Takafumi Ito was born In Osaka, Japan on June 21st 1972. He made his debut back in the early days of MMA. On January 26 1995 he took on Gregory Smit and won by heel hook 8:47 into the fight At Pancrase Eyes Of Beast 1. Ito often fought men much bigger than him, he is only 5"9 and fights at 155 and earlier in his career at 170. He has defeated such names as Vernon White, Ikuhisa Minowa And Ryushi Yanagisawa, the latter which saw both men go 30 minutes to decision in Pancrase. He has also fought but lost to Frank Shamrock, Jason Delucia, Yuki Kondo, Masakatsu Funaki, and Semmy Schilt. He also has draws against Shonie Carter, Chris Lytle, And Hacran Dias. At the age of 40 Ito still has the passion to fight with over 15 years of experience and with over 70 fights on his record. He is set to fight once again vs Daisuke Nakamura at an upcoming Deep card on October 19, 2012 in Tokyo, Japan. He also won the Pancrase Neo-Blood Tournament in 1995.
Ito has also participated in Professional Wrestling in Japan where he won The NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship with Ikuto Hidaka.