Profile of Kazushi Sakuraba on Famous Like Me

Kazushi Sakuraba
Statistics
Height	6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Weight	190 lb (86 kg)
Born	July 14, 1968
Town of birth	Akita Prefecture, Japan
Fighting style	Submission wrestling
Mixed martial arts record
Wins	17
By knockout	2
By submission	11
Losses	9
Draws	1
No contests	1

Kazushi Sakuraba (born July 14, 1968 in Akita Prefecture) is a Japanese professional Mixed martial arts fighter. He has had an accomplished career in the PRIDE Fighting Championships.

Biography

Early Years

A stand-out amateur wrestler in grade school and a collegiate champion, he originally debuted as a Western-style professional wrestler in 1993 in UWF International, and made forays into New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1996 as the two promotions were feuding. When UWFI folded, he joined its replacement, Kingdom, but after it closed after only a year, he joined Nobuhiko Takada, Naoki Sano, and others in creating a stable called Takada Dojo whose members would dedicate themselves exclusively to mixed martial arts fighting.

Sakuraba made his Mixed martial arts debut in 1997 with a submission victory over Marcus Silveira at UFC Japan, overcoming a weight deficit in the match to win by arm-bar submission.

PRIDE Fighting Championships

In 1998, Sakuraba started his career in the PRIDE Fighting Championships, defeating Vernon White with an armbar at the PRIDE 2 event. For several years, his imaginative and entertaining fighting style proved to be equally effective; in spite of a bodyweight that fluctuated in the low 180 pounds, Sakuraba remained at or near the top of the 205 pound light heavyweight division up until his loss to Wanderlei Silva in March of 2001. To date, Sakuraba has defeated such notable light heavyweights as Vitor Belfort, Ebeneezer Fontes Braga, Kevin Randleman and Quinton Jackson, placing Sakuraba amongst the most successful 185-pounders to compete at the 205 pound class.

Sakuraba has also been known for his often-humourus and light-hearted demanor. This can be evidenced in his ring entrances, which have featured everything from a masked Sakuraba accompanied to the ring by identically-costumed lookalikes to Road Warriors-inspired spiked football pads and facepaint, to the donning of a false mustache and red cap for a Super Mario Bros. homage.

The Gracie Rivalry

Sakuraba earned the nickname 'The Gracie Hunter' for his PRIDE victories over brothers Royler, Royce, Renzo, and Ryan Gracie. These victories were symbolic: the reverse ude-garami (arm entanglement, an armlock) technique that Sakuraba used to overcome Royler and Renzo was the same technique utilized by the well-known judoka Masahiko Kimura in 1951 to defeat the Gracies' father, Helio Gracie. Furthermore, Royler's loss to Sakuraba in 1999 constituted the first defeat of a Gracie at Japanese hands in nearly five decades since the bout between Kimura and Gracie. Sakuraba's fight against Royce, the second in the encounter with the Gracies, lasted 90 minutes, ending only when Royce's corner threw in the towel.

Incidentally, many of the Gracies' wins against Japanese competitors in the years prior to the Royler-Sakuraba contest were over members of the UWFi stable of which Sakuraba was part, including Naoki Sano, Yoji Anjo and Sakuraba's mentor, Nobuhiko Takada. Therefore, Sakuraba's victories over the Gracies may be seen as making up for his teammates' losses. Despite the professional rivalry, Sakuraba has not pubically displayed animosity against the Gracie family. In turn, aside from Royler who initially refused to accept his controversial defeat, the Gracies have consistently congratulated Sakuraba and treated him cordially after the matches.

Recent Years

Though Sakuraba was unbeaten through his first 9 bouts, recent years have seen an apparent decline in his ability to compete with the elite of the 205 pound class. After losing 5 of the 10 matches following his first defeat by Wanderlei Silva, Sakuraba then suffered a particularly devastating loss against Ricardo Arona at PRIDE's Middleweight Grand Prix event in June, 2005, during which his face became severely swollen and bloody due to repeated strikes from Arona; his corner stopped the fight after the second round. As such, some fans have suggested that Sakuraba either move down to a lower weight class in order to remain competitive or retire from MMA altogether.

However, Sakuraba stated in August of 2005 that he has no plans to move down in weight class while he still has areas in which he can improve and has no immediate plans to retire. In the same month, he started training at Chute Boxe Academy in Brazil, alongside Wanderlei Silva.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Kazushi Sakuraba