TOKYO, August 5 — Every once in a while an athlete comes along that transcends the very sport in which he or she participates, taking on a legendary, almost mythical status. Figures that come to mind are Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Alexander Karelin and Muhammad Ali.
To say that PRIDE is the house that Sakuraba built would not be a drastic overstatement. His quirky, humorous personality, not to mention his battles with the Gracies, really won him over in the hearts and minds of the fans here in Japan and around the world.
So synonymous was Sakuraba with PRIDE that it seemed inconceivable the two would ever part ways. However, the inconceivable did happen when back in May the “Gracie Hunter” left PRIDE for its competition, K-1 HERO’s, sending shockwaves throughout the industry.
This evening’s HERO’s event from the Ariake Coliseum marked Sakuraba’s first venture outside a PRIDE ring since the early years of his career. In his path stood RINGS Lithuania veteran Kestutis Smirnovas.
To say that K-1 wanted Sakuraba to win this one would be a huge understatement.
With all the hype of bringing Sakuraba into the fold, a loss would cause huge damage not only to the Japanese legend, but also to the promotion itself.
Akira Maeda (Pictures) must have been sweating a lot during this fight, because this, in fact, was what nearly happened.
After charging forward with his trademark flurries of wild punches early on, Sakuraba got rock by a hard punch from his Lithuanian opponent that sent the Japanese legend falling to the mat in the corner.
Sakuraba, with his head hanging over the bottom rope, looked barely conscious on the canvas. Smirnovas continued pelting the helpless Japanese fighter with hard punches to the head. With the crowd gripped in a nervous tension, the referee stepped in. At first it seemed like the he was stopping the fight, but with somewhat questionable motives the referee merely stopped the action and dragged them both away from the ropes.
If it were anyone else but Sakuraba in this situation, the referee would have called a stop to the fight there and then. It was this break in the action which gave Sakuraba a small respite and most likely saved him from an almost certain defeat.
Smirnovas continued to be all over the “Gracie Hunter” for the next few minutes, scoring the mount and pounding the Japanese fighter from the back. When Sakuraba amazingly got to his feet at the ropes he looked almost dead; he could barely move and ate some more shots from the Lithuanian.
Once again, at this point, if it had been any other fighter, the match would have been halted. Sakuraba was totally out on his feet.
The fight really slowed down from here, with Sakuraba just trying to survive and Smirnovas looking like he had used all his energy in the opening onslaught. Both fighters stood facing each other, moving very little.
In a classic come-from-behind scenario, with the fortitude that has defined his career, Sakuraba began to throw flurries at his exhausted opponent. The waves started slowly, but gradually grew in intensity as the Japanese legend landed more and more shots against the Lithuanian.
Smirnovas could now do nothing but cover up to try to avoid the blows, and at one point he even turned away from the attacking Sakuraba.
With the shoe now firmly on the other foot, and the RINGS veteran finding himself with no escape, Sakuraba put him to the floor with a barrage of punches. From here, the Japanese fighter took side-control, then got the mount and rolled over for armbar. Smirnovas attempted to bridge out of the technique, but to no avail and was forced to tapout at the 6:41 mark of the first.
While this was an incredible come-from-behind fight, Sakuraba really didn’t look great in this one, leaving one to wonder if his age and injuries have finally caught up with him.
The way in which the bout between world champion judoka Yoshihiro Akiyama (Pictures) and Seido Kaikan Karate fighter Taiei Kin ended was definitely the most bizarre incident of the night.
After a bit of clinch work at the ropes, Akiyama scored a trip takedown, getting all the way to the mount. From here, the judo champion fell to the side for the armbar.
Akiyama had it extended, but Kin was able to struggle from underneath Akiyama’s legs and throw himself over the top of his opponent to take pressure off the technique. Akiyama, who was on his stomach, still had Kin’s arm trapped underneath him. With the danger seemingly past, the referee came in and stopped the fight.
For a brief instant nobody knew what had happened, but as the referee waved to judges that the fight was over, neither Kin nor the fans could believe the call. Kin seemed to be past the worst of the technique and was in fact on top of his faced-down opponent. Boos rang out loudly from those in attendance.
This was a blatantly bad call from the referee — there was no way he could see what was happening under Akiyama. K-1 then tried to defend the official’s stoppage by announcing to the fans that the technique was tight. But the people in the stands still didn’t buy it.
With this dubious victory, Akiyama proceeds to the next round.
If nothing else, Crosley Gracie (Pictures) definitely has guts. After a last minute cancellation by Carlos Newton (Pictures) due to a torn ligament in his leg, Crosley, who was coming to Japan to corner his cousin Rodrigo Gracie (Pictures), stepped up to the plate and agreed to take on Dutch striker Melvin Manhoef (Pictures) on only 48 hours notice.
This one also turned out to be a bizarre fight.
Right from the start it was obvious that Crosley wanted to bring this one to the ground, while Manhoef desired a stand-up affair. Throughout the fight Crosley went for a shot only to fall to his back off failed attempts. Manhoef refused to follow Gracie down, instead backing away and forcing the referee to stand the action up.
This scenario continued throughout the duration of the bout, to the point that the obviously gassed Gracie would fall to his back whenever the Dutch striker touched him.
Despite the referee’s demands to Manhoef to “keep going,” the Dutch fighter largely backed away, forcing the referee to once again stand everything up
Soon the crowd began to express its displeasure the fighters’ unwillingness to engage.
Eventually Manhoef decided to follow Gracie down, where he unleashed blows from the guard. Towards the end of the round he passed Gracie’s guard in the corner and, as Crosley turtled away in an attempt to escape the punishment, rained down strikes.
With Gracie unable to mount any defense against the onslaught of strikes, the referee called an end to the bout at the 9:12 mark of the first.
In hands-down the most boring fight of the night, judo stylist Shungo Oyama (Pictures) squared off against Rodrigo Gracie (Pictures).
The majority of this fight played out with Gracie on his back and Oyama either kneeling or standing in his guard. Outside of that, there wasn’t much except the odd low kick every now and then. Oyama couldn’t pass Gracie’s guard and Gracie couldn’t get anything going off his back. Being on top, I would imagine the judges thought Oyama was the busier of the two, thus giving him the majority decision.