7. Hayato Sakurai
Sakurai was perhaps the first truly great Japanese MMA fighter, and he has stood the test of time, finishing a solid seventh here. He started out as a great submission grappler, one who enjoyed great success at the very first Abu Dhabi Combat Club event in 1999, even submitting much larger future UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez, and finishing second in the openweight category. However, “Mach” developed increasingly effective and powerful striking, especially a right cross that claimed many knockout victims. Sakurai was undefeated for a long time, submitting fellow future great Caol Uno in his debut in 1996 and finding himself a perfect 18-0-2 five years later in 2001. Along the way, he soundly beat Jutaro Nakao and Luiz Azeredo, barely edged out Tetsuji Kato and stopped Frank Trigg with knees. Sakurai was then stunned by a largely unknown Brazilian with poor takedown defense named Anderson Silva, suffering his first loss. Obviously, that defeat has aged quite well.
Sakurai then tested himself against the best fighters in the West, who were larger than him to boot. He challenged Matt Hughes for the UFC welterweight championship at UFC 36, where he was finished via ground-and-pound in the fourth round. He then faced unheralded American Jake Shields and lost a decision, yet another defeat that looks far better in retrospect. While Sakurai stopped the UFC's first middleweight champion, Dave Menne, he suffered a string of losses to lesser foes, being submitted by Ryo Chonan in 2003, Crosley Gracie in 2004 and being decisioned by Rodrigo Gracie in 2004 as well. Clearly, submission grappling was growing by leaps and bounds since the first ADCC.
Many dismissed Sakurai as any kind of serious contender at this point, but he embarked on the best stretch of his career, going 9-1. His only loss was via knockout to Takanori Gomi, the best lightweight in the world and a man we will see much later on this list. However, Sakurai convincingly defeated Shinya Aoki, another later inclusion, Joachim Hansen and Luciano Azevedo, and knocked out recent UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver as well as Mac Danzig. Sakurai would then suffer a surprising submission loss to David Baron but came back with a win over Kuniyoshi Hironaka and then a 27-second knockout of Aoki in a match that his much younger, bitter enemy was expected to win. Sakurai was in his mid-30s at that point and could no longer compete with the next generation of MMA talent, losing four in a row to Marius Zaromskis, Akihiro Gono, Nick Diaz and Jason High, three by finish. Sakurai finally ended his career winning three of four, avenging his loss to Ryo Chonan and defeating Phil Baroni, a far happier conclusion than most fighters on this list. As a great early pioneer who defeated many excellent foes from both Japan and the West, Sakurai is a very worthy name here.
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