Kazunori Yokota! Receiving Motivation From Ishii And Petrosyan

Yokota getting ready - GBRing.com

Kazunori Yokota, who is training hard for what is one of the most important fights of his career on November 7th, held an open training session yesterday at the GRABAKA gym.

There he talked about Petrosyan’s victory in the previous day’s K-1 MAX Finals and how it has motivated him. He said:

“There have been various martial arts events on TV recently but the one who has left the biggest impression was Petrosyan.”

“If there was a fighter like Petrosyan in MMA I would retire. No matter what you do you can’t defeat him (laugh). He towers above the rest.”

His ideal/dream style is similar to that of Petrosyan and number 1 P4P boxer Floyd Mayweather, to hit and not get hit.

Yokota is currently training his striking at the Power Of Dream gym. Olympic Gold Medalist Satoshi Ishii also trains there and it seems like they have become good friends in the past month because of their judo backgrounds. He says that even when they walk outside people greet and call out to Ishii. It’s like being with a celebrity.

They train together 4-5 times a week. “Just being together with a fighter like him is motivating.”

About his own preparations, in which he has received help from a student of muscle in Ishii, he says that he is holding back on sweets and carbonated drinks, and closely watching what he eats so his physical condition is good and because of that he is already at 71.3 kg, over a week away from the fight. Because of that he can also concentrate on training and not waste time on weight-cutting.

Yokota is training to defend the guillotine choke and rear naked choke of Mitsuoka, which he thinks are two of his strong points. He himself says that he definitely won’t lose when it comes to stamina and punching speed. He says that since this week is the final spurt before the fight training is severe, sounding like he trains so hard that he collapses everyday.

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