MMA History XXII: Catch Wrestling and Kazushi Sakuraba's Early PRIDE Run
by Nate Wilcox on Oct 4, 2010 4:09 PM EDT
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I'm returning to the MMA History mines with a very fun era: the unlikely rise of a Japanese professional wrestler as the greatest Mixed Martial Artist Japan has ever produced. I'm talking about Kazushi Sakuraba of course.
In previous installments, we've already looked at the emergence of Sakuraba at UFC Japan and even seen his was-it-MMA-or-was-it-a-work MMA debut against Kimo Leopoldo.
We also talked about the first PRIDE event which was headlined by Sakuraba's puroresu mentor Nobuhiko Takada losing badly to Rickson Gracie. The founder of PRIDE later said that had Takada won, he would have returned to puroresu and PRIDE would have been a one-time-only event.
Instead, PRIDE would go on to be the world's top MMA promotion for most of the following decade and Kazushi Sakuraba would emerge as the promotion's greatest star.
That would have been seen as an unlikely turn of events by fans familiar with Sakuraba's low man on the totem pole status in Takada's UWFi and Kingdom stables. Sakuraba was an accomplished collegiate wrestler before going "pro" but it was Kiyoshi Tamura who was seen as the rising star.
Sakuraba had turned some heads by winning a four man tournament at UFC Japan, but few expected great things from the undersized Japanese pro wrestler. Sakuraba's two fights in the same night -- originally the first was ruled a loss then ruled a NC setting Saku up for a win in the rematch against Conan Silveira -- seemed too weird. Personally I dismissed it as puroresu trickery, especially coming on the same card as Vitor Belfort's fishy submission win over Joe Charles.
But from PRIDE 2 in March 1998 to PRIDE 7 in September 1999, Sakuraba but together a string of fights against a string of highly regarded fighters that remain among the most delightful exhibitions of grappling ever seen in MMA. Along the way he beat Vernon "Tiger" White, Carlos Newton, Vitor Belfort, Brazilian Luta Livre ace Ebenezer Fontes Braga, UFC vet Anthony Macias, and tied Allan Goes. Most of those guys enjoyed at least 20 pound weight advantages over Sakuraba.
This was the rising star phase of Sakuraba's career, comparable to where Jon Jones is in 2010.
First up for Saku was Ken Shamrock protege and Pancrase veteran Vernon "Tiger" White. Here's 411 Mania talking about Sakuraba vs Vernon "Tiger" White from PRIDE 2:
Interesting comment from Quadros who says that this might be the most technical fight he has seen in MMA up to this point. I'm inclined to agree, as off of the top of my head at least, I can't think of a fight in the UFC, Pride or my admittedly limited Pancrase knowledge that matched this in terms of grappling. Had there been judges I think it would have been hard to score this round as both fighters got in good positions, Sakuraba had the submission threat but Vernon had the slightly superior strikes.
Starting with the win over Tiger White, Sakuraba caught the fancy of fans who were awed by Saku's blend of take down skill, the purest expression of catch-as-catch-can's approach to submission grappling, and effective kicking based stand up. See the fight here.
In the full entry, we'll break down Sakuraba's catch wrestling genius and look at lots of fights from this period.
Coming into PRIDE 3, Carlos Newton had a much bigger reputation than Sakuraba. Newton was fresh off a controversial decision loss to Dan Henderson at UFC 17 in the finals of a four man "middleweight" (200lbs) tournament. Newton had given Henderson everything he could handle on the feet and even gotten some take downs and reversals on the Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler.
But the positional philosophy that Newton brought with him from jiu jitsu proved to not have an answer for Sakuraba's catch wrestling. Sakuraba had been an adept student of Billy Robinson and to this day we've not seen anyone apply pure catch to MMA to such an extent. The full fight is a little further down the page.
From there, Sakuraba tied with Carlson Gracie student Alan Goes and then came face to face with "the Phenom" Vitor Belfort. Here's how 411 Mania summed up that bout:
Dominating performance from Sakuraba and he just completely took Belfort out of his gameplan and then took his heart. Quadros questions whether Belfort might have hurt one of his hands early in the fight because he stopped punching VERY early in the first round and that was about it. A big win for Sakuraba which served to legitimize him as a complete mixed martial artist, as opposed to just a strong grappler.
