Returning the following year with a new shoot based offence, Fujita won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship immediately and went on to hold it two more times before leaving the company in 2005.

Regarded as a promising rookie for his natural athletic ability and strength, Fujita was pushed as a future star during his young lion days.

In 1998, he was one of the wrestlers selected to face Riki Choshu in one of his retirement matches, and was also chosen as a training partner for former judoka Naoya Ogawa during his transition into professional wrestling.

In 1999, he requested to leave New Japan with the intention of joining Fighting Network Rings, a former shoot-style promotion that had recently changed itself to a full on mixed martial arts company.

After over a year away from pro-wrestling, Fujita's return to NJPW was announced in early 2001 for the Strong Style 2001 pay-per-view on April 9, where he was set to face Scott Norton for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

[8] After spending most of 2003 in Pride, Fujita returned to New Japan once again in October 2003 at Ultimate Crush II, teaming with Minoru Suzuki, Bob Sapp, Yoshihiro Takayama and Shinsuke Nakamura as "Shin Inoki Gun" to defeat Yuji Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Manabu Nakanishi and Seiji Sakaguchi.

In August 2005, Fujita entered the 2005 G1 Climax where he won all his matches in the round robin portion, then defeated Toshiaki Kawada but lost to Masahiro Chono in the finals.

He won the IGF Championship from Jerome Le Banner in early 2012, and made successful defences against Bobby Lashley, Hideki Suzuki, Erik Hammer and Atsushi Sawada before dropping it to Satoshi Ishii in a worked shoot fight in December 2013.

[12][13] In early 2018, the trio invaded All Japan Pro Wrestling for a short lived run, starting a feud with Suwama's Evolution stable.

[14] Fujita would also make a one-off appearance for Big Japan Pro Wrestling in July 2018, teaming with Daisuke Sekimoto to defeat Daichi Hashimoto and Hideyoshi Kamitani.

His trainer was his professional wrestling mentor and mixed martial arts legend, Antonio Inoki, as well as luta livre veteran Marco Ruas.

His first opponent was Fighting Network RINGS alumnus Hans Nijman, who Fujita beat fast by taking him down and submitting him with a wrestling neck crank.

After this success, Inoki sent him abroad to compete in American promotion Extreme Shootout, where he KOed Dan Chase and then submitted Will Childs, before returning to PRIDE.

On May 1, Fujita competed at Pride Grand Prix 2000 Finals, where he would score the first big win of his career by defeating Mark Kerr, who at the time was considered to be one of the best heavyweights in MMA.

Kerr dominated early in the match, taking the Japanese down and hitting ground and pound through his guard, followed by a series of knee strikes to the head, but Fujita endured shockingly all the punishment and waited for his opportunity.

Despite Fujita being eliminated from the tournament, he became a star with the Japanese crowds for his victory over Kerr; the toughness he demonstrated in that fight gaining him the nickname "Ironhead".

Color commentator Eddie Bravo proclaimed during Fujita's fight with Shamrock, "that guy can take a baseball bat to the side of the head!".

Notably, Takayama was similarly able to take a great punishment, enduring knees to the head and punches, but Kazuyuki submitted him via arm triangle choke.

Though Fujita was unfazed and completed the takedown, it opened a cut in his eye, which moved the referee to stop the match for a TKO loss for the Japanese.

At the second half of the match, however, Cro Cop started dominating through low kicks and a powerful sprawl, which he used to hold Fujita down while scoring series of unanswered knees to the head.

After avoiding armbars and triangle chokes by powering out, Fujita controlled the Brazilian through his guard for a few minutes, but the situation returned to the beginning when the referee stood them up.

With three minutes left in the clock, Silva unloaded on Fujita and surprisingly managed to knock him down with hook combos, after which he delivered multiple soccer kicks to the face.

After defeating freestyle champion Eldar Kurtanidze by submission due to strikes, Fujita was pitted against Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Jeff Monson.