I’ll preface this by saying that Yoshida is one of my favorite fighters in the sport. Forget about his 7-6-1 record–he’s as tough as anyone in the sport. As a big star in Japan from his Olympic days he never got to ‘work his way up’–he was thrown in against Don Frye in his MMA debut. He won that fight and has literally fought a who’s who in the sport. He’s small for a heavyweight, so he’s inevitably outsized. He’s indescribably tough–run a tape of his last fight against Josh Barnett for a good example. He was supplexed onto his head in the first round much like the famous Kevin Randleman suplex of Fedor. While he didn’t turn around and tap out Barnett a minute later, he kept coming and gave arguably the best heavyweight in the world a tough fight.

Smith enters the ring to DMX’s “Whats My Name”, Yoshida to a heavy metal song I can’t place. Smith looks amazing for a guy pushing 50 years old. Yoshida, of course, is wearing his gi.

ROUND ONE:

Yoshida’s about as smart of a fighter as you’ll find in the sport, but he does have a tendency to get into slugfests. Got to give him credit for being a competitive, tough SOB but when you’re a judo god that’s not always the best strategy. Fight starts standing with both men exchanging low kicks. Yoshida being very careful to stay just out of range of Smith who at one time was arguably the best kickboxer in the world. It looks like he’s testing the older fighter’s reflexes and just like that Yoshida takes Smith down with a sick judo throw. It looks like Smith is trying to rake Yoshida’s eyes–that does little more than piss off the legendary judoka and he locks in a nasty neck crank/choke. All of a sudden Smith is a nearly 50 year old standup fighter trying to fight on the ground with a legendary judo master and he’s quickly forced to tap.

HIDEHIKO YOSHIDA WINS BY TAPOUT (NECK CRANK/SIDE CHOKE)

The always classy Yoshida shakes hands with not only Smith but his entire corner. After Yoshida closed the distance and tied up the kickboxer it was almost frightening how quickly and efficiently he finished him off. Obviously they just don’t hand out judo black belts, Olympic gold medals and world championships to just anyone but that was pretty impressive.

Thanks for joining us for the EXCLUSIVE live English language play by play of World Victory Road Sengoku 3. While the other MMA sites are sleeping, we’re bringing you ALL of the action no matter when or where in the world it occurs. Next weekend will also be full of MMA action with Elite XC’s event in Hawaii and DREAM.4. Check back this week for start times for each event.