Yuki Nakai is a retired Japanese shooto practitioner and mixed martial artist. He currently teaches Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and is the president of the Japan Shooto Association. He competed in Vale Tudo Japan 1995, where he was outweighed by every opponent in the tournament. Despite this, and despite suffering a severe eye injury in the first bout, Nakai managed to make it to the finals where he lost to Rickson Gracie. He is the founder of the Paraestra Shooto gyms and coaches fighters such as PRIDE and DREAM veteran Shinya Aoki, who also earned his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from Nakai.

Nakai was born August 18, 1970. After graduating from Hokkaido Sapporo North High School, he entered Hokkaido University. He belonged to the judo club and won the shichitei judo championship when he was in fourth grade.

In 1995, as the current Shooto Welterweight Champion, Nakai was selected by the Shooto Commission to represent Shooto in the Vale Tudo tournament Vale Tudo Japan 1995. His first opponent was UFC veteran Gerard Gordeau. Gordeau illegally eye-gouged Nakai during their fight, causing Nakai to lose vision in his right eye. Despite the eye injury, Nakai proceeded to defeat Gordeau by heel hook in the fourth round. For his next fights, on the same night, he came out with a bandage on his eye, ready to fight. In his second bout, Nakai defeated American wrestler and WCW performer Craig Pittman, who sported a 100 lbs. weight advantage, by armbar. In the third and final bout, he lost to the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master Rickson Gracie by rear naked choke at 6:22 of the first round. Nakai became permanently blind in his right eye due to Gordeau's illegal tactics and his own failure to have the subsequent infection sufficiently treated. For years he kept his blindness a secret to protect the reputation of mixed martial arts. The injury forced Nakai to retire from mixed martial arts competition, but impressed with rickson Gracie's technique, he took up Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, where he became the first person from Japan to hold a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and is the president of the Japanese Confederation of Jiu-Jitsu.