Why doesnt Japan have more high level talent like Sakuraba?

TheBulge said:
Sakuraba beat BJJ grapplers in a primitive era of MMA, and most of his big wins soon after has had people questioning the authenticity of the fights. Furthermore when the fights looked legit, he was brutally beaten to within an inch of his life over and over again.

So Japan probably has produced more Sakuraba's in modern times, they just did as good as he would have today. Which isn't very good.
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?????

Go ahead,tell us about how he didnt beat the gracies. Renzo's arm was Cgi'd to look like that?
 
becaause theres no Yakuza to fix fight for them in the UFC!
 
HHJ said:
?????

Go ahead,tell us about how he didnt beat the gracies. Renzo's arm was Cgi'd to look like that?
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I said he beat the BJJ grapplers(in other words the Gracies) and then he had some big wins later that were questioned. Learn how to read.
 
TheBulge said:
I said he beat the BJJ grapplers(in other words the Gracies) and then he had some big wins later that were questioned. Learn how to read.
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Why didnt they just have him win all the time then if they have to fix his fights?
I seem to recall Sakuraba was a MW in a promotion without a MW div and had to fight HW's and LHWs all the time.

Took alot of balls to do that. Seems like the act of a pampered darling who needs his fights fixed...dont you??

Yeah his skill were REALLY disproved when he lost to Crocop and Wanderlei,guys who outweight him by 50 lbs

sakuraba's_face_arona.jpg
 
Mma scene died down there after pride folded
 
Mesos said:
Aoki has lost every time he faced someone really legit: eddie, Giblert, Ben. I doubt he would have had a great career in UFC. Kyoji is the only one that was really legit, think it’s because he trained under a legit Karate master. But thats kind of my point, theres alot of martial arts schools in Japan why isnt there a ton of Kyojis running around the UFC?
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Aoki subbed Eddie in their first fight
 
HHJ said:
Why didnt they just have him win all the time then if they have to fix his fights?
I seem to recall Sakuraba was a MW in a promotion without a MW div and had to fight HW's and LHWs all the time.

Took alot of balls to do that. Seems like the act of a pampered darling who needs his fights fixed...dont you??

Yeah his skill were REALLY disproved when he lost to Crocop and Wanderlei,guys who outweight him by 50 lbs
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Fixing fights is a two way street, the other party must actually accept the terms. The word is, not everyone he faced accepted which usually resulted in the photograph you posted. You're asking questions I already gave the answer to.

Besides that there was plenty of corruption in officials bailling Sakuraba out in fights against Mezger, Schrembi, Goes etc. Even if you ignore the fixed fights aspect, he was not as good as his fans made him out to be. Even the old weight arguments, he looked average or worse against guys his size as well.
 
I think genetics has something to do with it as well...

If you watch boxing, you see a lot of high level Asian fighters, but you normally see them south of 130 lbs...

Unfortunately in the UFC the smallest weight class for males to compete is 125...
 
HHJ said:
Like who?
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Do you actually know anything about the guy's career or do you just cling on to circle jerks of fighters you happen to like?

You're not worth my time. Have a good one.
 
BabyBlue_Bomber said:
I think genetics has something to do with it as well...

If you watch boxing, you see a lot of high level Asian fighters, but you normally see them south of 130 lbs...

Unfortunately in the UFC the smallest weight class for males to compete is 125...
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I also feel like the cross training oppurtunities are limited. Harder to bring in guys from other countries to Japan..whereas Brazil,USA,and now Russia have it better in that regard.
 
It's a numbers game. Japan's population is only so large.
 
I don't think any of us would expected to see a Chinese fighter win a UFC belt before a Japanese fighter considering how new into the MMA game China is compared to Japan and Korea but it is what it is.
 
BabyBlue_Bomber said:
I think genetics has something to do with it as well...

If you watch boxing, you see a lot of high level Asian fighters, but you normally see them south of 130 lbs...

Unfortunately in the UFC the smallest weight class for males to compete is 125...
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Pity belts.
 
Sakuraba is awesomely talented. There hasn't been a super org in Japan in a while. Shows are still held but mainly host local fighters. There are probably lots of talented guys but we don't hear about them. When is the last japanese MMA show you seen? I believe MMA has gone the way of Sumo. It has a hardcore audience but it isn't as popular anymore.
 
MikeyB said:
It's a numbers game. Japan's population is only so large.
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Yes but think about this South Korea has half the population of Japan. Yet Korean fighters are doing better in UFC than Japanese fighters. Thats what the problem is, it makes no sense especially since Japan has such a strong martial arts history and culture. Plus they had Pride which was a huge MMA promotion
 
OliverAtom said:
I don't think MMA is that popular there anymore. Not like in the US where there's new gyms popping up everywhere. From what I hear you'd be hard pressed to find an MMA gym especially outside Tokyo.
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BC literally half of their population live near Tokyo
 
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