#20: Kazushi Sakuraba
Kazushi Sakuraba was the definition of pound-for-pound.
A skinny kid who put on weight to try and become a pro wrestler, who then tried his hand at real fighting to show that formerly skinny pro wrestlers could beat anyone.
He didn’t beat everyone, but he would fight absolutely anyone. That skinny kid looked like a slightly round (if athletic) fighter in his prime, yet he fought powerful heavyweights known for knocking giants into the land of nod as much as he faced nimble grapplers of his own weight.
And that matters. Sakuraba fits into mixed martial arts the way Mickey Walker fit into boxing in the 1920s: fight anyone, regardless of weight, take the fight to ‘em, don’t give up unless you have absolutely nothing left or are lying prostrate on the canvas.
He also came out on top when the two strands of mixed martial arts progenitors squared off.
“Really, beating Royce is what put Sakuraba on the map”, said Dave Meltzer of ‘The Wrestling Observer’.
To know how significant that is, we need to know what map we’re looking at.
The Innovators
Before Saku (as he’s affectionately known) there was one major powerhouse in the sport of MMA, and it was not one man but a whole family.
Saku fought nearly all of ‘em. The best of the bunch, Rickson? He never fought Sakuraba, be it due to the death of his son, a lack of desire to keep fighting, or the want to not be embarrassed like the rest of his family had.
Because here’s the thing: Saku snatched arms like he was snatching candy from a baby. He did zany things to storied black belts, a daredevil improviser who threw himself in harms way in the hope he’d force a mistake.
Royler, the smallest of the fighting Gracie family, was first to take on the challenge. He was battered on the feet, with the fight being called off when Sakuraba had Royler dangerously deep into a kimura attempt.
In the excellent ‘Before a Fall: A History of Pride Fighting Championships’ by Lee Daly, UFC veteran Frank Trigg observed Royler’s condition the day after the fight.
‘He could barely walk. His legs were black and blue but his arm was fine. Sakuraba kept lighting him up and kept kicking him and kicking him’.
Royce Gracie, the older brother of Royler, took on the challenge, but on his own terms.
15-minute rounds, of unlimited quantity, no referee stoppages. A true fight to the finish, just like the old days of pugilism.
Family pride was strong with this Brazilian bunch and Royce was known as being difficult to bend, let alone break.
“I fight because I like it”, said Sakuraba before the fight, “I enjoy fighting, it’s a tough job though”, he continued.
Royce had never been legitimately beaten in an MMA contest. He had first came to light as the unassuming looking Brazilian boy in the first Ultimate Fighting Championship event, trouncing the field and making everyone wonder just where he—and the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu—had come from.
Opponents tried their best to get up to speed with Royce, experienced catch wrestlers like Ken Shamrock, and powerhouse wrestlers like Dan Severn, but the best they could ever manage was to (in Shamrock’s case) survive the distance and earn a draw. Severn had success in the fight and lasted over 15 minutes before succumbing to a triangle choke.
“I never retired and I have a lot of people I have to shut up over there”, said Royce.
Antonio Inoki was presented in the ring before the bout and had bouquets for both Royce and Sakuraba. Fitting then, that the bout would be as drawn out and physically taxing as his infamous bout with the great Muhammad Ali (which some see as an precursor to MMA). Leg kicks would also be the primary weapon in the fight, although this time it was less the man on his back utilising them but the man standing over him, patient, cunning, playing the long game.
The long game the Gracies wanted, let’s not forget.
Royce attacked the legs early, Sakuraba attacked with a kimura. Whereas Royce had surprised many of his early opponents by being far advanced than they were in the art of grappling, against Sakuraba he came up against a man who welcomed being attacked, and who was as well versed in the art of catch wrestling as Royce was in his family trade.
But this bout was more important than Sakuraba versus the Gracies. This was the two strands of MMA facing off, the Japanese wrestlers of the UWF such as Masakatsu Funaki and Nobuhiko Takada (both mentors of Sakuraba) who first wondered what their ‘strong style’ wrestling would look like in legitimate shoot scenarios and came up with Pancrase, and the Gracie family who had taken part in challenge matches and Vale Tudo bouts and most famously had kickstarted the UFC.
And Sakuraba had came out on top. Gracie, unable to implement his game, went to ground often, and found Sakuraba smart enough to pick his spots. The main arsenal seen in the fight was not the ground game of either man but a steady stream of strikes fed down from the top from a standing Saku to a prone Royce, who was eventually pulled out, battered. No wonder then that if any pioneer was to make this top 20, it would be Sakuraba: when the two strands of mixed martial arts’ early days met, it was older men being trounced by those closer to their prime, such as Royce’s older brother Rickson when he beat Sakuraba’s mentors Funaki and Takada at the earliest Pride FC events.
