Yoshihiro Sato Youtube Videos
Yoshihiro Sato Bio
Yoshihiro Sato (佐藤 嘉洋, Satō Yoshihiro, born January 25, 1981) is a Japanese kickboxer competing in K-1 at middleweight (-70kg). He is the former world champion of Muay Thai in WKA and WPKC, and he won the Japanese national tournament of K-1 twice in 2006 and 2007. His official nickname is "Mugen Sniper" which means Infinite Sniper.
Biography
Amateur era
He was born in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan on January 25, 1981. He started learning kickboxing in 1994 when he was in his 2nd year of junior high school. Originally, Sato had been going to visit a boxing gym with his friend, but he argued and fought just before visiting. Sato was defeated completely in the fight. For this incident, he visited "Nagoya JK Factory", a kickboxing gym near to Sato's house, and started learning kickboxing. He won the Glove karate open championship tournament when he was just 16 years years old, still in his 2nd year of high school. He also won the championship the next year in 1997.
Fight as a professional kickboxer
He passed the examination for professional kickboxing of New Japan Kickboxing Federation (NJKF) in 1998. He won his first match against Isao Miyamoto by decision on December 25, 1998. He changed his weight class from lightweight to welterweight in April 2000. He moved to All Japan Kickboxing Federation from NJKF in June 2001. He won the title of WKA World Muay Thai Welterweight by KO Milan Stevic in Germany on 23 November 2001. It was the first time for him to fight in the oversea.
Entry to K-1
He beat William Diender (Netherlands) by decision On May 3, 2005. It was the first match in K-1. He lost to Virgil Kalakoda in a K-1 Superfight in the K-1 MAX Finals in what is considered to have been a controversial decision. On October 12, 2005, he defeated Kaoklai Kaennorsing, the only fighter who has fought in both K-1's heavyweight division and in K-1 MAX. On February 4, 2006 he defeated Akeomi Nitta, Ryuki Ueyama and Tatsuji to win the K-1 MAX Japan Grand Prix 2006 tournament. On February 5, 2007 he won the K-1 MAX Japan Grand Prix 2007 tournament. In April 2007 he lost to Dutch fighter Andy Souwer by decision. His latest fight was on July 7, 2008 in which he defeated Buakaw Por. Pramuk by KO in the 3rd round in the Quarterfinals for the K-1 MAX Finals and he is set to fight Masato on October 10, 2008.
On February 17, 2012, Sato defeated Fadi Merza via unanimous decision after 5th round to take the Merza's ISKA World Light Middleweight (-72.3kg) Championship under Oriental rules in Tokyo, Japan.
