Ikuhisa Minowa

Ikuhisa Minowa (美濃輪 育久, Minowa Ikuhisa, born January 12, 1976 in Hashima, Gifu) is a Japanese mixed martial artist and professional wrestler currently competing in IGF as Minowaman (ミノワマン, Minowaman). He was a longtime veteran of PRIDE and Pancrase and has also competed in other mixed martial arts promotions such as K-1 Hero's, Cage Rage, UFC, DREAM, and DEEP. He is the former DREAM Super Hulk Tournament Champion.

Mixed martial arts career

Early career

Minowa made his professional debut in the Lumax Cup in 1996, but would spend most of his early career in the Pancrase promotion. Minowa had a poor start to his MMA career, going 1-8-1 in his first ten fights, taking on MMA pioneers such as Yuki Kondo and Jason DeLucia, and with the win being in his Pancrase debut. The young Minowa would turn his career around, however, improving to 12-11-6 with a win over Daiju Takase before fighting in his first and only fight in the UFC at UFC 25 in Tokyo, Japan. The bout was against Joe Slick and Minowa won via TKO from a cut that Slick received.