The Man who beat Heilo Gracie
Tomita: "Kimura No mae Ni Kimura Naku, Kimura No Ato Ni Kimura Nashi." (there never was a fighter like Kimura before or since.)
When asked about Kimura Gracie said:
"A fearful throw by Kimura remains vivid in my mind. It was very impressive to see that Kimura made the opponent KO'd with one throw." "----,but I was in his control as soon as we stood close to each other. I had no time to even hold or grapple him..----I was then taken to the ground, and I got choked at first. It was difficult to breathe---" "If Kimura had continued to choke me, I would have died for sure. But since I didn't give up, Kimura let go of the choke and went into the next technique .Being released from the choke and the pain from the next technique revived me and I continued to fight."
Kimura apply a 'BJJ' technique called The Kimura
Masahiko Kimura (Kimura Masahiko,september 10 1917 - April 18 1993) is considered by some to be the greatest Judoka of all time. Kimura (5 ft 6 in 170cm; 85 kg, 187 lb).
Biography
At age 16, after 6 years of judo, he was promoted to 4th dan. He had defeated 6 opponents (who were all 3rd and 4th dan) in a row. In 1935 at age 18 he became the youngest ever godan (5th degree black belt) when he defeated 8 consecutive opponents at Kodokan. He reportedly lost only 4 Judo matches in his lifetime. Kimura's remarkable success can in part be attributed to his fanatical training regimen -- at the height of his career, this involved a thousand push-ups and nine hours' practice each day. Kimura's training regimen also involved significant weight training and resistance training in which he would push and pull on trees.
Kimura vs. Heilo Gracie
In 1951, Kimura, then retired from judo competition and 34 years old, participated in a match in which he defeated Helio Gracie (170cm and 66 kg) of the famous Gracie Jiu Jitsu family in a submission match held in Brazil. During the fight, Kimura threw Gracie repeatedly with ippon seoinage(one arm shoulder throw), osotogari (major outer reap), and haraigoshi (sweeping hip throw). Kimura reportedly threw Gracie repeatedly in an effort to knock him unconscious. However, the floor of the fighting area was apparently too soft to allow this to happen. Kimura also inflicted painful, suffocating grappling techniques on Gracie such as kuzure-kamishiho- gatame (modified upper four corner hold), kesa-gatame(scarf hold), and sankaku-gatame (bent pine needle / triangle choke). Finally, thirteen minutes into the bout, Kimura positioned himself to apply a ude-garami (arm entanglement). Gracie refused to submit, even after his arm broke, forcing Kimura to continue the lock on Gracie's broken arm. At this point, Carlos Gracie, Helio's older brother, threw in the towel to end the match to protect his brother's health. In 1994, Helio admitted in an interview that he had in fact been choked out earlier in the match, but had revived and continued fighting.
Kimura defeated Gracie by Ude-garami. Gracie jiu-jitsu called it the "Kimura".
As a tribute to Kimura's victory, the reverse ude-garami technique has since been commonly referred to as the kimura lock, or simply the Kimura, in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and, more recently, MMA circles.
For more info go to: http://www.judoinfo.com/kimura3.htm
Also read the
Interview with Helio Gracie where he reveals that Kimura had choked him unconscious.
Free Kimura Videos (outside of site)
