Kazushi Sakuraba:the greatest fighter that was never a champion!

DaviVasco

DaviVasco

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Can we show some appreciation to Sakuraba, the Gracie Killer?

He is a UFC HOF. One of the pioneers of sport. Embodies the true Samurai spirit.

He was probably one of the baddest fighters ever. Transitioned to MMA when he was 27 years (super old to start MMA) coming from Japanese Professional Wrestling.
He fought a lot of KILLERs, fighters that were way more experienced in MMA and fighters that were much HEAVIER and bigger. He still managed to win a lot of those fights or give them a lot of trouble.

He never backed down, always fought anyone, anywhere, anytime. A lot of his losses were Doctor's stoppage or the corner throwing the white towel, because he would never quit.

He was the first to end the Gracie "unbeatable" Aura. Fought Royce Gracie for 90 minutes, under their made up rules.

Just to give you an idea how tough Sakuraba was, he was a welterweight who fought many LHW and HW fighters. He has fought and beat killers like Carlos NEwton, "no known weaknesses" Belfort, Mezger, several Gracies, Rampage, RAndleman. He has fought (and lost) to killers like CroCrop, Minotouro nogueira, Arona, Pride Wand, but still gave them hell.

A smaller fighter, that never refused a fight against anyone. Such a different mentality compared to today's fighters.

I miss the old days. I miss Sakuraba.



 
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Recognize a real Don when you see one.
 
DaviVasco said:
Can we show some appreciation to Sakuraba, the Gracie Killer?

He is a UFC HOF. One of the pioneers of sport. Embodies the true Samurai spirit.

He was probably one of the baddest fighters ever. Transitioned to MMA when he was 27 years (super old to start MMA) coming from Japanese Professional Wrestling.
He fought a lot of KILLERs, fighters that were way more experienced in MMA and fighters that were much HEAVIER and bigger. He still managed to win a lot of those fights or give them a lot of trouble.

He never backed down, always fought anyone, anywhere, anytime. A lot of his losses were Doctor's stoppage or the corner throwing the white towel, because he would never quit.

He was the first to end the Gracie "unbeatable" Aura. Fought Royce Gracie for 90 minutes, under their made up rules.

Just to give you an idea how tough Sakuraba was, he was a welterweight who fought many LHW and HW fighters. He has fought and beat killers like Carlos NEwton, "no known weaknesses" Belfort, Mezger, several Gracies, Rampage, RAndleman. He has fought (and lost) to killers like CroCrop, Minotouro nogueira, Arona, Pride Wand, but still gave them hell.

A smaller fighter, that never refused a fight against anyone. Such a different mentality than today's fighters.

I miss the old days. I miss Sakuraba.



Click to expand...

yeah he was awesome. he also got a first round ko of ken shamrock.
 
DaviVasco said:
Can we show some appreciation to Sakuraba, the Gracie Killer?

He is a UFC HOF. One of the pioneers of sport. Embodies the true Samurai spirit.

He was probably one of the baddest fighters ever. Transitioned to MMA when he was 27 years (super old to start MMA) coming from Japanese Professional Wrestling.
He fought a lot of KILLERs, fighters that were way more experienced in MMA and fighters that were much HEAVIER and bigger. He still managed to win a lot of those fights or give them a lot of trouble.

He never backed down, always fought anyone, anywhere, anytime. A lot of his losses were Doctor's stoppage or the corner throwing the white towel, because he would never quit.

He was the first to end the Gracie "unbeatable" Aura. Fought Royce Gracie for 90 minutes, under their made up rules.

Just to give you an idea how tough Sakuraba was, he was a welterweight who fought many LHW and HW fighters. He has fought and beat killers like Carlos NEwton, "no known weaknesses" Belfort, Mezger, several Gracies, Rampage, RAndleman. He has fought (and lost) to killers like CroCrop, Minotouro nogueira, Arona, Pride Wand, but still gave them hell.

A smaller fighter, that never refused a fight against anyone. Such a different mentality than today's fighters.

I miss the old days. I miss Sakuraba.



Click to expand...


He did fuck up his health seriously for our entertainment... shouldn’t have been fighting guys triple his size and roided to the gills.

Also you forgot to mention ‘wrestling is strong’.
 
Harlekin said:
Terrible striking
26:17 record
Good from 1996-2000 against 1 / seldom 2 dimensional guys
Got figured out in 2001
Never won against top competition again for 14 years and got finished 13 times
Click to expand...
lol

says sakuraba is one dimensional, but trashes on him for fighting one dimensional guys? come on

And yes, some guys are fighters, adrenaline junkies that don't know when to stop. He should have stopped way before , but he kept going. Has my respect
 
he gets ton of love on here already, but since I do think he's the goat there can never be too much Sakuraba love.

Yeah the UFC would never admit it but honestly P4P he's gotta be in the top 3 all-time, and with the current unified rules that skew decisions towards leg kick and takedown points he probably could've been a UFC WW Champion with the right matchups, I doubt he could've defended a bunch of times like GSP but his skillset certainly transferable.
 
Harlekin said:
Terrible striking
26:17 record
Good from 1996-2000 against 1 / seldom 2 dimensional guys
Got figured out in 2001
Never won against top competition again for 14 years and got finished 13 times
Click to expand...
you're kidding right? most of his losses are out of his natural weight class or came when he was past his prime. This dude defeated a roided Belfort, rampage jackson, and Kevin randleman virtually all in their prime.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
There is no doubt he is an MMA legend, but why is he in the UFC HOF? He has 2 fights and 1 win in UFC. If that's enough to get you in the HOF, the UFC HOF is going to have a lot of inductees!
 
Harlekin said:
Terrible striking
26:17 record
Good from 1996-2000 against 1 / seldom 2 dimensional guys
Got figured out in 2001
Never won against top competition again for 14 years and got finished 13 times
Click to expand...
It’s almost like you don’t understand that not everything about a fighter can be discovered on their Wikipedia page
 
Harlekin said:
Terrible striking
26:17 record
Good from 1996-2000 against 1 / seldom 2 dimensional guys
Got figured out in 2001
Never won against top competition again for 14 years and got finished 13 times
Click to expand...

Just about everyone was one dimensional in that era and Saku was so good at his one dimension that it didn't matter so much for him. Most of his losses in his prime are against guys that by rights should have been several weight classes above him anyway.
 
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