The Best Judo Black Belts In MMA

MMA has a variety of fighters from all different backgrounds. These athletes usually have a primary martial art as their main skillset, but are also well rounded with very few weaknesses. Judo is not the martial art that is at the forefront of MMA and is often overlooked due to the prominence of freestyle wrestling. This is not to say judo is useless in MMA, but due to the lack of grips and high risk takedowns offered by the sport it is not always suitable.

Having to turn your hips in to your opponent is not always the best idea. Especially when fighters can keep their distance and use low risk single leg takedowns.

However, MMA is still home to a fairly large number of judo black belts, some of which have experienced massive success in the cage – with some of this success credited towards judo. Whilst you cannot win an MMA fight in modern day on a single martial art alone, judo is certainly a useful supplement.

Judo looks to have a fairly bright future in MMA, especially when wrestling an opponent on the fence. Fighters have become very good at defending double leg, single leg and high crotch takedowns when back up against the cage. However, more and more fighters are learning that they can use trips and hip throws in order to get their opponent to the mat.

The Best Male Judo Black Belts In MMA

Fedor Emelianenko

One of the greatest MMA fighters of all time, Fedor Emelianenko had it all. During the early 2000’s and onwards, Emelianenko was unstoppable and at this point in his career had a 31-1 record fighting against some of the most dangerous men on the planet.

Even though Emelianenko holds a black belt in judo, you may be surprised to hear this since he is best known for his freestyle wrestling, sambo and of course striking ability. However, if you watch the fights of Emelianenko carefully, you will be able to find judo throws throughout, followed by submissions or vicious ground and pound. The fact that Emelianenko was such a fantastic mixed martial artist took the focus away from his great judo ability.

Dan Severn

Better known as a wrestler, Dan Severn began cross training judo in college in order to become a more rounded martial artist. This eventually led to Severn becoming the sambo champion of AAU, as well as a true mixed martial artist.

Although Severn is known for his striking, submission and wrestling ability in MMA, this is rounded off with judo, where he is currently a 5th dan black belt. When thinking about MMA fighters, Severn does not come to mind as a judoka at all, yet is clearly very experienced in this art form. True mixed martial artists were extremely rare in the 90’s, so Severn is truly one of kind for his era.

Khabib Nurmagomedov

A true Russian hero and many peoples choice as the greatest MMA fighter of all time. Khabib Nurmagomedov is truly one of the best fighters to walk to the face of the earth. A master of sport in the USSR, Khabib was trained in judo and freestyle wrestling by his father from a young age and even has grainy footage of fighting against a bear cub when he was a child.

Khabib retired with an undefeated record of 29-0, which is something special, even when compared to other GOAT category fighters. Not only this, but he was able to seamlessly transition from judo to wrestling in the cage like no one else, with ultra fluid takedowns. His career statistics are like no one else with 5.32 takedowns landed per 15 minutes and a takedown defense of 84%. Even though Khabib is arguably best known as a wrestler, he has stated that he likes judo the most and considers it a class above every other grappling art.

Shinya Aoki

It’s no secret that Shinya Aoki is an extremely high level grappler and was light years ahead of his competition in the mid 2000’s regularly finishing fights in spectacular fashion with flying triangles and gogoplatas. Aoki has been training judo since he was a child and is a 3rd dan black belt. However, instead of staying with the absolutist rules of the sport, he became a mixed martial artist training BJJ under legendary instructor Yuki Nakai as well as shoot fighting.

You will regularly see Aoki take fights to the ground using both wrestling and judo since his striking ability is not usually up to the level of his opponents. This strategy has worked well for him with a career record of 47-9, it is quite clear judo has been a key skillset for the Japanese fighter.

Antonio Nogueira

Antonio Nogueira is a man that was born to grapple. He began training judo aged 4 and has an exceptional record in MMA, especially considering he has one less rib than a normal human and is missing part of his liver due to a childhood accident. This has not held Nogueira back at all, at one point in his career being 28-3 with his only losses against Dan Henderson and previously mentioned judoka Fedor Emelianenko.

As Nogueira was regularly competing at 99kg+ in MMA, you will not find too many of his fights having a gameplan around judo. Like many other big fighters, at this level it is far easier to knock your opponent out with a single strike than try any kind of high risk throw which may put you in bottom position.

Fabricio Werdum

One of the best overall grapplers the world has ever seen. Fabricio Werdum has had significant success in various rulesets such as MMA, ADCC and IBJJF. Werdum is best known for his BJJ skill, but like many of the top level grapplers, also has a strong background in judo.

As the competition weight of Werdum was 110kg, you will not find too many of his MMA fights involving long grappling exchanges. In this weight category a single punch can mean a knockout, so competitors are a lot more wary of getting hit. With that being said, Werdum still has a number of armbar finishes during his matches even against the largest men in sport.

Chan Sung Jung (Korean Zombie)

Chan Sung Jung (better known as the Korean Zombie) began training martial arts due to being bullied in high school. Although he started with hapkido, he quickly transitioned in to judo since there are so many high level judo academies in South Korea.

The Korean Zombie is known for his striking abilities as well as having a variety of BJJ ground attacks. In fairness, his judo is certainly not the “go to” strategy in any of his fighters. However, shown in the gif above, the zombie knows exactly what he is doing in the clinch and can rely on his high level judo against almost any opponent. Considering Chan Sung Jung has had to perform mandatory military service for 2 years in the prime of his career, he has a very respectable 17-6 record with a highlight win over Dustin Poirier.

Karo Parisyan

Training under the legendary duo of Gokor Chivichyan and 10th degree judo red belt Gene LeBell, it is no wonder that Karo Parisyan had such a successful MMA career. Not only this, but Parisyan mixed his judo with other forms of grappling such as Hayastan wrestling which broadened his array of takedowns.

Parisyan was at Olympic trials for judo when he received a call from the UFC, which he swiftly accepted since he was so poor at the time. It is likely that Parisyan would have had a fairly successful career as a judoka since he is a silver medalist at the Pan-American level even without his MMA abilities.

Although Parisyan doesn’t have the MMA record of many other fighters on this list, he is the best ever judo representative in MMA. He is a human highlight reel of many standout throws show in the video below.

Mario Sperry

Training under the legendary Georges Mehdi, when growing up Mario Sperry had the best coach you could find in Brazil. With his supreme judo ability, Sperry was the first man in history to submit one of the Gracie brothers in 1998 using a clock choke.

Sperry was a fantastic well-rounded grappler winning 4 superfights at ADCC as well as 1st place in his division and absolute weights in 1998. Like many other grapplers, Sperry could have been a fantastic judoka but the money to fight MMA in Japan was much more appealing. He finished his career with a very solid 13-4 record.

The Best Female Judo Black Belts In MMA

Ronda Rousey

Without a doubt the most famous judoka to ever set foot in the cage. Ronda Rousey was a global MMA superstar and is still a recognizable face since moving to professional wrestling. Somewhat of a one dimensional fighter, Rousey showed that if your judo is good enough, you can still have a very successful career in MMA.

The Olympic bronze medalist is a 6th dan black belt in judo and was best known for performing a variety of hip throws which usually ended up in kesa gatame. From here, Rousey would transition to her trademark armbar which finished her opponents 9 times out of her 12 wins. Eventually Rousey left MMA with a record of 12-2 after her striking defence appeared to be a lot poorer than people first thought.

Even so, Rousey will be remembered as both an MMA and grappling legend who looked to be unstoppable for a long period of time.

Kayla Harrison

Kayla Harrison is the greatest American Olympic judoka of all time having won back to back gold medals at London and Rio de Janeiro respectively. Harrison is clearly American judo royalty and is currently a coral belt under Jimmy Pedro.

Since starting her professional MMA career in 2018, Harrison has wasted no time in the cage, already racing to a 12-0 record. As expected, many of these wins have been by typical judo submissions such as keylocks and armbars. Despite only getting started in MMA, Harrison has already done just as well as she could possibly have expected with a 100% winrate. It will be interesting to see how she performs against higher level competition in either Bellator or the UFC in future years.

Valentina Shevchenko

As Valentina Shevchenko is such a world class sriker, her judo ability is often overlooked. Shevchenko trained striking from a young age since her mother was the president of the Muay Thai association inf Krygyzstan.

In the octagon, Shevchenko averages 2.64 takedowns per minute since she is mostly a striker. However, when she does perform a judo throw, they are executed to an astonishingly high degree. Overall, Shevchenko is a very modern and versatile fighter showing almost no weaknesses which is backed up by her 21-3 record.

Ayaka Hamasaki

Not too well known outside of Japan, Hamasaki is a professional fighter with a 22-3 record. As she competes at under 50kg, judo and grappling in general are a lot more important at this level due to knockouts being less frequent.

Hamasaki is a 2nd degree black belt, acheiving it in 8 years, and practiced judo on and off throughout her youth. 5 of her 22 wins have come by armbar, which was no doubt refined during her judo training.

Megumi Fujii

Megumi Fujii retired from MMA in 2013 but is an expert grappler winning the Pan American BJJ championships twice, earning 4 silver medals in sambo world championships as well as 2 bronze medals at ADCC.

As both her father and grandfather were black belt judokas, they began training Fujii aged only 3. Whilst she has no major accomplishments in judo, this is only because she turned to MMA and combat sambo. 18 of her 26 career wins came by submission showing Fujii was truly a great judoka.