Olympic Judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii has bypassed offers from DREAM and the UFC and has decided to sign with the Japanese-based World Victory Road organization to compete in its Sengoku events.

The promotion announced the signing today at a press conference.

The contract Ishii signed with World Victory Road calls is valid for two years and he will make his promotional debut sometime later this fall.

After winning a gold medal in Judo at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, Ishii set his sights on competing in MMA. It was assumed that Ishii, who is a cult hero in his native Japan, would stay on the island to compete for the local DREAM promotion. In fact, DREAM had a deal in place with Ishii, but Ishii eventually turned that deal down, to the ire of many Japanese fans, to head over to the U.S. and explore his options with the UFC.

"I made up my mind finally - the UFC is where I want to fight," said Ishii told the press. "I'm a white belt in MMA. I understand the possibility of starting from WEC. If I was an unknown judoka, I would definitely build up my MMA experience in Japan first. However, I have decided put my Judo gold medal to use. I believe my name value will attract the UFC."

FEG president Sadaharu Tanigawa was somber. He echoed the seniments of all Japanese MMA fans at the time of Ishii's decision releasing the following statement.

"It's unfortunate that the man with the Japanese MMA world on his shoulders is going abroad."

UFC President Dana White claimed, after UFC 94, that he had already signed the Ishii to a contract but seemed to think that Ishii might be better served competing in Japan due to the enormous amount of money being offered up by the Japanese organizations.

"The thing is this: the kid's sitting on a lottery ticket right now," UFC President Dana White told MMAWeekly back in February. "He's being offered millions of dollars in Japan. If he comes back and tells me I want to take this lottery ticket, I'll give it to him. He needs to decide what he wants to do with his life. Just because I have a contract with him, I'm not going to try to tell him what he should do with his life."

In the end, Ishii took the lottery ticket and signed with WVR to compete at Japanese Sengoku events. He believes Sengoku offers a very competitive roster of fighters, which includes a possible future matchup with top ranked heavyweight Josh Barnett.

Ishii said at the press conference that he turned down a one-fight deal from the UFC.

"UFC knows no such thing as compromise," said Ishii. "So there was no way to come to a mutual agreement on the terms of the contract."

Ishii has been training with the one of the best pound for pound fighters in the sport; recently spending two months down in Brazil with UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida. He is now expected to head to Holland and Russia to train with WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko.