Naoya Ogawa

(born 31 March 1968) is a Japanese Olympic and world champion judoka, retired professional wrestler, and mixed martial artist. He won a total of seven medals at the All-Japan Judo Championships (second only behind Yasuhiro Yamashita), and set a record of seven medals at the World Judo Championships. Ogawa won the silver medal in the +95 kg judo weight class at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Ogawa is also known for his career in professional wrestling, where he primarily worked for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and took part in one of the promotion's most high-profile feuds of the 1990s with Shinya Hashimoto. In professional wrestling, Ogawa was a two-time National Wrestling Alliance World's Heavyweight Champion. Life and judo career Ogawa first started in judo in his high school years. He continued on in college attending Meiji University in 1986. In his second year at school he became a world freeclass champion, the youngest in the history of judo. He won many more championships before graduating from the College of Business Administration at Meiji University, setting a record of seven medals at the World Judo Championships. He also gained a total of seven medals at the All-Japan Judo Championships in two separate winning streaks, from 1989 to 1993 and from 1995 to 96, second only to Yasuhiro Yamashita's nine medals. Ogawa was a silver medalist in judo of 1992 Summer Olympics and fifth at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He was known for his slow, cerebral style of judo, nicknamed due to his usual strategy of investing the first three minutes in pressing on his opponent before trying to score. Due to this, Japanese specialized press often criticized him as lacking heart. When finding an opening, Ogawa would favor uchi mata, kosoto gari, kosoto gake, sasae tsurikomi ashi, tai otoshi and sukui nage, sometimes using a controversial standing ude gatame entry to set up sasae tsurikomi ashi and hiza guruma. He was not a user of newaza, preferring to attempt only osaekomi-waza from failed throws.