Teddy Riner's top 3 Challengers

We look at Riner’s Top 3 challengers. In this post, we will look at three dark horses who could give Riner a big surprise. Well… are they actually dark horses if you want to beat Riner?

Kokoru Kageura (JPN)

Kageura, 26, is a World Champion and he is just one of two players (the other being Tamerlan Bashaev of Russia) who has beaten Riner in over a decade.

He is rather small for a heavyweight but Kageura’s ability to do drop techniques make him a giant killer. His smaller stature also allows him to be nimbler than his much larger opponents and it was his quick reaction time that allowed him to evade Riner’s uchimata and throw him with uchimata-sukashi at the 2020 Paris Grand Slam.

Kageura is however not the representative for Japan in the upcoming World Championships. Tatsuru Saito is the one.

Tatsuru Saito (JPN)

Saito, 20, the son of the late, great double Olympic Champion Hitoshi Saito, is a rising star in Japanese judo. He was the winner of the All-Japan Open Weight Championships, which earned him the heavyweight spot for the upcoming World Championships.

Saito is only 20 years old and doesn’t have much international experience, although he did win gold at the 2021 Baku Grand Slam. He is a big guy and it will not be easy for Riner to throw him with big leg techniques like osoto-gari or uchimata. However, Riner has developed a liking for sumi-gaeshi in recent years and he seems to still be able to throw most of his opponents with this. Such a sacrifice throw might work against a big, heavy guy like Saito.

Jur Spijkers (NED)

Spijkers, 25, is a rising star in world judo. He is the current European Champion and he won gold at the recent Zagreb Grand Prix. This has been a good year for him.

Although JudoInside lists him as having had 217 international matches, he has never fought Riner. That could actually work to his advantage as Riner would not know how to deal with him.

Spijkers is a big, hefty guy (not the size of Riner though) yet he is able to do drop techniques and he has quick transitions into newaza, which he is good at. He might just be able to surprise Riner.

Here are more obvious challengers