Teddy Riner suffers the counter that took him down and cost him his invincibility. IJF
After an undefeated stint that started in 2010, the French judoka Teddy Riner, 30, was surprised last week during the Paris GP. After 154 victorious matches, nine world titles and two Olympic gold medals, Teddy suffered a counterattack and was toppled at last.
The man who did it was Japan’s Kokoro Kageura, 24, in Teddy’s third match in the competition. After sustaining a tie in the regular time, Teddy, trying to win, went for an uchi mata. But Kokoro didn’t fall and, unbalanced and with a leg in the air, pulled Teddy by the sleeve, achieving the winning wa zari. Kokoro went on to lose to Henk Grol in the final.
The history of MMA has some heroic winning streaks as well. Examples include Rickson Gracie (1980 to 2000), Anderson Silva (2000 to 2013) and Fedor Emelianenko (2001 to 2010).
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