Someone just said imagine Hughes or GSP vs a prime Belfort then mentioned the fact that Sakuraba beat a prime Belfort despite being the clearly smaller man.... & he beat him hands down. :good
1. They were SMALL proven strikers... how can I get this thru your head, Sak is a MWT & punches & kicks harder than BJ Penn, maybe not in a p4p sense (debatable) but were talking h2h. 2. Vitor did break his hand, he broke it on Saku`s head after raining down on him with about 30 punches, Saku waited patiently then single legged him down to his home - the ground. Sak got him were he wanted BEFORE the hand became a factor, a win is a win, if he wasnt in there vs Sakuraba he wouldnt have broke his hand, it was a good performance by KS.
Where do I start with this **** ?... let me see.... Does the word PRIME exist in your vocabulary ? You tell me just how many losses & wrong end highlight reels Sakuraba was involved in before the age of 31.... NONE is the answer your looking for & this from a man who ALWAYS fought the best & ALWAYS fought LHWTs, sometimes MWTs, sometimes WWTs, sometimes HWTs but mostly LHWTs. GSP is still in his prime yrs, lets see what kind of form he brings to the table after the age of 30 & countless hard fights..... will you try discredit all the victories of the real GSP, the prime GSP by pointing out later losses that would never have happened ? The answer is NO, would you ****. Sakuraba is a legend of MMA & a top 5 p4per, GSP still has a fair bit to go before making such claims, I aint the delusional one pal. :thumbsup
BJ is a much harder puncher, it is not even remotely close. Saki has never landed a punch that could break an egg; Pavlik is smaller than ruiz, does that mean ruiz hits harder? Hunt is much larger than manhoef. Sak is "bigger", but he is flabby and could easily fight at welter if he didn't insist on portraying the typically childish charcter to the Japanese fans. He does not show up in shape and his physical preperation is flat out embarrasing Any supposed size advatage of sake is completly useless, he is not a profesional athlete, he does not prepare his body like a pro, and neither did any of the gravies. Compare that to GSP who is the pinaccle of profesionalsm and the most athletic fighter in the world. Sak is not bigger, he has no e of the advantages of being bigger; he is weaker, slower, out of shape, not prepared, no reach advatage, horrible power, horrible striking technique, horrible striking period, and a much much much worse wrestler. So he has no control of where the fight would go, zero to offer standing, and would have to submit from the bottom, something nobody has ever done to gsp; sakus guard game has never been his strength where gsp has the best top control in the world. Two ways for the fight to go; gsp easily prevents the takedown and just murders him on the feet like wandy did several times, or he smothers him on the ground beating him into a near coma lime arona did.
GSP will be do just fine after 31 because he takes care of his body and stays in shape year round slowing down the aging process. Sakuraba never trained hard and never evolved in the manner in which GSP has theres a difference between well rounded and a complete fighter that is these 2 guys.
I agree when Sakuraba fought, the financial gains were not so high as they are now, when Sakuraba fought in MMA he still worked as a pro wrestler to support himself. Sakuraba didn't really work on his conditioning and didn't have different coaches like GSP is doing. Sakuraba did not evolve because at the time he was good enough and the sport was developing. This is why i think P4P best ever MMA fighters is imposssible to make because the sport is still developing.
Time will tell... hard fights wear your body down too no matter how healthy you live or how much you train. Ps. Sakuraba trained EXTREMELY hard in his prime, he is shot to **** now tho.
Ssshhhhh We`re not allowed to mention that fight, Gsp wasnt well prepaired + he is flavour of the month after beating the LWT champion... he`s the greatest. Ive had a good laugh with this thread.
Can we mention Nino Schembri? You seem to have forgotten that when saying Sakurba takes a better shot.
Im truly starting to feel that you have mental problems. GSP was sparked by a PUNCH in his PRIME by Matt Serra... Saku was sparked by SEVERAL KNEES while being a fair bit PAST HIS PRIME. The Sakuraba you saw being stopped by Schembri is not the same guy that we are putting in there vs peak GSP, dont be crazy, Sak would get crushed.... its both guys at their best & Sak takes his arm back to Japan... too big to be man-handled & too good on the ground.
It was two fluke knockouts, the difference being Matt Serra is at least somewhat accomplished in MMA. This is rediculous, fine, Sakuraba beats everybody all the time for the rest of history, all of his losses were out of his prime or (insert excuse) and all of his wins were the greatest in the history of the sport because of (insert ridiculous grandstanding) Sounds like Tyson cult members.