Ryuichi Murata

Ryuichi Murata
村田龍一
Birth date	August 27, 1976 (age 50)
Birth place	Saitama, Saitama, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight	191 lb (87 kg; 13.6 st)
Weight class	Middleweight Light Heavyweight Heavyweight
Style	MMA, Judo
Stance	Orthodox
Fighting out of	Tokyo, Japan
Team	DEEP Impact Training Facility Takada Dojo
Mma kowin	4
Mma subwin	2
Mma decwin	2
Mma koloss	1
Mma subloss	1
Mma decloss	1
Mma draw	1
Sherdog	13413

Ryuichi Murata (Japanese: 村田龍一, Murata Ryūichi, born August 27, 1976) is a Japanese judoka and mixed martial artist. He was a world-class judo competitor with 5 top-3 Judo World Cup tournament finishes and has won multiple silver and bronze medals at world and national judo competitions. Most recently, he's competed in MMA and currently has an MMA record of 8 wins, 3 losses and 1 draw. He won the Spirit MC Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament in 2007.

Judo career

Murata has achieved good success as a judoka. He was second at the world junior championships in 1996. In Japanese national tournaments he has been second once (2000) and third twice (1998, 2001). At World Cup events he won in Tbilisi (2003) and Budapest (2001), finished second at Leonding, Austria (1997), and third in Paris (2000).^[1]

Mixed martial arts career

Ryuichi Murata made his MMA debut on Pride Fighting Championships Bushido 8 card in 2005. He lost the fight against Kazuki Okubo due to submission. In a post fight interview, Murata stated that he didn't have enough experience to fight well in MMA and didn't feel like he was "able to show much at all" of what he wanted to achieve.^[2]

Murata went on to fight on a number of cards with the Deep and Spirit MC MMA promotions. In 2007, he participated in Spirit MC's Heavyweight GP tournament. In the first round he knocked out Dong Woo Shin. He later submitted ChunGil Myung Chun with an armbar to move to the tournament finals. In the finals he earned a technical knockout against Jung Gyu Choi to become Spirit MC's Heavyweight GP Champion.

Judo tournaments

Date	Tournament	Place	Weight class
February 2, 2003	A-Tournament Tbilisi	1st	Half-middleweight (81 kg)
January 26, 2003	Super A-Tournament Moscow	2nd	Half-middleweight (81 kg)
January 11, 2003	Jigoro Kano Cup Tokyo	3rd	Half-middleweight (81 kg)
May 25, 2001	East Asian Games Osaka	3rd	Half-middleweight (81 kg)
April 29, 2001	Japan Judo Championships	3rd	Half-middleweight (81 kg)
March 3, 2001	A-Tournament Budapest Bank Cup	1st	Half-middleweight (81 kg)
April 2, 2000	Japan Judo Championships	2nd	Half-middleweight (81 kg)
February 12, 2000	Tournoi de Paris^[3]	3rd	Half-middleweight (81 kg)
April 5, 1998	Japan National Championships Fukuoka	3rd	Half-middleweight (81 kg)
February 16, 1997	ASKO World Tournament Leonding	2nd	Half-Heavyweight (78 kg)
October 5, 1996	World Junior Championships	2nd	Half-Heavyweight (78 kg)

Mixed martial arts record

References

^ "Ryuichi Murata". JudoInside. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
^ "Bushido Vol 8 Interview, Kazuki Okubo & Ryuichi Murata". Pride Fighting Championships. July 26, 2005. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
^ Tournoi International
^ "Lim Retains Middleweight Title at Spirit MC 17" - Sherdog
^ "SPIRIT MC 16 REVIEW & PHOTOS: CLASH OF PRIDE" - MMA Weekly Archived 2008-05-02 at the Wayback Machine
^ "Ring Ready to Move Forward After Successful Return" - Full Contest Fighter Archived 2009-08-31 at the Wayback Machine