Sokoudjou's Inside Trip

A fighter out of Dan Henderson's Team Quest camp, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou was the undoubted underdog going into his February 2007 Pride fight against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, little brother of the famed heavyweight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Sokoudjou was unknown to most of the MMA world and had a 2-1 record in small shows. Not only did Sokoudjou surprise fans and critics everywhere by knocking Nogueira out, but he repeated the same feat two months later against the powerful Brazilian fighter, Ricardo Arona, cementing his place in the limelight of the MMA world.

Despite his two stunning knockout wins, Sokoudjou's background is in judo. Originally from Cameroon, Sokoudjou moved to the United States in 2001 at the age of seventeen, and proceeded to win the open-weight division of the US Open Judo Championships that same year. When visa problems prevented Sokoudjou from returning to Cameroon to compete in the 2004 Olympic Trials for his country, he instead chose to pursue mixed martial arts.

For this month's article, we go back to Sokoudjou's roots as he shows us an inside trip takedown, demonstrated on his training partner, Xande Ribeiro. In the photos, Sokoudjou is the one in blue, with the longer hair.