Sakuraba survived an early punching blitz from Belfort, during which Vitor likely broke one or both hands, then used his spinning back kick to the body to repeatedly hurt Belfort standing. Vitor spent most of the bout flopping to his back rather than exchange on the feet with Sakuraba.
After beating Fontes Braga and UFC vet Anthony Macias, Sakuraba would be ready for his first fight with a Gracie.
Now let's look at some fights.
Here's a brilliant break down of Sakuraba's PRIDE 3 bout with Carlos Newton, widely considered to be the most entertaining grappling bout in modern MMA history. This video makes a strong case that Sakuraba was by far the most accomplished exponent of a nearly pure catch as catch can approach to grappling for MMA:
Here's Sakuraba demo'ing a very catch wrestling neck crank applied after using the legs to roll a turtled-up opponent (makes me think of the old time catch legend Clarence Eklund who was known as the king of the "leg wrestlers" -- grapplers who used their legs like a second pair of arms to control opponents):
Newton vs Sakuraba the full fight at PRIDE 3, June 24, 1998 Part 1:
Sakuraba vs Newton Part 2:
HL of Sakuraba vs Vitor Belfort PRIDE 5 April 29, 1999
Kazushi Sakuraba VS Vitor Belfort HL
Here's Marco Ruas vs Gary Goodridge from PRIDE 2, March 15, 1998
This was an important fight as Ruas, the UFC 7 tournament winner, at the time had a big rep and an MMA record marred only by a boring decision loss and an even more boring tie against Oleg Taktarov. Ruas was coming in off a win over UFC veteran Pat Smith. Goodridge had KTFO'd Oleg so bad at PRIDE 1 that the Russian retired. So Ruas getting the win over the very powerful and dangerous Canadian kept him high in the heavyweight rankings.
Other notable fights from this period include Mark Kerr's frustrating string of fights in which a series of highly touted Brazilian heavy weights proved more interested in escaping the ring than trying to fight Kerr. Kerr's fights with Mestre Hulk, Pedro Otavio, and Hugo Duarte came after his two UFC tournament wins in which he didn't face a single credible challenger and barely broke a sweat.
Also RINGS fighter and Frank Shamrock training partner Tsuyoshi Kohsaka notched an impressive win over a then highly regarded Kimo Leopoldo at UFC 16. Watch that fight.
The Gracies, Royler, Renzo and Rickson were active in the early PRIDEs, but other than Rickson's marquee wins over Takada, none of their matches were that notable. The important thing was the Gracie legend remained untouched and no Japanese fighters were able to get a win over a Gracie. That would change.
Earlier installments:
XXII: Catch Wrestling and Kazushi Sakuraba's Early PRIDE Run
XXI: The Amazing UFC Championship Run of Frank Shamrock
XX: Kazushi Sakuraba and Frank Shamrock Emerge at Ultimate Japan
XIX: The Humbled PRIDE of Nobuhiko Takada
XVIII: The Losses of Luta Livre
XVII: The Lion's Den Roars
XVI: Rico Chiapparelli and the RAW Team
XV: Pancrase, RINGS, and Shooto 1996
XIV: Boom and Bust in Brazil
XIII: Coleman Gets His Kicks
XII: End of the UFC Glory Days
XI: Carlson Gracie's Mighty Camp
X: The Reign of the Wrestlers
IX: Strikers Attack
VIII: From Russia With Leglocks
VII: A New Phase in the UFC
VI: A Dutch Detour
V: The Reign of Royce
IV: Rickson Brings Jiu Jitsu Back to Japan
III: Proto MMA Evolves Out of Worked Pro Wrestling in Japan
II: The Ur-Brazilian MMA Feud: BJJ vs Luta Livre and the Style They Never Saw Coming
I: UFC 1 Pancrase meets BJJ
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I think the most underrated thing about Saku’s career were the peach colored spandex. Those things were fly as hell. Great piece Nate. I’d never seen the Saku/Vernon White fight, so I’m watching it now.
