 Although he lacked formal MMA training, he had some experience in shoot wrestling thanks to his time in Battlarts and routinely trained kickboxing under Satoshi Kobayashi, who cornered him for the fight.The slightly heavier and much more experienced Ito dominated the grappling exchanges, but Hidaka survived until the second round and held his own with some ankle lock attempts before losing by rear naked choke.Hidaka once appeared with Togo and Christopher Daniels in a Major League Wrestling match in the United States in 2002, one of his rare appearances abroad.