Sage loses ‘Shoot’-out to Idol
By NICOLE KATO
Local MMA fighter and kickboxer Sage Yoshida says he has no regrets about losing last month’s professional shoot boxing match to legendary UFC and PRIDE veteran Akihiro Gono.
After going back and watching the fight tape from DEEP: Tokyo Impact, held July 21 in Japan, Yoshida admits he could have done some things better, but feels the overall experience was beneficial.
“I was OK with the loss (by decision),” says the 19-year-old fighter, who was making his shoot boxing debut against Gono, who at 37 is nearly twice Yoshida’s age. “With every loss that I’ve had, I chalk it up as experience and I just learn from it.”
The thought of going toe-to-toe with someone of Gono’s stature was a dream come true for Yoshida.
“I watched him fight when I was young, and to fight someone I’ve admired all my life is surreal,” says Yoshida, noting he wasn’t nervous before the match. “When I looked at him across the ring, I didn’t look at him like ‘oh, he’s Akihiro Gono.’ I just thought of him as equal — a human being.”
During his stay in Japan, Yoshida and his father, Kevin, had dinner with Caesar Takeshi, the founder of shoot boxing, as well as other promoters who expressed a desire for Yoshida to return for more fights.
“It’s kind of more along the lines of a story of growth and building up rather than just jumping in and fighting the best guys,” Yoshida explains. “They would joke, ‘Oh, are you going to fight Andy Souwer next?’”
While returning for more fights in Japan would be an amazing opportu- nity, Yoshida recognizes the draw- backs.
“They would want me to stay in Japan for a while to acclimate and train with different people,” he says. “They want to detach me from my connections down here. Everyone has a lot of aloha spirit and we have a lot of compassion. They want to detach me from that to kind of unlock something.”
Yoshida says that his family wants what’s best for him, and he isn’t “stressing” about what’s next for his fight career.
“I don’t want to jeopardize school,” says the nursing major at Kapiolani Community College. “I always want to have something to fall back on and have fighting or martial arts as a hobby.”