Catch can seems to be catching on a little bit more recently, or at least some of the things Saku used to do that I associate with catch can. The Diaz brothers sweep using standing kumuras like Saku used to, and for a while there the Team Alpha male guys would give up their backs in order to stand up from a grounded position. I seem to remember somebody doing it from the last WEC event, Varner maybe.
"I am a man who pisses largely and frequently, which they say is a sign of great mental activity" -Henry Miller-
Great stuff, as usual
When I first started reading Bloody Elbow, you did a lot of these in a short period of time. Good to see another one, finally.
I criticize because I love:
but few expected great things from an undersized Japanese pro wrestler whose same night loss NC then win against Conan Silveira in two fights in one night seemed too weird
Sounds weird, redundancy maybe?
Can we expect more of these in the near future?
"We should just concentrate on what we’re good at… Death Metal and interior design." – William Murderface
looking forward to them
"We should just concentrate on what we’re good at… Death Metal and interior design." – William Murderface
there were some nasty knees to the body
from Newton but for the most part they were just grappling on the ground. Keep in mind that it wasn’t until the Brazilians really brought ground strikes around that it was common to hit on the ground.
Follow me on Twitter @KidNate
Fixed
the unlikely rise of a Japanese professional wrestler as the greatest Mixed Martial ArtistJapan haseverproduced.
"Don’t quote old fucks to me" – Brent Brookhouse
by Chris Barton on Oct 4, 2010 4:53 PM EDT reply actions 3 recs
SAKU SAKU SAKU
"I am a man who pisses largely and frequently, which they say is a sign of great mental activity" -Henry Miller-
Of course YOU like a post
about the IQ Wrestler (=
"Someone is WRONG on the internet. What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!"
-Randall Munroe
by pdl on Oct 4, 2010 5:38 PM EDT up reply actions
Fantastic stuff
Excellent job thanks
I have for some reason developed a real interest in Catch, to the point I just started reading MS Hewitts book after you babbled on about in another post day Nate (for the billionth time), so far so good. This is a great post and that vid detailing the moves as Saku applies them was very interesting too. I doubt I’ll ever get to learn or practice Catch but I’ll be satisfied if I live to see a resurgence of Catch thanks to MMAs popularity.
Thanks for these historical articles thanks so much Nate I have no idea where else I would find the info, or where you get it for that matter!
I think its also reasonable to credit Saku with saving MMA in the dark ages.
After I rented all of UFC 1-10 from Block Buster I had no interest in MMA until I saw a highlight video featuring some crazy japanese guy in orange spandex. That led me to PRIDE, and the rest is history.
Great article, but a couple of minor corrections. You wrote “proresu” a couple of times, you meant to type “puroresu”. Also, this is a really minor thing and I doubt most people would notice, but it’s Allan Goes, not Alan Goes.
"Caol Uno was like Mutoh. He developed into a star overseas and then returned to his home country a much bigger deal. Dokonjonosuke Mishima is like Kobashi because they both do moonsaults. Don Frye is like Stan Hansen because they are both fat dumb rednecks with mustaches." - Jonathan Snowden
You know I respect Saku and his talent but there was alot of shady stuff going on with some of his fights that make me question just how good he was. I hope one day someone will find out just what the deal was with Pride and how much was on the up and up and how many deals were made to make some guys look better than they were.
"they mad at me, I keep going hard reppin/
cause what's your Rampage to Rashad Evans/"
-Joe Budden (Something To Ride To)
http://www.zshare.net/audio/76866807deabe3c1/
this is bullshit
Watch Sakuraba vs Wandy, Arona, etc.
The man has earned his cred.
I haven’t liked your commentary on any of our posts but this is just one toke over the line sweet jesus. You are banned.
Follow me on Twitter @KidNate
by Nate Wilcox on Oct 5, 2010 7:50 AM EDT up reply actions 3 recs
Saku is an all time great, especially during his time period… but in my opinion (and it’s been a few years since I have seen it) he lost the fight to Allan Goes. I remember Saku standing above him a lot doing nothing getting kicked in the face a lot, but this was on a card where there were no decisions. But if there had been judges, Saku would have lost.
That and Carlson Gracie insisted until the day he died that Saku – Belfort was a work, and he never again associated with Belfort after that match. I am not sure I agree, but it probably should be brought up (since Quinton Jackson taught us that Pride did do incredibly suspicious things with Sakuraba).
