, born Choe Yeong-i (; June 3, 1980) is a Korean professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and promoter who currently owns and operates Pro Wrestling Land's End, where he is a former All Asia Heavyweight Champion. He is best known for working for Pro Wrestling Zero1, where he is a former two-time World Heavyweight Champion.
He is the older brother of mixed martial artist Young Choi, also known as Ryo Sai.
Career Ryoji Sai is a third-generation Zainichi Korean who was born in Osaka, Japan. His parents own a restaurant near Tsuruhashi Station. At age 15, Sai attended the Sidmouth International School in Sidmouth, England. He then attended Bloxham School in Oxfordshire from 1996 to 1999. While in Europe, he studied martial arts under Gerard Gordeau in the Netherlands.
Upon returning to Japan, Sai joined Pro Wrestling Zero-One (Zero1) and made his debut on September 1, 2001, at the Fire Festival against Igor Meindert in a non-tournament match. From 2002 to 2004, he was out of professional wrestling due to an unknown ailment. Upon returning in 2004, he began regularly teaming with Kohei Sato, winning the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship twice, in 2005 and 2006.
Sai twice finished as the runner-up in the 2006 and 2007 Fire Festival tournaments, losing to Masato Tanaka both times. He also appeared for the Hustle wrestling promotion while Zero1 had a working agreement with Hustle. In late 2008 and early 2009, Sai appeared on the popular Fuji TV show , under the name .
Championships and accomplishments All Japan Pro Wrestling World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Dylan James (1) & Zeus (1) Apache Pro-Wrestling Army WEW World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Tetsuhiro Kuroda Hustle Hustle Super Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Wataru Sakata Pro Wrestling Land's End All Asia Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pro Wrestling Illustrated Ranked No. 220 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2014 Pro Wrestling Zero1 NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Kohei Sato (2) and Osamu Namiguchi (1) NWA United National Heavyweight Championship (1 time) World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) Fire Festival (2009, 2014) Passion Cup Tag Tournament (2008) – with Kohei Sato
MMA record
| Loss | align="center"| 1-1-1 (1) | Kenichi Serizawa | TKO (Punches) | Titan Fighting Championship 2 | | align='center'| 2 | align='center'| 3:32 | Tokyo, Japan
| Win | align="center"| 1-0-1 (1) | Koichi Sato | TKO (Punches) | Titan Fighting Championship 2 | | align='center'| 1 | align='center'| 2:54 | Tokyo, Japan
| NC | align="center"| 0-0-1 (1) | Koichi Sato | No contest (illegal knees) | Titan Fighting Championship 2 | | align="center"| 1 | align="center"| 0:26 | Tokyo, Japan
| Draw | align=center| 0–0–1 | Masakazu Imanari | Technical Draw | Titan Fighting Championship 1 | | align=center| 1 | align=center| 1:29 | Tokyo, Japan
References
External links
ZERO1 USA English language website ZERO1 Japanese language website Sai's Official Japanese language blog