Who Is GRABAKA’s Takeshi Yamazaki And Why Is he Fighting In D.O.G.?
What is GRABAKA?
Masa Fukui Mar 9, 2005
Fukui: Now, you are team member of GRABAKA. How did you get
involved in this team?
Yamazaki: I was into grappling through Judo training right? Then I found that there’s such a thing called BJJ. Then I started go BJJ dojo called STRAPPLE, which is run by Naoyuki Taira. Back then, GRABAKA founder Sanae Kikuta [and] Yuki Sasaki were there to train with Naoyuki Taira. Then it didn’t take that long time for me to train with them.
Fukui: Then you just get involved from there?
Yamazaki: Basically yes. But, after a while, Kikuta-san and Sasaki-san left STRAPPLE, and started training by themselves at Shinjuku-Sports Center. But because I trained with them at STRAPPLE, I sometimes [would] go visit them to Shinjuku Sports Center, and trained with Sanae Kikuta and Yuki Sasaki or some other grappling maniacs. About the time I was becoming professional-SHOOTO fighter, I was looking for some other place I can train. I just wanted to leave there to see the outside of STRAPPLE Gym. Then GRABAKA people warmly asked if I want to join the GRABAKA. And they really welcomed me. And now here I am.
Yamazaki: Starting member of GRABAKA? Well, when Kikuta-san joined Pancrase he started with Genki Sudo, Eiji Ishikawa and another guy. That’s the start line. It was started from four fighters. At the same time, not as an official teammate, but as guys who train together, there were Yuki Sasaki, and Akihiro Gono. If I tell you the detail, at first Sanae Kikuta’s Grabaka is called “Pancrase GRABAKA.” It’s one of the PANCRASE team. On the other side, Yuki Sasaki and Akihiro Gono were fighting in SHOOTO. So their name was called “Team GRABAKA.” Even they train together. Team GRABAKA and Pancrase GRABAKA is basically [the] same team. It’s like one team has two different names to go fight in two different fight organizations. Well, I guess it’s complicated.
Fukui: I see. Sounds like it.
Yamazaki: Yeah, now Yuki Sasaki fights in Pancrase. Akihiro Gono fights in Pancrase, too. So I became the only member who fought under the team name “Team GRABAKA.” And I’m the only one who fought in SHOOTO from GRABAKA.
Fukui: So that’s why you can go fight in any show, like DEEP or now you’re fighting in D.O.G?
Yamazaki: Yes, because I don’t belong to PANCRASE, I can go fight in any fight promotion.
Fukui: That’s great. You got more chance to fight, eh?
Yamazaki: Yes.
Fukui: Now, GRABAKA became one of the strongest team in PANCRASE, right? Like the fight card of tomorrow’s Pancrase show. You guys send five fighters to that show. And the last four fights are match made with GRABAKA fighters. Or even those main three fights are called GRABAKA vs. Brazil. So tell us the secret of your team. How you guys could be such a strong team? Your team may not the best team ever, but definitely one of the best team. What’s the secret? Why does everybody become so good, and able to dominate the Pancrase show?
Yamazaki: Secret? I think everybody thinks differently about that secret point. But what I think is, everybody’s goal is very high. Every single fighter in this team set up their goal very high. And every single fighter thinks a lot to achieve their goal, then train really hard. We share those great vibrations from each other. Also, we recruit, we welcome only the fighter who has big ambition.
Fukui: You said everybody set their goal very high. It could be hard to explain but tell us, how high is it?
Yamazaki: It depends on fighter again. Yeah, hard to explain.
Fukui: Then how about yourself?
Yamazaki: Well, when I started training, I just wanted be stronger fighter, you know better fighter. But when I see Akihiro Gono earn the champion belt, or Kikuta-san earned the Pancrase champion belt, I want one of those belts. My record doesn’t look that good in SHOOTO. But still I want to earn one of those champion belts.
Fukui: In your weight category, how about “Hero’s” new fight promotion? When I was about to leave home today to come here for this interview, there was a TV show about this new fight show. And I almost skipped this interview because I wanted to watch that show. But would you like to join that show?
