The Beautiful Beast.
"When making a case for world's toughest fighter, don't forget to include Hiromitsu Kanehara. This MMA veteran has fought for promotions throughout Japan including RINGS, Colosseum 2000, and Free Fight. Though his record is not impressive, Kanehara's list of opponents reads like a who's who of mixed martial arts champions and legends."
—Kanehara's PRIDE website profile
"To kill or to be killed. That's what is fighting for me."
—Hiromitsu Kanehara
Hiromitsu Kanehara (b. 1970) is a Japanese professional wrestler and Mixed Martial Arts fighter. He first became known as a bright neophyte in UWF International, beating future stars left and right, but soon would be known for loving fighting at least as much as pro wrestling. A training fanatic, he got to be sent to Thailand to learn Muay Thai, asked to compete in shoots instead of works every time he was allowed, and ended up leaving the offshoot promotion Kingdom to join Fighting Network RINGS where he could show his skills. He became the promotion's workhorse and started taking on literally any opponent they threw at him, often being RINGS's last hope when better fighters like Tsuyoshi Kohsaka and Kiyoshi Tamura were out. Kanehara would give impressive performances against a list of star opponents, and also famously reached the finals of the King of Kings Tournament, a feat few can boast of. When RINGS folded, Kanehara joined PRIDE Fighting Championship, where he once again fought a string of world level opponents before wandering out to the indy MMA scene. After an irregular late career, a consequence of battle wear and age, he focused to sporadic pro wrestling, finally retiring from competition. He currently works as an osteopath and yoga teacher, as well as an occasional wrestler.
"To Trope or To Be Troped"
- 10-Minute Retirement: He originally retired in 2007, but un-retired the same year. And then again, he retired in 2013, but returned in 2015. Seems that Hiromitsu just cannot sit tight.
- Almighty Janitor: Though he is never remembered among the greatest names of the shoot-style, the sheer quality and quantity of his opponents makes his MMA feats greater than the foe galleries of practically everybody in Pancrase or RINGS. Barring Kohsaka and Kazushi Sakuraba, probably no fighter in Japan at the time did so well against such a competition as he did.
- The Apprentice: First to Nobuhiko Takada and later to Akira Maeda.
- Arch-Enemy: None in special, but in a sense Ricardo Arona and Yuki Kondo, two adversaries he faced twice each and couldn't defeat. In Pro Wrestling ZERO1, Shito Ueda.
- Beat Them at Their Own Game: He submitted ADCC star Alexandre Ferreira and knocked out feared striker Valentijn Overeem.
- Big Brother Mentor: To other newbies in the UWF-i dojo after he debuted as a wrestler. According to Sanae Kikuta, their upperclassman Kiyoshi Tamura didn't allow them to go out during break time, so Kanehara got all the rookies to cover for him whenever he escaped from the dojo.
- Blood Knight: He loved to fight, and as he liked to put it, went to the ring to kill or to be killed.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Wore green when he debuted for UWFI before switching yellow, then to all black.
- Cool Teacher: Has his own MMA school, U.K.R. (UWF, Kingdom, Rings) Kanehara Dojo. He also opened the Kanehara Otaru Clinic as a osteopath and yoga teacher.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He looked just like an energetic, slightly eccentric pro wrestling midcarder, but was one of the toughest guys around and one of the best allaround fighters ever come from the U-system.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: His matches in PRIDE were quite one-sided against him, as well as his ADCC match against Ricardo Arona, which saw Kanehara losing by points by a whooping 0-16.
- David Versus Goliath: Faced the 300 pound Brazilian Ricardo Morais in RINGS, though unlike most examples, the Goliath won the fight (albeit just by decision).
- Defeating the Undefeatable:
- He beat Valentijn Overeem, a fighter who had trashed Kiyoshi Tamura months before in his debut fight, and made it look as easy as Overeem had made it look with Tamura. Kanehara was doing it for himself as well, as he had been defeated by Valentijn in an earlier match.
