PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix 2005: Possibly the Best 16-Man Field Ever Assembled

SAKURABA: Submission wrestler Kazushi Sakuraba is an UWFi Japanese Professional Wrestling veteran, a Team Kingdom Submission Wrestling veteran, and the first UFC Japan Heavyweight Tournament Champion. He fights out of the Takada Dojo in Japan and trains with PFC veterans Nobuhiko Takada, Hiromitsu Kanehara and Daijiro Matsui. All of these fighters began as Japanese professional wrestlers and were members of Team Kingdom in the UWF and UFWi. They “fought” in predominantly worked bouts that looked like real fights. This included matches with UFC veterans Paul Herrera and Eddie Ruiz, Pat Smith, Mark Hall and Kimo Leopoldo.

“The Gracie Hunter,” a moniker he earned defeating four Gracie family members in combat, is a legend in the sport. Kazushi carries a record of 15-8-1 in MMA while making his 24th appearance (14-7-1-1) in the PFC.

Sakuraba beat “Tank” Abbott protégé Herrera days before the first UFC Japan event. Sak and Abbott could’ve met in that tournament but “Tank” broke his hand facing Yoji Anjo and the controversial stoppage to the Sakuraba-Marcus Silveira fight prompted an immediate rematch in the final, which Sakuraba won by submission.

He moved from there to the PFC and has remained a fixture since PRIDE 2 in 1998. Sak defeated many of the top athletes in the sport including Carlos Newton, Vitor Belfort, Quinton Jackson and of course four Gracies: Royler, Royce, Renzo and Ryan. Sakuraba lost in 2000 to Igor Vovchanchyn during the first PRIDE GP, but it was due to exhaustion after his 90-minute bout with Royce Gracie. It wasn’t until the PRIDE 13 meeting with Wanderlei Silva that we saw cracks in the armor.

Sak was dealt a crushing defeat at the hands (and knees) of Silva there, then again just eight months later at PRIDE 17 and finally (hopefully) at 2003 tournament Total Elimination show. Sometimes, someone just has your number and Silva most definitely has his. However, it was becoming abundantly clear that Japanese audiences had a disturbing fascination with seeing their heroes destroyed in the ring.

Proof of this can be seen in the constant barrage of light heavyweight and heavyweight fighters their uncrowned middleweight superstar fought, including Jackson, Silva, Kevin Randleman, Rogerio Nogueira and Mirko Filipovic. The bout against “Cro Cop” Filipovic at the PRIDE Shockwave show rivaled the beatings he took from Silva and all of those bouts certainly took life off of his career. Occasionally Sakuraba would face someone his size such as French grappler Gilles Arsene or Chute Boxe fighter Antonio Schembri, both of whom he beat, (lost to Schembri once) but if history repeats itself, we will see him in there against another significantly larger human before he retires.

YOON: Judo stylist Yoon Dong Sik is the winner of 47 consecutive international competitions and has competed in better than 50 tournaments. As the winner of the 1994 Goodwill Games, Yoon did not have a single point scored against him in his three victories while scoring 22 points on his opponents. Although highly decorated, Yoon has never competed in the Olympics due to the politics involved with his country and it is the reason for one of his many nicknames: the “King Without A Crown.” He also feels he has to submit all of his opponents to avoid a bad call in competition. The Korean fighter’s second nickname, “Unlucky Star,” resulted after he failed to win a gold medal. His other nickname, “The Japanese Killer,” is due to the face he has only lost to a Japanese competitor one time in judo.

It is for this reason that he feels it is easier to defeat Japanese opponents and requested Hidehiko Yoshida, Kazuhiro Nakamura or present opponent Kazushi Sakuraba as his competition in the opening round. Fellow Japanese fighters Kiyoshi Tamura and Yuki Kondo were also potential opponents. The judo champion has been training for MMA competition for just six months. He is confident, having trained with top-level judo players for the Korean Racing Association for the majority of his career and he is currently training striking with a boxer who placed in the top eight at the Seoul Olympics in 1988.

He admits he is not the best striker but feels confident seeing the striking of Sakuraba and Yoshida, and feels he is better on the mat than those two. He has also criticized Yoshida’s technique, stating he was far more technical than the Olympic gold medalist and six-time PRIDE FC veteran. Whether he wears his gi against Sakuraba has yet to be decided.

If nothing else, Yoon has his country behind him as they feel there is finally a Korean in MMA who can win it all. However, the main reason he is in the GP is because of the new partnership with FILA (Fédération Internationale dese Luttes Associées or the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles) and because of Chairman Fukuda of the Japan Wrestling Federation.

MY PICK: Sakuraba. I don’t care how many tournaments Dong Sik has won, how much heart he has, or if he feels he can out-strike “Cro Cop.” The fact of the matter is he’s never been in a MMA competition and is in for a rude awakening. As the saying goes: everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. If Yoon is only training with other people who are good in their chosen field but green as grass in MMA, he’s sentencing himself to death. It never works. He may surprise us, but I doubt it. Sakuraba knows this is likely his last tournament and his best opportunity to provide him with his own apparent death wish — not only losing again, but being torn to shreds in the ring and eaten by Wanderlei Silva. Maybe Sak will use his new “mugyu” technique. This should be interesting. Sakuraba by TKO in round one.