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. Although many of Takada Dojo's athletes maintained their pro-wrestling connections, its main emphasis was directed towards mixed martial arts competition.
There is some disagreement over which, if any, of Sakuraba's matches for Kingdom were legitimate shoots, mostly in regard to his win over Paul Herrera and his loss to Kimo Leopoldo. In any event, Sakuraba made his official mixed martial arts debut on December 21, 1997 at the UFC's Ultimate Japan 1. The match, fought against former Extreme Fighting champion Marcus Silveira, ended prematurely as Sakuraba attempted a single-leg takedown and the referee mistakenly believed Sakuraba had been knocked out. The fight was later ruled a no-contest and Sakuraba rematched Silveira on the same night, which resulted in a Sakuraba victory by armbar 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 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, Ebenezer 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.
Sakuraba versus the Gracies
Sakuraba earned the nickname "The Gracie Hunter" for his decisive PRIDE victories over brothers Royler and Royce Gracie, and brothers Renzo and Ryan Gracie. These victories carried with them large symbolic importance: the reverse ude-garami (arm entanglement, an armlock) technique that Sakuraba used to overcome Royler and Renzo was the same technique utilized by the most famous of Japan's judoka, Masahiko Kimura in 1951 to defeat the Gracies' father, Hélio 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 Helio. Sakuraba's fight against Royce, the second in the encounter with the Gracies, was also of historical significance, being Royce's first defeat in mixed martial arts after an undefeated run in the UFC as well as the longest match in modern MMA history at 90 minutes.
Sakuraba's significance to the UWFi-Gracie Rivalry
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 Gracie clan can arguably be seen through the lens of Sakuraba avenging his stablemates' defeats and perhaps re-establishing the legitimacy of the catch wrestling techniques they employed. At the very least, the Japanese sports media certainly painted his victories over the Gracies in such a light, referring to Sakuraba as the "savior" of professional wrestling and often implying that he had proven the efficacy of professional wrestling in a mixed martial arts environment (in Japan, professional wrestling enjoys greater regard as a legitimate competition than in the west and the wrestlers of the UWFi in particular were regarded as legitimately skilled combatants).
Recent Years
Though Sakuraba was unbeaten through his first nine bouts, recent years have seen an apparent decline in his ability to compete with the elite of the 205 pound class. After losing five of the ten 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. Upon completion of his training, he made his return to the ring to face Ken Shamrock. Three minutes into the bout, Sakuraba struck through Shamrock's guard with a left hand. Shamrock staggered back and ultimately fell into the ropes, his head hanging out of the ring, his back turned to Sakuraba. Sakuraba rushed in to follow up but before any meaningful offence could be launched, the fight was halted by referee Yuji Shimada. Shamrock sprang to his feet immediately following the KO and protested vigorously. Opinions have been mixed regarding the KO's legitimacy; Ken's brother, Frank, has stated he believed his brother was unconscious, while others, including former UFC 205-pound titlist Tito Ortiz, have come down on the other side of the debate.
On December 31, 2005, Sakuraba fought a Japanese opponent for the first time in his MMA career at PRIDE's Shockwave 2005 event. He defeated Ikuhisa Minowa by technical submission due to a kimura lock. His entrance included an homage to Razor Ramon HG.
