I wonder if I'll be making the same post about Brock in 8 years. As impressive as he's been so far, it's still a total toss up how his career will turn out as a whole.
STFU
Bumbaclot -Saku and Royce will both go down as the worst strikers to compete in MMA.
I reckon a young roided out Baroni would've knocked him out.
in boxing?
No one is ever as great as their mythologizers make them out to be.
Still, he was great.
If you dont know, as an MMA fan, its your loss esp in this day and age of super hard bad boy wanna be generic style, stand n wangin warriors.
How can anyone not appreciate a guy who took on the best and bigger guys, with slick and innovative technique and entertained us at the same time.
Ok, we know BJJ boners back in the day had issues with him obvioiusly.....
Bumbaclot - <p>Saku and Royce will both go down as the worst strikers to compete in MMA.
I reckon a young roided out Baroni would've knocked him out.</p>
A sick Minowa took Baroni down all day and nearly submitted him with a kimura.
lol at comparing Sak's striking to Royce's. I guess you can compare a PC from 10 years ago to the one's today as well.
Saku is my fav fighter.
My only concerns about his career was Pride's lack of weight divisions. Saku fought against fighters ranging from WW to HW.
I see Saku as the samurai warrior with a funny streak and one that loves sake.
Bumbaclot -
Yuki Kondo > Sakuraba
Sure, Bumba. No problem.
The sad thing is that he is much like Ali: truly talented and huge heart, but not willing to put in the training day to day. It cost them both in the long run.
"You think carrying a gun makes you a tough guy? Let's see him get up every morning and go to work, that's a tough guy! Your father's a tough guy, not him!"
Bronx Tale, (butchered)
Bumbaclot -clarenceworley - The sad thing is that he is much like Ali: truly talented and huge heart, but not willing to put in the training day to day. It cost them both in the long run.
"You think carrying a gun makes you a tough guy? Let's see him get up every morning and go to work, that's a tough guy! Your father's a tough guy, not him!"
Bronx Tale, (butchered)
lol @ comparing Ali to Saku.
Are you insane?
Ali/Saku is a great comparison.
Jons Forsberg - Saku hasn't done enough for you OP?
I think you missed the point.
It's true, the same could be applied to Couture. However, it's naive to think athleticism doesn't play a part in everyone's game. Also, you have to take into account that his pro wrestling-based striking and submissions training were at best only partially applicable to MMA. Imagine if he were training for MMA for his whole career?
Timing and setups can always be improved with additional training. To think otherwise is naive at best.
whistleblower -bsrizpac - "He wasn't on TUF? Who is that? Must be a dumb japanese loser"- TUF Fan.
The sad part about this statement is that it is not even much of a joke or exaggeration. I have actually heard Generation-TUFers - both in real life and on this very forum - sincerely refer to Sak as a "can" (that is, when they even refer to him at all - which is primarily only in the context of the Wanderlei beatdowns).
Well put. The TUF noob punks really make me puke.
MasterDebater - He was a UFC champ before he ever fought in pride.yep.
Truth.
When ppl make comments about the actual competition Saku faced, they need to realise that there was a certain reputation about those fighters at the time, and not just with the gracies.
Ppl who know MMA at the time of Saks reign:
1. Know that you just dont submit a seasoned Conan Silveria, Vernon White, Ebenezer Braga or Carlos Newton on regular work days.
2. Know that you dont just have Alan Goes comment after a fight how he had never faced someone who knew so much on the ground despite not being a bjj guy.
3. Know that it wasnt imaginable at the time to have made Vitor Belfort choose to sit on his ass in the middle of a fight.
4. And at the time, they knew Gracies did have a mystique that many people acknowledged and were intimidated by.
Getting over those hurdles showed how strong he was mentally, not just physically.
So the ppl who like to say how Saku wasnt that great based on how the competition he faced; hindsight is always 20/20. At the time Saku competed, NONE of you could have imagined that he'd do what he did to the opponents he faced.