Nostalgia vs. Reality: Kazushi Sakuraba

[Kung Fu Kowboy]

Even among the great legends of MMA, it is hard to think of a more beloved, mythical figure than Kazushi Sakuraba. He was a roughly 185-pound man who faced the best light heavyweights and heavyweights of his day and found ways to win. He defeated MMA’s first great pioneer, Royce Gracie, in an insane 90-minute fight that is something straight out of an anime. That does not even consider how endlessly entertaining Sakuraba was, whether for his ring entrances or his unique fighting style that included cartwheels and double Mongolian chops to the head. It is also worth noting that in 2000, Sakuraba was possibly the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. With Sakuraba, unlike previous subjects of this series Pedro Rizzo and Igor Vovchanchyn, there was no prematurely early decline, nor is Sakuraba's fall from the elite mysterious. Instead, we will look at two tantalizing hypotheticals related to his career.



First, let us examine what the Pride Fighting Championships great offered through a modern perspective. By the standards of his day, Sakuraba was a good wrestler though not a great one. He would typically shoot from far away rather than grapple in the clinch, especially with his patented low single-leg. Frankly, this is not very effective against those with solid defensive wrestling, which is why one rarely sees the tactic today. In fact, simply shooting from far away, oftentimes with no setup, is not normally a route to success; former UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver once called such long-range, empty shots “junior high wrestling.” Yet Sakuraba was adept at it, and fewer fighters of the day knew how to stop it. Sometimes, he won out with sheer persistence. Vitor Belfort, who was a good 20 pounds heavier than Sakuraba, defended his takedowns well for the first five minutes. Belfort then got tired, and Sakuraba took him down and dominated from there.

Read Full Article Here

https://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/Nostalgia-vs-Reality-Kazushi-Sakuraba-190083

 

[mirko>anyone]

One of a kind

 

[mma fighter]

Innovator and warrior.

Sometimes too much of a warrior for his own good.

 

[Elvis.]

He’s an Mma hero and legend and anyone who says otherwise should be thrown screaming from a helicopter in front of their family

 

[yossarian1979]

Love this. He was the fighter that got me into MMA again after the dark ages.

 

[Nathan LaMontagne]

I don't know if it's artistic license but I have a few problems in the article.

I highly doubt Saku would get molly whopped or even lose against Hughes if he fought him at 170.

It's almost like the Dennis Hallman fights never happened. Almost like BJ never walked through Hughes in the first fight.

Saku defeated much bigger and better wrestlers than Hughes and Hughes has always been susceptible to getting caught in submissions.

Using broken MMA math that Hughes beat Royce therefore Saku would struggle with Hughes... No. Saku had great wrestling. Royce had none.

And for the record I don't even think Hendo circa 2002ish would even be that favoured. That was his decision Dan time. Got caught in a lot at the time.

Bustamante I would to a slight degree, Sakus path to victory there would be to have a more wrestling oriented game plan.

While any attention and praise for Sakuraba-san is remarkably appreciated. I feel like there was a bit of hyperbole in the article.

 

[Nathan LaMontagne]

Also the line that modern fighters all have more flexible limbs is just.... Stupid.

Acting like we physically evolved to have Gumby arms in less than a single generation is silly.


I think the main reason we aren't seeing Kimuras and the like more often is.
Fighters don't focus on a high level ground game, specifically offensively.

MMA nowadays when it comes to subs is 90% defense. Everyone is very risky averse.

Simple case of most fighters don't have the skill to pull off submissions against people with decent to good defense. So they don't even try.

 

[Aegon Spengler]

Sakuraba vs Frank Shamrock was the fight I really wanted back in those days.

Funny to think we could have had Sakuraba vs Frank, and Hughes and even a 2006 GSP. Hell he could have fought BJ Penn too.

Sad we never got to see any of that.

After GSP lost to Hughes the first time, he left the UFC and went back to TKO in Canada. If he had gone to Japan he could have faced Sakuraba.