When it came down to to men who were closely matched, arguably with more to their resumes in ‘real’ fighting than the aforementioned, Sakuraba got the job done. Royce’s brother Renzo, perhaps the most well-rounded of the Gracie family in terms of Mixed Martial Arts competition, also tried and failed, his grit and stubbornness only getting him as far as a dislocated arm.
“To be honest I enjoyed that moment”, said Renzo of the fight-ending kimura. “I saw the ligaments going and I heard them, one by one, giving way. And I embraced that as punishment for the mistake I had made”.
“Kazushi Sakuraba was a stone in our shoes”, Renzo would tell fight scribe Jonathan Snowden in’Total MMA: Inside Ultimate Fighting’, an excellent work covering the early days of the sport. “He was one of the most amazing fighters to ever come from Japan and most amazing was his ability to play smart. He was able to adapt himself and to figure out ways to break his opponents”.
He was unable to break Ryan Gracie, perhaps the all-around toughest of the Gracies. A notorious street fighter and brawler, he was reduced to an ineffective boy getting a (literal) butt-spanking at the end of his fight with Sakuraba.
A big tick in the box for the Japanese style. Royce Gracie would later turn the trick on Sakuraba, but was found to be using performance enhancing substances after the fight. Sakuraba was clearly the man when it came to fighting the Gracie family.
It’s easy to forget though that there’s more to legacy of the man known as ‘The Gracie Hunter’ legacy than just that though.
If you needed more proof
Aside from beating hot-and-cold (but talented) Kevin Randleman—and another significantly larger opponent—Sakuraba also beat three future UFC champions.
First grappling whizkid Carlos Newton via kneebar in an exciting back-and-forth battle with scrambles aplenty. Newton later won the UFC welterweight championship with one of his less impressive manoeuvres: an old-school playground headlock which forced renowned experimenter Pat Miletich to cry ‘Uncle’.
Vitor Belfort was then mainly known as the heavily muscled wunderkind who destroyed everyone en route to winning a UFC heavyweight tournament. Sure, he had lost to Randy Couture, who had tired him out and beaten him down, but had bounced back by wasting Wanderlei Silva in 44 seconds. He tried his patented rushing attack against Saku, but the Japanese displayed his legendary resiliency and fought through it, winning the majority of the bout on the feet, confounding Belfort with his jazzy style and forcing him to fight at a pace he didn’t like. A unanimous decision win for Sakuraba.
The toughest of these future UFC champs was undoubtedly Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson. He had his way with Sakuraba early on, dumping him on his head frequently, the same slams which would later lay out Pride FC champion Ricardo Arona.
If you hadn’t guessed already, Saku toughed it out. After a little over five-and-a-half-minutes, he had Jackson’s back, and from there it was a formality: the junkyard dog with knockout power and the devastating slams tapped out.
In name and performance, it’s an excellent win for Sakuraba. But as Jonathan Snowden wrote in the aforementioned 'Total MMA: Inside Ultimate Fighting’ Rampage was only brought in as he was ‘thought to be easy prey’ and that ‘he would be nervous’. After the fight he was seen as the best person to take on the UFC when they sent Chuck Liddell over to prove once and for all that their brand of MMA was superior, just as Sakuraba ended any notion of the Gracie’s being top dog.
Rampage would build his own legend in time then, but when Sakuraba beat him he was just a prospect.
Saku famously never got one over on the troglodytic Wanderlei Silva (who also bested Jackson in the Pride ring) but perhaps the fight that perfectly encapsulates Sakuraba was a defeat.
Ukrainian monster Igor Vovchanchyn has a solid shout as being the hardest puncher in mixed martial arts history, a short and stocky kick boxer who felled giants with a single punch from either hand. 41-2 (1 no contest) with only four of his opponents managing to hear the final bell.
Kazushi Sakuraba should not have even been in the same ring as Igor Vovchanchyn.
That he was in the ring with him the same night as his epic victory over Royce Gracie is even more insane. Yes, insane. That’s not hyperbole.
After a spirited first round, Sakuraba was wisely retired from the contest, which would have gone into overtime due to the tournament format. He had taken more punishment in that 15-minute spell than he had in 90 minutes with the legendary Royce Gracie.
Lee Daly, author of the aforementioned ‘Before a Fall’ puts it perfectly: ‘a spirited effort that was equal parts death wish and legendary achievement’.
That is exactly why Kazushi Sakuraba belongs amongst the top 20.