Prime Sakuraba vs Prime Maia

[Woliwo]

Maia would backpack him into oblivion.

 

[RagingBeringola]

I don't know, never said I did know, but we all agree that fighters were paid to lose, fighters have acknowledged that steroids were encouraged to be used, and PRIDE was run by the Yakuza. It was important that the hometown fighters won some fights.

There's also the case which I already previously brought up where Guy Mezger beat Saku but another round was fabricated in order to give Saku another shot to win, this is another example that literally changed the course of history. What happens if instead of Saku fighting Royce it's Guy Mezger, would Saku ever be called the Gracie Hunter? I am interested in a response to this.

There was indeed shady things going around in PRIDE, but thing is that Saku is a high respected fighter, be it from commentators or fellow fighters.

The Mezger affair was weird, but not unique back in the day. 3 months later, Saku was in the wrong end of a similar decision in the same tournament. After he fought Royce for 90 minutes (6x15min), he went on to fight Igor, who I think was the #1 ranked HW back then. He managed to handle Igor during most of the fight before starting to fade near the end, where Igor clearly took over. The fight was ruled a draw, and the refs asked for a tie-break extra round. But Saku was exhausted by then and the corner threw in the towel.

For the Gracie hunter title, maybe he wouldnt have got it if not for the Mezger case, but history isn't written with IFs. He beat 4 Gracies in his PRIDE run, 3 by stoppage. I blieve he earned his nickkname, even if back then, he was nicknamed "the IQ fighter" because he would always find something out of the box that would make him hang there with way bigger and stronger fighters

 

[chaos_36]

I showed this comment to my BJJ coach after we rolled today and he looked at me without even cracking a smile and said, "Terrible analysis, Maia gets chopped to shreds before the dropkick even gets thought of. If the Colby guy had success on the feet then Saku demolishes him effortlessly. Probably dives on a sub after he's rocked to add a feather in his cap." Gotta love when a 66 year old man and life long JJ player refuses to go against Sak. That's the impact he made!

Haha. I like the sound of your coach.

 

[Polish Punisher]

Lets put it this way, it took saku 90 minutes to beat royce, in a gi.

Do you have any idea what would demian do to royce?

My guess is you were not around when the 2000 GP happened, you were probably 4 like most on this forum. Saku purposely chose to embarrass and dominate Royce because the Gracies with their typical bullshit request special rules for the fight. Royce and his brothers managed to get Pride to allow him to fight in a tourney with a different rules set from all the other fighters competing. The Gracies requested a special no time limit clause in the fight(becuase there are no time limits in a street fight yet they wont allow small joint manipulation which any unskilled fighter can use to neautralize BJJ) vs Sakuraba and as a result rather than finish Royce, Saku chose to mess with him and slowly beat him down until he forced Gracies to throw in towel and quit.

 

[Towerworld]

You dont know what your talking about then

Saku in his prime was 184lbs with a little pudge on his love handles. His ENTIRE career aside from fighting the Gracies was vs much bigger fighters including Belfort, Silva, Crocop, Arona, Noguiera, Randleman, Rampage, Igor, etc. He sustained more damage over his career than any fighter I've seen.

The guy was literally brutalized over the course of his career.

Who did Aldo ever fight that was a top 5 fighter in a weight class or even 2 weigh tclasses above him except that one time he fought Mcgregor and got starched in 13 seconds and his two beat down suffered at the hands of Holloway? And lets be honest Aldo and Mcgregor both probably walk around at 170 so that fight doesn't really count as Aldo vs a bigger opponent

He did lose to all of them though. Sakuraba was a great, exciting grappler but Conor or Aldo likely KO him first round.

 

[SomniumRabidum]

He did lose to all of them though. Sakuraba was a great, exciting grappler but Conor or Aldo likely KO him first round.

He beat 3 of the fighters listed in that discussion you're having: Randleman, Vitor, and Rampage.

 

[gono btw]

He did lose to all of them though. Sakuraba was a great, exciting grappler but Conor or Aldo likely KO him first round.

Ya know...when ya dont know shit about somethin´... Jus´:

 

[gono btw]

There was indeed shady things going around in PRIDE, but thing is that Saku is a high respected fighter, be it from commentators or fellow fighters.

The Mezger affair was weird, but not unique back in the day. 3 months later, Saku was in the wrong end of a similar decision in the same tournament. After he fought Royce for 90 minutes (6x15min), he went on to fight Igor, who I think was the #1 ranked HW back then. He managed to handle Igor during most of the fight before starting to fade near the end, where Igor clearly took over. The fight was ruled a draw, and the refs asked for a tie-break extra round. But Saku was exhausted by then and the corner threw in the towel.