Frank Shamrock “retired” after the Tito title defense, he was a free agent too.

 

[mahavishnunj]

NEWS!

 

[don't ask]

I love Sak, but after the Igor article I just can't read these stupid things any more. And based on things said in this thread, it sounds like this article was shockingly idiotic.

 

[Pingu]

Saku did not need a td against belfort, he beat him standing. SAKURABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

 

[don't ask]

Also the line that modern fighters all have more flexible limbs is just.... Stupid.

Acting like we physically evolved to have Gumby arms in less than a single generation is silly.


I think the main reason we aren't seeing Kimuras and the like more often is.
Fighters don't focus on a high level ground game, specifically offensively.

MMA nowadays when it comes to subs is 90% defense. Everyone is very risky averse.

Simple case of most fighters don't have the skill to pull off submissions against people with decent to good defense. So they don't even try.

lol I can and yet can't believe that the article said something so dumb. These things are garbage.

 

[VinceArch]

Fearless warrior.

 

[Sweater of AV]

Yeah I don’t agree with a fair bit of the article but at least there’s appreciation. GOAT.

 

[sherdogwantedtonamemekiki]

He pushed in the Gracie family's shit with catch wrestling, which was much deserved after they ruined Rufino Dos Santos' catch wrestling career because of their ego.



Edit: Legend status in my book, because he proved they are one dimensional and never tried to evolve. Which was only further proved by Matt Hughes/Royce Gracie and Kron. It's weird how their students decided to implement other aspects like wrestling and Lute Livre while they never even bother or outright showed no respect to (leg locks from Lute Livre).

 

[Aegon Spengler]

He pushed in the Gracie family's shit with catch wrestling, which was much deserved after they ruined Rufino Dos Santos' catch wrestling career because of their ego.



Edit: Legend status in my book, because he proved they are one dimensional and never tried to evolve. Which was only further proved by Matt Hughes/Royce Gracie and Kron. It's weird how their students decided to implement other aspects like wrestling and Lute Livre while they never even bother or outright showed no respect to (leg locks from Lute Livre).

I think Royce knew he was done and Sakuraba was chosen to be the one to pass the torch too, in a way. It was clear MMA had passed the Gracie’s by in 2003, or at the very least has passed Royce.

Would have been interesting to see Oleg Taktarov vs Royce

 

[Lee_]

I don't know if it's artistic license but I have a few problems in the article.

I highly doubt Saku would get molly whopped or even lose against Hughes if he fought him at 170.

Fuck no he would not lose to Hughes. That's a joke. He was competitively fighting at what would have been LHW in Pride; Hughes is a WW. Plus, as you say, there is the matchup issue.

 

[KID Yamamoto]

His record could have been much cleaner but the insane man fought guys at heavyweight. Dude is a 170'er through and through lol. I favor him over hughes. Sakuraba on the feet was definitely unique but he had crazy methods of getting it to the ground.

 

[Stan]

Saku would've demolished Hughes if they had ever fought.

 

[Qays Stetkevich]

I don't know if it's artistic license but I have a few problems in the article.

I highly doubt Saku would get molly whopped or even lose against Hughes if he fought him at 170.

It's almost like the Dennis Hallman fights never happened. Almost like BJ never walked through Hughes in the first fight.

Saku defeated much bigger and better wrestlers than Hughes and Hughes has always been susceptible to getting caught in submissions.

Using broken MMA math that Hughes beat Royce therefore Saku would struggle with Hughes... No. Saku had great wrestling. Royce had none.

And for the record I don't even think Hendo circa 2002ish would even be that favoured. That was his decision Dan time. Got caught in a lot at the time.

Bustamante I would to a slight degree, Sakus path to victory there would be to have a more wrestling oriented game plan.

While any attention and praise for Sakuraba-san is remarkably appreciated. I feel like there was a bit of hyperbole in the article.

I liked the article, but also agree with everything you say. Regarding Busta, it's hard to see how Saku would win, but then thinking of Busta beating Saku with anything other than a decision is hard as well.