- He not only defeated, but also submitted Alexandre Cacareco Ferreira, a grappler who went to trample his way in ADCC and would get victories over John Olav Einemo, Xande Ribeiro and Fabrício Werdum.
- Dented Iron: When he left PRIDE in 2005, he was a shell of himself after pushing his body to its limits and taking beatdowns for most of his career.
- Determinator: His ability to withstand punishment and keep coming was illogical. During his PRIDE run, he was often still fighting when the matches were stopped after receiving hit after hit from people like Mirko Cro Cop and Alistair Overeem.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Kanehara originally applied for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and actually got to train for a time with Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Osamu Nishimura, The Great Sasuke, and future PWFG trainees Daisuke Ikeda and Katsumi Usuda, but he left for UWF-i shortly after, though according to Katsumi Usuda he also took a test for the SWS promotion for before that.
- Enemy Mine: When he teamed up with fellow UWF men Minoru Suzuki and Takuma Sano in Pro Wrestling NOAH in 2012 against Special Assault Team.
- Escape Artist: He repeatedly escaped from dangerous positions against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master Mario Sperry and ended going the distance with him, with the judges even giving him part of their decision.
- Establishing Character Moment: His KO of Valentijn Overeem.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: One of his most dangerous weapons was his basic but spirited boxing.
- Grin of Audacity: Has a tendency sport one during his wrestling and MMA fights, which led to his Red Baron, "The Smiley Killer".
- Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted. Kanehara was always acknowledged to lack enough talent and skill to become a MMA star, but it was well known that he trained like a freaking machine and had guts to match, two traits that had their reward in the form of victories which no wrestler of his level could dream to accomplish.
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Though he was always behind Kiyoshi Tamura in RINGS, his accomplishments in MMA are actually higher in many cases. He finished opponents Tamura only could scratch decisions from and gave consistently better performances against the opponents who defeated them both.
- I Know Karate: Everybody in the UWF trained in Muay Thai, but Kanehara was sent to Thailand to train the purest form of the art. He also knew amateur wrestling.
- Instant Expert: In his very first kickboxing match, he took world champion Changpuek Kiatsongrit to the judges. Reportedly, K-1 chairman Kazuyoshi Ishii was so impressed that he offered Kanehara a contract, but he rejected it.
- Jack of All Stats: A fighter with good wrestling, dangerous hands and gutsy grappling.
- Koreans In Japan: He is of Korean descent, his Korean name is Kim Wang-hong.
- Nightmare Face: His nickname Biju comes from his unique looking face.
- The Power of Rock: He is a long time fan of Eikichi Yazawa.
- Real Men Love Jesus: A devout Shinto believer. As Shinto and Buddhism are often mixed in Japan, he also used to do the anjali mudra before stepping on the ring.
- Red Baron: "Biju" ("The Beautiful Beast"), "UWF no Chisho" ("UWF's Field General"), "RINGS Saigo no Ace" ("RINGS's Last Ace"), "The Smiley Killer", "Kin-chan".
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Lost a fight against Valentijn Overeem by corner stoppage and went to knock him out cold the next time they faced off.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: According to him, he was screwed in his match against Marcelo Brito when the referee decided to stop the match on Brito's favor while Kanehara was escaping from his armbar.
- Spin Attack: Often used the spinning backfist, both in shoots and works.
- Start My Own: Promoted his 20th Anniversary in wrestling and his retirement under UWF style wrestling events called U-Spirits.
- Technician Versus Performer: A technician.
- Underdogs Never Lose: Was the only native fighter who managed to reach to the finals of a King of Kings tournament, something which neither Tamura nor Kohsaka could, despite all of his opponents were considered hopeless or too difficult for him.
- Unknown Rival: To Ricardo Arona.
- Ur-Example: Was the first graduate of the UWFI Snake Pit.
