 21, 2006, he took on 14-1 Ryota Matsune and battled the highly-regarded contender to a three round draw. It was a big deal for Mizugaki, but it also led him into some bad habits.

“I drew against Ryota Matsune who was one of the best in the world at the time, so I was little overconfident, which means I would have to say I didn't train much,” he admits.

Mizugaki would go on to drop back-to-back bouts to Kenji Osawa and Atsushi Yamamoto, and in July of 2007, a draw with Masakatsu Ueda and suddenly, his 6-0 record turned to 6-2-2. But Mizugaki had gotten the point – at the highest level of the game, if you don’t prepare to win, prepare to lose.

“I learned from those losses and that made me a better fighter,” said Mizugaki, who got a change in scenery less than two months after the draw with Ueda when he signed with the Cage Force organization. In September of 2007, he decisoned Kentaro Imaizumi, and has since resurrected his career with a five fight winning streak. He doesn’t credit life in the cage as the catalyst for his recent success though.

“I really don't think the cage was the reason why I went 5-0,” he said. “I lost those two fights in 2006 and 2007 and that made me a better fighter. And of course, when you go to any new promotion you feel the pressure that you have to win.”

This Sunday night (VERSUS 9pm ET / 6pm PT) he will feel that pressure again when he makes his WEC and United States debut against bantamweight champion Miguel Torres. But despite the daunting prospect of taking on one of the sport’s best, pound for pound, the 25-year old Ibaragi native is ready to take America by storm while still keeping it business as usual in the lead up to this championship match.

“I actually tried to approach this fight in the same way as any other fight I had in Japan,” he said. “The only difference is that I did make sure that my weight was around 145 to 142 before I left Japan so I would have one good week to cut the last seven pounds or also.”

This fight is a big one for Mizugaki. Of course it is, it’s his WEC debut, it’s on national cable television here in the States, and it’s for the 135-pound title. But beyond that, it’s an opportunity for him to match the courageous efforts put in by his countrymen Yoshiro Maeda and Hiromitsu Miura in their WEC title fights against Torres and Carlos Condit, respectively, and go even further by taking the championship belt and making history in the process.

“I think it would be big news in Japan because I will be the first Japanese world champion in MMA,” said Mizugaki when asked what the reaction would be back home to a victory on Sunday night. “I am sure I can find a way in the cage (to beat Torres). I think I would feel him out and then I will probably find his weakness.”

Strong words. Takeya Mizugaki plans on backing them up.


“I wouldn't be here if I was not confident to win this fight.”