In 2004, fighting under the name Joe Basko, Santino faced Takashi Ishino in a professional Mixed Martial Arts fight for the Greatest Common Multiple (odd name) promotion in Japan. With an amateur wrestling and judo background, he was a pretty natural fit for the sport of MMA. However, a natural fit doesn't always translate to natural success, and in this instance, he lost via knockout in just 26 seconds, taken out by an Ishino punch. That's pretty ugly, and it's precisely the kind of thing that makes a lot of young MMA fighters think about doing something else with their lives. He was probably better off that he ended up in pro wrestling, anyway, as it truly seems to have been one of his callings in life.