Yamazaki: Yes, off course. Recently those middleweight or welterweight fighters are featured a lot. It’s a very good momentum for me. So I’m happy with that atmosphere that Japanese fight organizations have right now. It was all about heavyweight, but now finally we’re featured for good. I’m very happy with this situation. Yeah, if I have a chance to go fight out side of SHOOTO, I’d fight in any organization. But it’s not like, I don’ like SHOOTO or anything. SHOOTO is my home. I’ve been fighting in SHOOTO since [I was an] amateur fighter. But just as my fight career, I’d fight anywhere.
Fukui: OK, so if there’s a guy who wants to be a pro fighter through GRABAKA, What should this guy should do? Let’s say, if he wants to join the GRABAKA professional team, then what should he do?
Yamazaki: At first he should come to night class. And train with everybody else. Then if his performance catches our eyes, we’ll ask him if he wants to come to daytime training, which is pro fighter training session. But it’s really tough. If that kid has only good technique, he won’t be recruited. If he has only strong heart, he won’t be recruited. The guy who has both good technique and heart will be asked. Because we know that, they need both technique and strong heart to train with professional team.
Fukui: So what is pro-training atmosphere here? The pro-training atmosphere here is very different from nighttime training right?
Yamazaki: Yes, very different. Everybody is super-serious off course, and we roll much longer time.
Fukui: How long do you usually set the time clock?
Yamazaki: Usually eight minutes at a time and usually one person rolls three times back to back. But at the same time, we don’t train for long hour/empty training. We train in short time, but it’s a solid training.
Fukui: What is like training routine? I don’t know if I can ask this much, but is that like two hour grappling and one hour striking? Something like that?
Yamazaki: Basically we have grappling day and striking day. Three days grappling, two days striking. Our training is mostly sparring. After we finish sparring session, we just do anything we want to brush up. We usually gather up this gym at 3 p.m. and train until night class starts.
Fukui: So who’s the instructor? Dose anybody comes to teach you guys?
Yamazaki: About grappling, everybody’s kind of specialist. So we teach each other. Some guys are really good at wrestling. So these guys teach wrestling to the other guys. About striking, Gono-san often teaches us the striking technique. We have boxing trainer here, but it’s not that often, but once in a while.
Yamazaki: I was into grappling through Judo training right? Then I found that there’s such a thing called BJJ. Then I started go BJJ dojo called STRAPPLE, which is run by Naoyuki Taira. Back then, GRABAKA founder Sanae Kikuta [and] Yuki Sasaki were there to train with Naoyuki Taira. Then it didn’t take that long time for me to train with them.
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Yamazaki: Basically yes. But, after a while, Kikuta-san and Sasaki-san left STRAPPLE, and started training by themselves at Shinjuku-Sports Center. But because I trained with them at STRAPPLE, I sometimes [would] go visit them to Shinjuku Sports Center, and trained with Sanae Kikuta and Yuki Sasaki or some other grappling maniacs. About the time I was becoming professional-SHOOTO fighter, I was looking for some other place I can train. I just wanted to leave there to see the outside of STRAPPLE Gym. Then GRABAKA people warmly asked if I want to join the GRABAKA. And they really welcomed me. And now here I am.
Fukui: OK, now, we pronounce the word GRABAKA a lot already in this
interview. But I think fight fans overseas don’t really know about
GRABAKA. Recently American or other country’s fight fans can see
GRABAKA fighters such as Kazuo
Misaki or Akihiro Gono
fighting in PRIDE or other organization. So they hear the name
GRABAKA, but they don’t know what that really is. So tell us about
GRABAKA. Who started GRABAKA? How did it grow? Who leads this
team?
Yamazaki: Starting member of GRABAKA? Well, when Kikuta-san joined Pancrase he started with Genki Sudo, Eiji Ishikawa and another guy. That’s the start line. It was started from four fighters. At the same time, not as an official teammate, but as guys who train together, there were Yuki Sasaki, and Akihiro Gono. If I tell you the detail, at first Sanae Kikuta’s Grabaka is called “Pancrase GRABAKA.” It’s one of the PANCRASE team. On the other side, Yuki Sasaki and Akihiro Gono were fighting in SHOOTO. So their name was called “Team GRABAKA.” Even they train together. Team GRABAKA and Pancrase GRABAKA is basically [the] same team. It’s like one team has two different names to go fight in two different fight organizations. Well, I guess it’s complicated.
Fukui: I see. Sounds like it.