For the Gracie hunter title, maybe he wouldnt have got it if not for the Mezger case, but history isn't written with IFs. He beat 4 Gracies in his PRIDE run, 3 by stoppage. I blieve he earned his nickkname, even if back then, he was nicknamed "the IQ fighter" because he would always find something out of the box that would make him hang there with way bigger and stronger fighters

It was all about...6 lbs...

https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/...de-ow-gp-mezger-those-infamous-6-lbs.3899881/

 

[JustOnce]

He did lose to all of them though. Sakuraba was a great, exciting grappler but Conor or Aldo likely KO him first round.

Is this guy retarded

 

[gono btw]

but Maia is a better fighter in every aspect.
.

You´re obviously reachin´here...

 

[brokenjaw]

Wasn't prime Saku a ww or even a lw by today's standards? Maia's jits+weight could do the trick against Saku.

 

[gono btw]

Are you trying to suggest that Royce’s competition was as athletic or as skilled as Maia’s?

I feel like Maia would have been more competitive against the Matt Hughes (who, in his prime, remains legitimate in any era) that fought Royce... and would have very handily defeated everyone Royce beat.

How would Royce have fared against Maia’s UFC opponants?

Irrelevant fight. Hoyce was 40 yrs old.

 

[gono btw]

Wasn't prime Saku a ww or even a lw by today's standards? Maia's jits+weight could do the trick against Saku.

SAKU started as a FW, then his promotor asked him to bulk up.
He fought historically @ 183 lbs.
And..oh... After the Vitor Gracie [205 lbs] fight, SAKU had the audacity to say that he wanted someone 'stronger'.

 

[gono btw]

Maia has awesome top control and smothering transions. He is like a glue once you have you on ground or holding. Maia has enough wits to stay of subs. I dont see how Saku could win. The game evolved too much from the time Saku fought.

If the game evolved that much, it forgot about poor Maia, for sure...

 

[Mob69]

Sakuraba by decision.

Or kimura and controversial referee stoppage!

 

[loyalyolayal]

SAKU started as a FW, then his promotor asked him to bulk up.
He fought historically @ 183 lbs.
And..oh... After the Vitor Gracie [205 lbs] fight, SAKU had the audacity to say that he wanted someone 'stronger'.

Did he started at FW? I'm trying to google what weight he competed at in freestyle when he was in uni and couldn't find shit on wiki. He would be a tall ass FW at 6 ft.

 

[gono btw]

Did he started at FW? I'm trying to google what weight he competed at in freestyle when he was in uni and couldn't find shit on wiki. He would be a tall ass FW at 6 ft.

He did. There was a video and a thread about it last year...I mean, 2017.

 

[tenniswhiz]

Wasn't prime Saku a ww or even a lw by today's standards? Maia's jits+weight could do the trick against Saku.

Yes, he was probably a LW by today’s standards.
He never had visible abs.
He didn’t diet or cut weight.
His average weight during his prime was 183.

Today’s WW are bigger.

 

[Cooliox]

Are you trying to suggest that Royce’s competition was as athletic or as skilled as Maia’s?

I feel like Maia would have been more competitive against the Matt Hughes (who, in his prime, remains legitimate in any era) that fought Royce... and would have very handily defeated everyone Royce beat.

How would Royce have fared against Maia’s UFC opponants?

I'm saying Royce fought HWs with no gloves or sanctioning rules and protection.

The Royce who fought Hughes was way past his prime.... Royce was 40 with years of bare knuckle damage toll.

The real test a true martial artist, is to fight anyone in front of you regardless of size of rules... and that's what Royce did, and Royce came out on top multiple times.

Ngannou doesn't know any grappling, Maia would surely beat him right? Or Maia would beat Black Beast who also doesn't know any grappling nor is athletic? LOL gtfo... Maia can't even hang at MW, and can't even win the belt at WW.

Royce was open weight Champion. You guys are giving him way too less credit. The weight class era is bogus. There's no such thing in fighting.

 

[Cooliox]

The guys Royce was submitting had probably never heard of Brazilian jiu jitsu and were completely untrained in it. So Royce was able to use their complete lack of preparation to good effect. He got a guy to submit by passing his guard. So kudos to him for getting mount on Jimmerson, but a submission win over Jimmerson, while impressive in its time, doesn't add up to submitting a guy like Rick Story. Royce was a great pioneer, but Maia is a better fighter in every aspect.

So you can focus on size, but the critical issue when comparing Maia and Royce is the level of submission defense among their opponents.

Like I said, even guys like Black Beast and Ngannou don't know any grappling. Maia would surely beat them right?

No. He didn't even last at MW.

Royce beat super wrestler Ken Shamrock... who was MUCH bigger. Maia couldn't even hang with the wrestlers who were his size. Please... don't insist with this nonsense. Kimo was a NJCAA Football prospect till his injury.
Dan Severn, 2 time all-American.

Royce beat all these guys. Those were the beasts from his time, much bigger proper athletes and Royce submitted them. He didn't just stay on top of them for 3 rounds and win a decision. Know the difference.