GSP v SAKURABA....... Who Wins ?

Sakuraba is a far superior wrestler than either Penn or Serra, they couldnt stop the takedown nor score any takedowns to put GSP in a bad position (on bottom or made to work from his guard)
Sak is also bigger than those 2 guys, he punches & kicks harder & as far as applying submissions in MMA fights I rate him higher than Penn & Serra.
(Straight grappling might be different, especially vs Penn but in MMA, Sak was a 10/10 submission specialist.)

If Sak doesnt submit or KO GSP, it could be a close one due to GSPs high workrate but I still think Sak would have scored enough dominant positions & strikes to take it on points.

A more difficult to call fight would be Sak v Andy Silva, GSP wouldnt beat Sakuraba IMO, Id probably back Sak v Silva never mind GSP.

 

Cro-cop was a full HWT & in those yrs was beating Josh Barnett 3 times & giving prime Nog & Fedor all they could handle + Sakuraba was giving a fantastic acount of himself before the doctor/referee stopped the fight because his eye socket was smashed to pieces & Sak still wanted to fight on.
Can you imagine GSP vs Cro-cop ?
1 kick & :dead for George, lets get real here.

To mention Manhoef`s name in order to discredit Sakuraba is like mentioning Berbick`s name to discredit Ali, the man is a complete shell of himself & should have retired many yrs ago, Im talking primes here, Sak would break GSPs arm in 2-3 rds.

 

It DOES matter that Sakuraba is a great wrestler & he IS on George`s level.
He had trouble taking Penn down when he was fresh in the 1st rd, Penn is MUCH smaller & NOWHERE NEAR as good a wrestler as Saku, once GSP keeps trying to get Sak down & cant, then tries to outstrike him & gets his thighs smashed up you will see him make basic mistakes of which Sak will take full advantage of, eventually Sak will get him to the ground & his black belt level BJJ skills will not be enough to stop Sak applying a submission after a few mongolian chops & solid punches.

Also... I wish people would STFU about the sport having evolved so much with training & nutrients, what a crock of ****, seriously, its not as if Saku fought in the ****in 50s, his prime was from about 98-01/02.
Thats like saying a prime Roy Jones couldnt compete now.

Sakuraba ALWAYS trained extremely hard in his prime... the man went an hour & a half with Royce Gracie then later that SAME NIGHT came out & had an even fight with HEAVYWEIGHT Igor Vovchanchan.

GSP has A LOT to do before he can be compared to Sakuraba IMO.

 

Obviously you havent seen a prime Sakuraba fight to utter such crazy statements.
I dont why you mention the 1st Serra fight, that only hurts your arguement, I probably wouldnt have brought that up as I feel Serra got plain lucky & the much better overall fighter lost that night.
GSP out-wrestles WELTERWEIGHTS because he is always the much stronger man, Sakuraba would play with GSP, prevent the takedowns & destroy GSPs thighs with kicks, GSP would get the better of the punching IMO but would take a fair few himself & harder ones at that.

How do you know GSP has better stamina than Sakuraba, the guy fought for 90mins then came out & fought another 15mins vs someone that much bigger & stronger that it would never be allowed in UFC even in a one-off fight never mind a tourney.

When GSP comes up against an opponent that can take him a solid 5 rd fight, then we can talk stamina, until then you cant compare stamina with a fighter of Saku`s stamina, he was always tip top shape in his prime.

You do know that Sakuraba used to beat BIG Lt-HWTs right ? as pride never had a Lt-HWT division.
GSP hasnt even proved he can hang with MWTs yet never mind Lt-HWTs.

Sakuraba`s wrestling pedigree is of an extremely high level, no way GSP manhandles him the way he did Penn, Serra, Toscheck & co.

Go watch Sakuraba vs......
Silvera, White, Newton, Goes, Belfort, Fontes Braga, the Gracies (Royce, Royler, Renzo, Ryan), Vovchanchan, Rampage, Wanderlei II, Randlemann, Nogueira, Cro-cop......
then we can try work out a plan for GSP to beat that version, I dont like our chances but we`ll give it a shot.

Maybe the nutrients & `modern` training will help :rofl

 

Quebec.....

1. If you had watched Saku in his prime vs those guys then I believe your opinion of him would be higher.

2. If you have seen those fights I mentioned, watch them again, you missed something.

3. When GSP starts taking Evans down in real fights, then we can talk.

4. Toscheck being a great college wrestler has got nothing to do with anything, I never said GSPs wrestling was bad, I said Sakuraba`s is better than you give him credit for.

5. That version of Machida was nothing to the more complete & just plain better version we see today, Machida would absolutely **** both BJ & GSP if they fought today.

6. Im not saying GSP have bad stamina, Im saying Sakuraba proved his stamina more than GSP has til this point, lets see GSP in a real tough distance fight & get confirmation of what you (& I for that matter) believe, that GSP has great stamina.

7. Sakuraba by armbar rd 3 over GSP, this wouldnt even be Sakuraba`s toughest win.


Ps. The sport has went thru some evolutions but I dont see that it has improved THAT MUCH that a well rounded, well conditioned guy like Sakuraba wouldnt be able to be just as strong a force now as he was then, no way, not enough yrs have passed to make such a claim & Ive been watching MMA for about 10 yrs + seen about 95% of the fights that happened before I started following it.

:good

 

I seen Carlos Newton take Dan Henderson down aswell but he didnt keep him there just like he didnt keep Sakuraba there & 1 takedown doesnt make you a better wrestler, its a fight, stuff happens.
Sak likes to give his back, he loves the high level BJJ guys trying to sub him from that position then he goes for his own sub`s.
I do BJJ & usually when even a purple belt has your back its game over, Sak used to give the ****in GRACIES his back & never came close to being submitted.
Renzo Gracie gave GSP his black belt, Sak nearly halved Renzo`s arm in 2 via kimura.

Saku`s submissions were a work of art, I think he takes GSPs arm back home to Japan as a souvenier personally but I know Im not gonna change your mind, I can tell by your name & avater.

:thumbsup