Nostalgia vs. Reality: Kazushi Sakuraba

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.

When on top, Sakuraba had some original but not particularly punishing ground-and-pound, never stopping a single opponent in that manner. Instead, he attacked with submissions. He was a fantastic submission artist for his day, perhaps the very best in the sport for a while, though it's hard to see that approach working well now. Sakuraba was a master of wrist locks, which he used to set up his favorite technique, the kimura. There were a lot more kimuras in MMA back then, as well as the occasional Americana and keylock. Fighters today have more flexible limbs and are more agile on the ground. Thus, not only are modern fighters more liable to simply get back up to their feet when an opponent is in side control trying to set up the kimura, but even if an attempt is locked on, they're able to angle their body better to relieve the pressure. To be fair, Sakuraba also performed plenty of nice, tight armbars and even some fine kneebars over future UFC welterweight champion Carlos Newton and later, Zelg Galesic. Granted, fighters today are better defending armbars, and having more flexible arms helps there, too. Interestingly, while rear-naked chokes were a staple of MMA submission grappling then as now, Sakuraba notched just one win with that technique, throttling a young, raw Quinton Jackson at Pride 15 in 2001.

Off of his own back, Sakuraba never stopped attacking with submissions, but if they were defended, he was open to being beaten up with strikes. That even happened against Ricardo Arona, a foe hardly famous for inflicting big damage either standing or on top. On the feet, Sakuraba could deliver solid kicks, especially to the legs. These were not the bombs of a Pedro Rizzo—or Edson Barboza for younger readers— that did huge damage and could stop fights all by themselves, but they were decent shots with accuracy and impact. He occasionally tried to go upstairs with his kicks but those were typically blocked. Sakuraba had some defensive instincts, ducking and covering up well at times, important skills given that his own offense did not give them. His punches were, for most of his career, weak, untechnical and inaccurate.

Sakuraba, for all his originality, is a far more modern fighter than either Rizzo or Vovchanchyn. There is no successful high-level fighter today who uses the archetype of Rizzo, a passive counterpuncher who relied on power punches and leg kicks, with no jab. Neither is there a modern analog for Vovchanchyn, an undersized, aggressive striker who relied on an overhand right, with hardly any kicks. By contrast, there are plenty of good fighters nowadays who are skilled grapplers adept at both wrestling and submissions, with striking limited to leg kicks and some degree of defense. Their wrestling and submissions may be better, but the approach is the same and still effective.

There are two interesting hypotheticals regarding Sakuraba. First, would he have done much better if he had cut weight and competed at 185 pounds or even 170 pounds? Let us examine some of the elite fighters of the day in those divisions. Sakuraba defeated the 21-year-old Newton by submission at Pride 3 in one of the promotion’s greatest grappling duels. Three years later, a significantly improved Newton choked out Pat Miletich to win the Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight title. I believe Sakuraba had improved from 1998 to 2000 and would have likely beaten both Miletich and Newton. He was an overall better grappler than either man and I don't see them keeping it strictly standing, not that either Newton or Miletich would have much, if any advantage there.

However, Sakuraba would not have had the same luck against the third and greatest of the UFC’s early welterweight trio, Matt Hughes. One of the very best wrestlers of his era, Hughes was also an outstanding submission grappler. Royce Gracie was better in 2000 at the age of 33 than in 2006 at the age of 39, but it says a lot that Hughes took him down with ease and broke his arm with a kimura before demolishing him with punches, while Sakuraba had to win an exhaustive hour-and-a-half grappling war. I see Hughes taking Sakuraba down and beating him with ground-and-pound, just like he did to Newton in their second fight.

I also believe Sakuraba would have lost to middleweight counterparts Murilo Bustamante and Dan Henderson. Despite his Olympic credentials, Henderson could be outwrestled, but only by wrestlers who were much bigger or better than Sakuraba, like Ricardo Arona or Jake Shields. Failing that, the Japanese legend would have been forced to rely on a Hail Mary submission of Henderson, which seems unlikely. Bustamante would have been a particularly bad match-up, being a fantastic grappler in his own right and a much better striker than Sakuraba.

The second hypothetical is how good Sakuraba could have been if he had trained at a top camp. Recall that in 2005, Sakuraba spent just a few weeks at Chute Boxe prior to his fight against Ken Shamrock. Yes, Shamrock was washed-up, but his striking had actually looked much better since coming back from WWE. He did a very nice job of sprawl-and-brawl against Kazuyuki Fujita, beating him up with punches, before Shamrock’s cardio failed him spectacularly. Shamrock even dropped Tito Ortiz in their first fight with a sharp punch. Yet it was Sakuraba who not only beat Shamrock but knocked him out in under three minutes—and keep in mind that the Japanese fighter was already 36. Recall that Sakuraba started out at the Takada Dojo, which literally didn't have a single halfway competent fighter aside from him. They didn't know how to grapple or strike down there. What if, beginning with the late 90s, Sakuraba had trained with Miletich, as bizarre and unlikely as that would have been? How about joining Bustamante and Arona at Brazilian Top Team? I genuinely think Sakuraba could have been an even greater fighter. Not only could he have developed at least competent boxing, but his leg kicks, wrestling and even his submissions would have been better as well. He also might have been able to add more useful muscle mass to his frame, not having to incur such large size disadvantages. Considering Sakuraba's tremendous natural aptitude for mastering techniques and his endless fighting spirit, we might be talking about a serious candidate for greatest fighter ever. Maybe he even beats Wanderlei Silva in this scenario, too. It is a real shame we never learned the answer to this, though the stint at Chute Boxe was a thought-provoking teaser.

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