Will Shihan Filho step into the MMA arena?

[kakatootoshi]

Yoshida Hidehiko will be fighting against James Thompson in PRIDE in this new year's eve. At the very beginning Yoshida intended to fight the Kyokushin world champion, Francisco Filho in this event. Due to various difficulties this Karate vs Judo match could not be negotiated in time. But Yoshida will not give up trying and we are all looking foward to Shihan Filho's comeback.

The report says that Shihan Filho once commented that if he did MMA, it had to be in the ring of PRIDE.

OSU!

[ibuki]

OSU kakatootoshi!
How old is Hidehiko Yoshida? What about Francisco Filho Shihan?
OSU!

[kakatootoshi]

A small comparison of their vital stats:
YOSHIDA HIDEHIKO
Organization: Yoshida Dojo
Date of birth: 9/3/19691969
Place of birth: Aichi Prefecture
Height: 180 cm
Weight: 102.0 kg
Style: Judo
Main titles: Gold medal - 1992 Barcelona Olympics Judo 78kg
Champion - 1999 World Championships 99kg
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FRANCISCO ALVES FILHO
Organization: Brazil Branch, Kyokushinkaikan
Date of birth: 1/10/1971
Place of birth: Brazil
Height: 186 cm
Weight: 108.4 kg
Style: Karate
Main titles: Champion - 1999 World Tournament
Champion - 1997 World Weight Tourament (Super Heavyweight)

OSU!

[nzproud]

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/...pnavi-spo.html

Yoshida's opponent will be James Tompson.
Yoshida "I don't know when and how the match vs Filho will become confirmed in the future but I would like to take the offer."

[ibuki]

This will be hell of a good match!

[kakatootoshi]

Personally I keen on seeing Filho Shihan gives another (should be his final) shot at K-1, or has a special match against Sem Schilt.

OSU!

[Sonik]

I'd love to see Shihan Filho vs Yoshida in MMA or maybe vs Mirko. I wonder however, what kind of experience does he have when it comes to grapling. Has he been training newaza secretly?

[Fede88]

I heard Filho will not fight any more....

[Sonik]

Hidehiko Yoshida will now be fighting James Thompson.

[BrazilianKick1]

Osu!
Francisco Filho has been training in Brazil with Brazilian Top Team. When members of BTT were interviewed by TATAME magazine staff they would only say that the possibility of him fighting in MMA is a possibility, but wouldn't go into details.
You can check tatame.com for details although its in Portuguese.
Osu!

[Sonik]

I've read that article too. But he has only trained a few days with them (although he's planning to train some more). I also read in a magazine that he has a good relation with Minotauro. But aside from this, who has been training him in groundfighting? Does anybody know?