Yamazaki: Yeah, now Yuki Sasaki fights in Pancrase. Akihiro Gono fights in Pancrase, too. So I became the only member who fought under the team name “Team GRABAKA.” And I’m the only one who fought in SHOOTO from GRABAKA.
Fukui: So that’s why you can go fight in any show, like DEEP or now you’re fighting in D.O.G?
Yamazaki: Yes, because I don’t belong to PANCRASE, I can go fight in any fight promotion.
Fukui: That’s great. You got more chance to fight, eh?
Yamazaki: Yes.
Fukui: Now, GRABAKA became one of the strongest team in PANCRASE, right? Like the fight card of tomorrow’s Pancrase show. You guys send five fighters to that show. And the last four fights are match made with GRABAKA fighters. Or even those main three fights are called GRABAKA vs. Brazil. So tell us the secret of your team. How you guys could be such a strong team? Your team may not the best team ever, but definitely one of the best team. What’s the secret? Why does everybody become so good, and able to dominate the Pancrase show?
Yamazaki: Secret? I think everybody thinks differently about that secret point. But what I think is, everybody’s goal is very high. Every single fighter in this team set up their goal very high. And every single fighter thinks a lot to achieve their goal, then train really hard. We share those great vibrations from each other. Also, we recruit, we welcome only the fighter who has big ambition.
Fukui: You said everybody set their goal very high. It could be hard to explain but tell us, how high is it?
Yamazaki: It depends on fighter again. Yeah, hard to explain.
Fukui: Then how about yourself?
Yamazaki: Well, when I started training, I just wanted be stronger fighter, you know better fighter. But when I see Akihiro Gono earn the champion belt, or Kikuta-san earned the Pancrase champion belt, I want one of those belts. My record doesn’t look that good in SHOOTO. But still I want to earn one of those champion belts.
Fukui: In your weight category, how about “Hero’s” new fight promotion? When I was about to leave home today to come here for this interview, there was a TV show about this new fight show. And I almost skipped this interview because I wanted to watch that show. But would you like to join that show?
Yamazaki: Yes, off course. Recently those middleweight or welterweight fighters are featured a lot. It’s a very good momentum for me. So I’m happy with that atmosphere that Japanese fight organizations have right now. It was all about heavyweight, but now finally we’re featured for good. I’m very happy with this situation. Yeah, if I have a chance to go fight out side of SHOOTO, I’d fight in any organization. But it’s not like, I don’ like SHOOTO or anything. SHOOTO is my home. I’ve been fighting in SHOOTO since [I was an] amateur fighter. But just as my fight career, I’d fight anywhere.
Fukui: OK, so if there’s a guy who wants to be a pro fighter through GRABAKA, What should this guy should do? Let’s say, if he wants to join the GRABAKA professional team, then what should he do?
Yamazaki: At first he should come to night class. And train with everybody else. Then if his performance catches our eyes, we’ll ask him if he wants to come to daytime training, which is pro fighter training session. But it’s really tough. If that kid has only good technique, he won’t be recruited. If he has only strong heart, he won’t be recruited. The guy who has both good technique and heart will be asked. Because we know that, they need both technique and strong heart to train with professional team.
Fukui: So what is pro-training atmosphere here? The pro-training atmosphere here is very different from nighttime training right?
Yamazaki: Yes, very different. Everybody is super-serious off course, and we roll much longer time.
Fukui: How long do you usually set the time clock?
Yamazaki: Usually eight minutes at a time and usually one person rolls three times back to back. But at the same time, we don’t train for long hour/empty training. We train in short time, but it’s a solid training.
Fukui: What is like training routine? I don’t know if I can ask this much, but is that like two hour grappling and one hour striking? Something like that?
Yamazaki: Basically we have grappling day and striking day. Three days grappling, two days striking. Our training is mostly sparring. After we finish sparring session, we just do anything we want to brush up. We usually gather up this gym at 3 p.m. and train until night class starts.
Fukui: So who’s the instructor? Dose anybody comes to teach you guys?
Yamazaki: About grappling, everybody’s kind of specialist. So we teach each other. Some guys are really good at wrestling. So these guys teach wrestling to the other guys. About striking, Gono-san often teaches us the striking technique. We have boxing trainer here, but it’s not that often, but once in a while.
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