Opinions on Sakuraba's greatness seem to vary pretty wildly. Please vote, and explain your answer :bbb
Considering his ability, the style he managed to employ, the Gracies he beat (when their style was seen as pretty much unbeatable, at least very difficult to get a clean sweep) and the bigger guys he faced/beat, anywhere outside of the top ten is completely unacceptable IMO.
Depends greatly on what your judging, his actual level at his peak or his level compaired to rest of the sport at the time.
As an attraction he's an all time great - its likely that without him and his feud with the gracies Japanese MMA would never have gotten as hot as it did in the noughties.
It's always difficult placing pioneers from the dynamic formative days of a sport, especially when they outstay their era well past their prime. At least with KS - unlike, say, John Sullivan - we have plenty of footage to look at of both him and contemporaries/opponents to place things in some sort of context. Still difficult, given the rapid evolution of MMA during and since that time.
He's too significant to the sport to rank him any less than 3rd All time in my eyes. Much of what we see in todays MMA is because of Sakuraba. He truly epitomises the word "Pioneer" in MMA.
Despite an unorthodox (read: below average) stand-up game his grappling/sub game is still amongst the sickest ever seen. A prime Saku would not be overwhelmed by any of today's middles IMO.
People say he's over-rated because he has taken some losses. One thing though, look at his size, and look at the guys he fought. He appeared to be smaller than Wand, who is considered small framed for something like a light heavy/middleweight He had no caution, went in there to make an entertaining fight. I think he would have done better had he gone into fights actually strategizing to win. Standing up with Wand was pretty insane at the time, but he did it.
I rank him 2-5 personally. Fedor is undisputed no1, only a blind ****** could argue otherwise... there are many great arguments for places 2-5 such as Wanderlei Silva, Kazushi Sakuraba, BJ Penn, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell etc... all have had amazing careers & are true legends of MMA. My choice would have to be Sakuraba tho if forced to pick a no2, here was a great wrestler that developed very good punching & even better kicks, he was arguably the most effective submittion fighter ever in MMA, he had the heart of a lion (there is just zero quit in this man, none at all, a true fighter at heart, born for it), he was a natural MW (180-85 lbs) that fought & decisively beat men that these days would not be allowed in the same cage/ring as him due to being `too big`... guys that these days would be LHWs (205 lbs) Also.... even tho Fedor is undisputed no1 due to his unbeaten run mainly, I feel a peak Sakuraba was a `better` p4p fighter but no-one is a `great` as Fedor including Saku. You only have to look at his prime yrs record (resume) to know he could handle the best fighters of today as a lot of them are still top fighters TODAY. Royce, Renzo, Ryan, Royler Gracie all clearly defeated (3 inside the distance as Ryan`s match was only scheduled for 10mins otherwise he`d have met the same fate no doubt, Sak played with him) Vernon White (armbar) Carlos Newton (kneebar) Ken Shamrock (KO, punches) Vitor Belfort (Clear decision) Rampage Jackson (rear choke) Kevin Randlemann (armbar) Ebenezer Fontes Braga (armbar) ...... are just some of the names Sakuraba has defeated, others larger greats such as Lil Nog in his prime barely squeezed by a past prime Sak on points. He also held his own vs HWs like Cro-cop (forced to stop due to retina damage even tho he didnt want to stop himself) & Igor Vovchanchin (Pulled out between rds shortly after going 90mins vs Royce Gracie on the same night & Sak was in control of Igor for the majority of that fight before exhaustion set in) Nothing wrong with being blown away by peak Wanderlei, especially when in the rematch he gave Silva an even fight when he fought the right fight (grappled) before having to be pulled with a dislocated shoulder. Sakuraba is to me easily a top 2-5 fighter & without question the greatest Japanese fighter in MMA history. :good
Yep, this ^ too. His ability to come out with moves never seen while in the heat of battle vs very good (& usually bigger) fighters is nothing short of outstanding. Take a look at greatness........ [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBtvfATml1s[/ame] Legendary !!!!!
I find MMA shouldn't be judged in ATG rankings, not for skill anyway, very few people from back in the day will measure up to an MMA fighter of today, but you still can't deny fighters like Sakuraba, Hughes or Gracie. MMA is too fast and evolving to pin down with ATG's that aren't recent, skillwise anyway.
