Two-time Olympian Josh Katz sat down with the Goat Talk Podcast to share his perspective on judo, its demands compared to other combat sports, and why the grind of competition sets it apart from MMA and boxing.
When asked about what makes judo uniquely challenging, Katz pointed to the unforgiving nature of the scoring system.
“The margin for error is incredibly small compared to almost every other sport that I can think of…. You can be winning by three or four scores and if you get thrown and you land on your back, and you lose.”
The toughest part of training, he explained, is the randori sessions, which are judo’s equivalent of sparring.
“We probably do that on average three to five times a week and they’re just really intense sessions. You prepare your body as best as you can, but there’s just so much impact on getting thrown. Every part of the practice of skills that we do is essentially getting thrown on the mat.”
When the conversation turned to MMA and boxing, Katz was straightforward about where judo stands.
“The actual combat itself in MMA or boxing would have to be harder. I’m not going to pretend that judo is the same as getting 25 minutes of getting punched and kicked in the face. That would obviously be more difficult.”
However, he made a strong case for why judo’s yearly structure makes it uniquely demanding in its own right.
“I think the nature of judo, you compete probably 10 times a year. If you win a gold medal, you might have five or six matches on the same day. I think just the consistent amount of volume that you’re doing of training and competing across the year probably is the thing that makes judo that’s the harder part of judo compared to those sports.”
The key distinction, according to Katz, comes down to the relentless schedule.
“You don’t really ever have a really big training camp and then a couple of weeks to rest and recover. You’re pretty much going from competition to competition for 11 or so months of the year.”
“I think just the amount of times that you have to get your body up and prepared and be in the best shape that you possibly can be in, rather than the same amount of physical toll that you would sustain in a 25 minute MMA or 30 minute boxing match.”
His Olympic coach, who competed in the UFC following his judo career, gave Katz firsthand insight into both worlds. Having trained alongside friends who crossed over into MMA, Katz was able to compare the two from a perspective that goes beyond speculation.
What sets judo apart is not any single moment of physical punishment, but the accumulation of repeated high-impact training sessions week after week, year after year, with very little time to recover between competitions.
“Just the load that goes through your body of trying to throw somebody and they’re trying to twist and throw you, and you’re doing that four or five days in a row under fatigue, just adds up over time.”
