Sakuraba: the time has come

Be it in boxing or MMA, the toughest decision a fighter will likely face in his career is making a determination that the time has come for him to call it a career. Boxing history is rife with top notch fighters that hung around too long, and in a sure sign that its matured as a sport MMA is now experiencing the same phenomenon. At DREAM.4 it became apparent that the time to make that decision has come for Japanese legend Kazushi Sakuraba. 

Despite the recent explosion in the sport’s popularity, the United States MMA scene doesn’t really have anyone of comparable status to Sakuraba in Japan. He’s credited for helping the nascent sport of mixed martial arts emerge from Japanese professional wrestling as well as for making MMA a ‘major league’ sport in Japan. Sakuraba is also considered by many to be ‘pound for pound’ the greatest Japanese MMA fighter ever, with some suggesting that he transcends the national qualifier and should be regarded as the ‘pound for pound’ best fighter in the brief history of the sport. A legendary series of matches against various members of the Gracie family further elevated the status of MMA in Japan and in the process made Sakuraba a superstar. In particular the 90 minute long battle against Royce Gracie at PRIDE’s 2000 Grand Prix tournament is frequently cited as the greatest match in MMA history. He’s also considered the best box office draw in Japanese fight sports of the past decade, which is part of the reason that he’s been persuaded to stick around arguably longer than he should have. He’s not only Japan’s greatest MMA fighter, but one that to this day still puts ‘butts in the seats’.

While Sakuraba’s resume certainly justifies the reverence with which he’s held by the Japanese fight community, he’s not really done anything to build on that legacy for several years. His last truly significant victory was a submission win over current UFC light heavyweight champ Quinton “Rampageâ€? Jackson and his last victory over what can be considered a quality opponent in his prime was against Kevin Randleman in late 2003. 

Boxing experts often evaluate fighters as being ‘young’ or ‘old’ for their age. A fighter whose career has been mostly comprised of knockouts or other easy victories against uninspiring opposition would be described as ‘young’ for his age. Conversely, a competitor that has been through many grueling fights and ‘wars’ against top notch rivals is often judged to be ‘old’ for his age. Perhaps the best recent example of a boxer that was ‘old’ for his age is Erik ‘El Terrible’ Morales who retired late last year at the age of 30, having fought a series of epic battles with fellow Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera that left him physically and emotionally drained. As a result, boxing commentators often suggest that Morales was an ‘old 30’. 

Evaluated by a similar rubric, there’s no doubt that Sakuraba is an ‘old 38’. The 90 minute confrontation with Royce Gracie alone likely took a significant physical and emotional toll, and after that Sakuraba continued to fight the best level of opposition in the world. Furthermore he’d frequently find himself across the ring from much larger superstars, his popularity and fearlessness producing matchups that could never get sanctioned in the US but are commonplace in the ‘wild wild west’ environment of Japanese fighting. The quality of opposition he faced is staggering—Royce Gracie and several other members of the legendary family, Wanderlei Silva, Mirko Cro Cop, Vitor Belfort, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira stand out as the most impressive names on his record. Unfortunately and not surprisingly, he had difficulty when stepping up in class against heavier fighters and most of these matchups resulted in losses by brutal knockout or other type of stoppage.

Sakuraba’s fighting style made it obvious that he’d eventually experience a precipitous and quick decline in his competitive skills. Sakuraba was an excellent wrestler and submission artist, but his primary weapons were his insane workrate, amazing conditioning and often unorthodox tactics. He was an early prototype for top competitors of today such as Clay Guida and Urijah Faber, both fighters who overwhelm opponents with their energy and conditioning as much as with their considerable technical skills. Clearly a fighter of this type doesn’t have the physical skills at age 38 that he did at age 28, and for someone who is an ‘old 38’ like Sakuraba the erosion of his ability has been even more significant.

Due to his financial importance to the promoters he works for, however, great pains have been taken to program him in a matter that allows Sakuraba’s decline as a fighter to be concealed as much as possible. That’s how he’s been able to amass a record of 9-4 since the Randleman fight: he’s been matched up against other aging superstars and pitifully overmatched neophytes. The seeding of the DREAM middleweight GP tournament is a perfect case in point as everything was done to guarantee an easy path for the aging legend. Sakuraba was placed in what was obviously the weakest bracket and in a tournament that purported to feature the best in the world at the weight he somehow ‘drew’ a first round matchup against Andrews Nakahara. Nakahara is a standup specialist, and the opening round match at DREAM.2 was his MMA debut. Not surprisingly, Sakuraba dominated his inexperienced foe and advanced to the next round with ease. Unfortunately, the promoters couldn’t protect him from Melvin Manhouf who was underestimated by just about everyone. Manhouf needed just 90 seconds to knock out Sakuraba and in the process threw a high kick that broke his opponent’s arm. 

Ironically, the Japanese cultural tendency toward respect for age and experience has served to keep Sakuraba active as a fighter well past his prime. In the US, when a fighter has clearly stuck around for too long he invariably receives a wakeup call from the fight sport marketplace; TV networks no longer want him to fight, PPVs featuring him no longer sell and fans no longer buy tickets. This simply doesn’t happen in Japan, where it would be seen as ‘disrespectful’ to Sakuraba’s legendary status and vast experience to not show up to cheer him on. For that reason alone, Sakuraba could keep fighting in front of sizable crowds until he was physically unable to continue in the sport. Frighteningly, in Japan’s largely unregulated fight industry there’s few safeguards in place to keep that from happening.

The brutal loss to Manhouf may have provided the ‘wake up call’ to Sakuraba that the fans would never think of giving him. Not only did Manhouf beat him with ease, but the aforementioned blocked kick resulted in an unlar fracture of the left forearm. Though initial indications are that its not particularly severe, this type of fracture frequently requires a surgical stabilization of the forearm. Obviously any potential loss of stability in this part of the body is very dangerous for any MMA fighter and particularly one who relies on groundfighting and submissions. From the tone of his comments upon leaving the hospital after the diagnosis Sakuraba may finally be accepting the inevitable end of his fighting career. While he was equivocal about his long range plans he did say that he was going to take some time off to let his injury heal and think seriously about the future. Hopefully he’ll realize that its time to close the book on a career that few, if any, in the sport can rival and that by continuing to fight he’s tarnishing his sterling legacy and putting his physical well being at risk.

Hopefully he’ll realize that his time has come.