With that said, the man was supernaturally talented, and grasped grappling at a level so far beyond anyone else of the era. Watching his low single is such a thing of beauty. He was an absolutely amazing fighter in his day.
Goes probably would have taken a decision over Saku
but it wasn’t entirely one sided and Saku took the last round.
Belfort broke both his hands hitting Saku on the top of his head in the first 45 seconds. The fight makes sense once you understand that.
Follow me on Twitter @KidNate
What are some of the notable differences in catch wrestling’s approach to grappling as opposed to BJJ For example does catch believe in position before submission?
Google Ron Paul!
This question comes up a lot and it might be worth doing a fanpost on it to go into more detail or maybe an official story if, say, Barnett gets to face Werdum or if Megumi Fujii faces a top BJJ player in the near future in MMA. Fujii did lose to Kyra Gracie by armbar at ADCC in 2007 though there was a (officially) 10lbs weight difference, a really noticeable size difference and Fujii wasn’t as experienced in Catch imo. Gracie used pretty straight forward BJJ having a tight closed guard and working to separate Fujii’s arm and get it on the mat before attacking.
In a nutshell the differences between Catch and BJJ are more conceptual and strategy based as there’s a lot of crossover in technique though applied in different ways for different reasons. BJJ arguably comes from a Judo-Catch mix as Maeda took part in Catch wrestling bouts in Europe and America while trying to spread Judo, before settling in Brazil. Interestingly Maeda’s performances were better in the Gi then without it and often lost to Catch wrestlers when not wearing his Gi. It’s unclear whether the losses came by submission, pin, or even a flying fall if those were the rules. Maeda even had a ‘Pro Wrestling’ nickname given to him in Europe, “Count Koma”.
In terms of strategy and concept, I quite like this metaphor. BJJ is akin to a trapper who plays the patience game by setting a trap and maybe baiting it and waiting for prey to make a mistake and trigger the trap. Catch is akin to a hunter who actively seeks prey, flushes it out of hiding or into a bottleneck and so makes it make a mistake and react in a certain way that lends itself to a targeted kill. Which is more effective depends on the person executing it.
Position is important in both as a Catch wrestler is used to winning by pins as well as subs, though a Catch wrestler will take more risks then a BJJ guy to get a finish imo. The risks that are taken though aren’t at the expense of control, at least shouldn’t be.
is it correct to say
that positionally BJJ is more interested in controlling the hips and CACC wants to have 2 limbs on 1 limb control. That’s why watching Sakuraba vs BJJ guys it would always look like he didn’t care about position since he would give up his back to get 2 arms on 1 arm.
??
Follow me on Twitter @KidNate
Hip control’s important in both, but so is good posture. And good posture includes not letting the other guy control your head and off balance you. Good catch guys know the importance of leverage and isolating a part of the body to attack, and using mechanical strength rather then muscular strength (one is more efficient and less tiring then the other), but good BJJ guys like Damian Maia know this as well.
Classical BJJ has a very orthodox, linear ptogression – start in guard, pass guard, mount, take back. Catch is more free form where if you start in closed guard you could either break to pass, or break to attack the leg, or break to work a turnover and attack the back, and when you attack the back rather then look to get both hooks in (stretcher ride) like in a classic BJJ progression, you may look to get one hook in and Navy ride, or trap a lower leg and Ball&Chain ride, or break them down and work an offensive Par Terre game, or maybe even a form of kesagatame / reverse kesagatame on the back. There’s also reverse mount and reverse back mount.
It’s only in the last few years that BJJ guys, especially as they go to no-gi, have become more experimental and make leglocks a big part of their game. The BJJ today (or what they still call BJJ) is more akin to Catch then the Classical BJJ Rorion Gracie still believes in teaching. BJJ in its original form was more like classical music, and Catch was more like jazz in the sense once you understand the concepts and have fundamentals down (which are really wrestling fundamentals) you can improvise but maintain control. Japanese Catch to me seems less about control and more about scrambles which I have mixed feelings on. Fun to watch but not always strategically sound, but at least they are looking for a finish.
thanks nate
I never tire of reading about the man. good read.
Be water, my friend.
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