5 Olympians who had unsuccessful MMA careers

Kevin Jackson gets pinned by his opponent at the Goodwill Games in 1994.
Kevin Jackson gets pinned by his opponent at the Goodwill Games in 1994.

#4 Karam Gaber - Olympian gold medalist (Greco-Roman Wrestling)

Karam Gaber gets his hand raised at the Olympics.
Karam Gaber gets his hand raised at the Olympics.

Karam Gaber is an Egyptian Olympian who made it to the Games on three occasions. He won gold at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greco-Roman wrestling, winning the semi-final 11-0 and final 12-1. In the process, he earned Egypt their second gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling since 1928.

The Egyptian Olympian wrestler also made it to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, but failed to qualify for the quarter-finals. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he won silver.

Karam Gaber made a very short-lived venture into the MMA world, which ended up being quite unsuccessful, though. Perhaps that was why the Olympian chose not to pursue it further. He faced Kazuyuki Fujita, an amateur wrestler-turned-mixed martial artist, on his MMA debut in K-1 in 2004.

While Fujita was not as decorated a wrestler as the Olympian, he did prove to be a better MMA fighter. During their bout in K-1, Kazuyuki Fujita knocked out Karam Gaber at the 1:07 mark of round one, forcing the latter to close the door on MMA.


#3 Satoshi Ishii - Olympian gold medalist (Judo)

Satoshi Ishii goes up against Quinton Jackson in Bellator.
Satoshi Ishii goes up against Quinton Jackson in Bellator.

Satoshi Ishii is a Japanese-Croatian judoka who won several international competitions such as the World U20 Championship, Asian U20 Championship and the Asian Games. His biggest achievement was at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he won gold.

The Olympian lost on his MMA debut in 2009 at Dynamite against fellow Olympic gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida. He did show some promise after bouncing back for four straight wins, but lost another high-profile bout against MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko via knockout.

Satoshi Ishii is still an active MMA fighter, and is currently signed with K-1. He has a decent 24-12-1 MMA record, but hasn't been able to showcase his potential fully. The Olympian has fought in several MMA promotions like K-1, Pride, Bellator and Rizin. He has also fought UFC stars such as Quinton Jackson and Jiri Prochazka, but without any success.

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