Kendo Kashin Tokimitsu Ishizawa is a Japanese professional wrestler . Though in Japan he is a widely known professional wrestler , in the West he is probably best known for his forays into mixed martial arts organization PRIDE Fighting Championship , where he defeated Gracie Jiu Jitsu fighter Ryan Gracie . Career . Ishizawa was an outstanding Amateur wrestling star of Waseda University before being scouted and initiated into the New Japan Pro Wrestling promotion on September 21 , 1992 , wrestling against Tiger Mask III . During the NJPW vs . UWFi feud , he was taught the shoot style by Kazuo Yamazaki . After defeating Yuji Nagata to win the 1996 Young Lion Cup , he left on a learning excursion to Austria ' s CWA promotion , where he disguised himself under a mask and called himself Kendo Kashin . He returned to New Japan as Kashin in May 1997 at the Osaka Dome , facing his mentor , Kazuo Yamazaki . Kendo Kashin quickly rose up the ranks of the Junior Heavyweight division , utilizing a cross armbreaker and other armbar techniques to quickly submit opponents . After defeating Koji Kanemoto to win the 1999 Best of the Super Juniors Tournament , he defeated Kanemoto again in August of that year to capture the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship for the first time . In August 2000 Ishizawa ventured into the mixed martial arts world and fought under his real name and without the mask in PRIDE 10 . He lost his match with Ryan Gracie by TKO in little more than two minutes . However , it is said that he was forced to fight in the PRIDE ' s ring by Antonio Inoki , the owner of NJPW at the time , without enough time to train for mixed martial arts fighting . Continuing to suffer many losses , Kashin took several months off from New Japan to train . In July 2001 Ishizawa challenged Ryan for a rematch at PRIDE 15 . This time he TKO ' d Ryan in under 5 minutes , which would advance his wrestling career more than ever . That same month he returned to New Japan as Kendo Kashin and won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title for the second time by defeating Masayuki Naruse in just 26 seconds . Kashin would make a shocking move in January 2002 when , while he was still champion , he followed fellow New Japan stars Keiji Mutoh and Satoshi Kojima to rival promotion All Japan Pro Wrestling . In All Japan , Kashin quickly established himself as the Junior ace , submitting Masanobu Fuchi to win the vacant AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Championship . He also won the AJPW World Tag Team Championships with Yuji Nagata . In 2004 Kashin split from All Japan to become a freelancer , taking one of the two AJPW World Tag Team Championship belts with him , with Nagata taking the other . The championship was later declared vacant by AJPW six months later . However , he kept the actual physical belt for himself , something which AJPW sued him in August , 2005 . Kashin ' s tag partner , Yuji Nagata , gave one of those belts back to AJPW soon after it was declared vacant , when they requested it . In 2005 he returned to New Japan as a regular for a few months , working through the Inoki Office agency . The agency ' s and New Japan ' s association ended in late 2005 due to disputes . Kashin returned the AJPW belts back to them in May 2006 . On April 2 , 2005 , Kashin competed under a mask as Dragon Soldier B in Ring of Honor ' s " Best of the American Super Juniors Tournament " . Despite not being American , he was booked to win and wrestled three matches , prompting a " Don ' t come back " chant from the ROH fans . Kashin never returned to ROH . Lately , he has been interested in joining MUGA . After a long hiatus from wrestling , Kashin returned on December 20 , 2007 at the Inoki Genome Federation ' s show in Tokyo and faced off against Kurt Angle for IGF ' s version of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort .