Looks like Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (4-2) is not taking his loss to Lyoto Machida at UFC 79 very lightly. Sokoudjou, who was signed to the UFC after bursting onto the PRIDE scene with KO wins over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona, lost his Octagon debut to the undefeated Machida via arm-triangle choke in the second round.
The African Assassin is set to erase the memory of that loss when he faces fellow Judo master Kazuhiro Nakamura (11-7) at UFC 84: Ill Will on May 24. To help him do that, he’s enlisted some of Judo’s biggest names.
From Sokoudjou:
“Well right now its pretty much train, eat, sleep, and train more! Its been a very busy week. This week along with my regular training partners Ive been working with Hector Lombard and Pawel Nastula. Next week I will have some more new training partners to work with.”
For more pics of Sokoudjou’s training, head over to AfricanAssassin.com.
9 Comments »
KO’m Sokoudjou
Training with Nestula for his fight with Nakamura is a very smart move by Soko. The average fans probably wont know who Pawel Nestula (Polish Judoka Legend) is, but having him as a training partner is an excellent idea for Sokoudjou to help get ready for a very tricky Nakamura.
I would have to give the edge to Sokoudjou in this fight. I think his fight with Machida was not even close to indicative of his true potential. Keep in mind he is only 23 years old and is 1 of the hardest hitters at 205 lb.
A good match up would have been Sokoudjou vs. James Irving…talk about 2 hard hitters, but no complaints…Soko vs. Nakamura should be very interesting…Fingers crossed that we actually get to see it!
Is that Ryo Chonan standing next to Soko
Yea looks like Ryo to me.
Yeah Ryo Chonan is a good freind of Henderson and Soko. He has been training with team quest for a while now!
i still think his first fight in the ufc should have been houston alexander, also how is this fight not on the main card?
Hector and Pawel?? That is truly awesome.
houston or irvin would be fireworks for soko.. he got dismantled at 79 but i reckon he will pull this one off.. wonder if he’s gona wear the predator mask to the cage again.
Soku’s true talents have yet to be seen. He’s still very much a young and in experienced fighter…but all the potential is there!