Bone-Breaking Jiu-Jitsu Oki’s Hope Against Jim

Los Angeles Times – February 17, 1933

Jim Londos stepped far enough out of his class to put himself in line for his first mat defeat in three and a half years when he agreed to make his three-fall battle with Oki Shikina a mixed catch-as-catch-can and jiu-jitsu event, wrestling critics stated yesterday.

Jiu-jitsu wrestling, something new to the fans who have attended the bouts at the Olympic in the past seven years, is a scientific style of mat work that requires years of training to perfect.

The history of this style of wrestling dates back 400 years. It had its origin in China and later was adopted by the Japanese soldiers for fighting purposes. Before the advent of firearms it was used by the Nipponese soldiers in their attacks and at that time most of the grips were of the bone-breaking, death-dealing variety.

Although many of the grips have been modified through the years since then so that there would be less danger of its exponents receiving severe injuries in bouts, exports like Shikina are as adept with the grips used several hundred years ago as they are with the revised holds.

One or more falls of the Londos-Shikina bout will be in the Japanese style of wrestling. This means Londos will be forced to wear the regulation jiu-jitsu jackets, and these are used by the exponents of this style of mat work to strangle their opponents by pulling the lapels of the garment across the victim’s neck.

The fact that Londos is not an expert in this style of wrestling and the possibility that he will be either strangled into submission or receive a broken arm in trying to resist the numerous arm stretches applied with the jackets, are so great that it was reported yesterday the Greek star will probably refuse to place his title claims at stake when he faces Shikina. He will claim the title is for the catch-as-catch-can championship and, therefore, cannot be competed for in a jiu-jitsu bout. Londos is scheduled to arrive from the north today to start training on jiu-jitsu grips in preparation for this battle.

Four other bouts complete this card.