Kazushi Sakuraba

Kazushi Sakuraba (桜庭 和志) is a Japanese professional wrestler, submission wrestler and former mixed martial artist, currently signed to Pro Wrestling Noah, where he was formerly one-half of the former GHC Tag Team Champions with Takashi Sugiura.

He has also competed in traditional puroresu for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and shoot-style competition for UWFi and Kingdom Pro Wrestling (KPW).

He has fought in MMA competition in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Pride Fighting Championships, Hero's, Dream and most recently Rizin Fighting Federation.

He is known as the Gracie Hunter or the Gracie Killer due to his wins over four members of the famed Gracie family: Royler Gracie, Renzo Gracie, Ryan Gracie, and Royce Gracie.

Sakuraba is famous for beating 15 champions of different top MMA organizations; opponents who were often many weight-classes above him.

Known for his excellent skills in catch wrestling and unorthodox fighting style, he is considered to be one of the greatest mixed martial art fighters of all time, and also holds notable victories over 7 UFC champions, 3 Pancrase Champions, a DREAM champion, a King of the Cage champion and Battlecade Extreme Fighting champion; former Welterweight Champion Carlos Newton, two former Light heavyweight champions Vitor Belfort and Quinton Jackson, former Heavyweight Champion Kevin Randleman, 3-time UFC Tournament champion Royce Gracie, former Superfight champion and King of Pancrase Ken Shamrock, former King of Pancrase Masakatsu Funaki, DREAM Super Hulk Tournament Champion Ikuhisa Minowa, former King of the Cage Light Heavyweight champion Vernon White, and former Battlecade Extreme Fighting champion Marcus Silveira.

He is also the first of only two Japanese champions in UFC history.

Sakuraba's Pride fights routinely draw more than 20 million viewers in Japan.

Sakuraba lost his debut on August 13, 1993, to Steve Nelson and went winless through his rookie year with the league.

It is also popularly alleged that under the eye of Kiyoshi Tamura, he was made to perfectly perform menial chores about the dojo.

Still undeterred, Sakuraba steadily built a working knowledge of submission holds upon his freestyle wrestling base until his efforts were at last rewarded with a win over Mark Silver in October 1994.

Though his record remained below .500, Sakuraba continued to edge his way closer to mid-card status through the rest of the year.

Then, in 1995, the UWFi began an interpromotional feud with New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

The vast majority of UWF-i workers came out on the losing end of the booking to the larger and more mainstream promotion and Sakuraba was no exception.

He was defeated in high-profile bouts to Tokimitsu Ishizawa, Koji Kanemoto and Shinjiro Otani, bringing Sakuraba a new level of exposure to the public.

The ring psychology and technical prowess he displayed in the bouts also impressed the management of the UWF-i enough that he was finally pushed towards main event status.

New Japan's dominance in the feud injured the marketability of the UWFi promotion, which had pressed the perception that their athletes boasted legitimate skill in real fighting.

In a bid to regain credibility, Yoji Anjo travelled to California to perform a dojo challenge on Rickson Gracie, only to be swiftly and brutally defeated before the assembled Japanese press that had followed him there.

With the UWFi's formerly fearsome reputation in tatters, its attendance numbers swiftly decreased, with the federation closing its doors once and for all in December 1996.

In their final show it was Sakuraba who at long last headlined, defeating Anjoh by submission.

Following the close of the UWFi, Nobuhiko Takada, the most popular of the UWFi workers amongst the mainstream public founded Kingdom Pro Wrestling, taking in Sakuraba and the majority of his fellow UWFi alumni.

In the vein of its predecessor, Kingdom was primarily a league devoted to shoot-style realistic-looking works.

Sakuraba is the founder of the submission wrestling promotion Quintet, where he has competed since 2018.

Sakuraba became a fan of Japanese professional wrestling during his childhood thanks to the Tiger Mask manga, with the eponymous New Japan Pro-Wrestling wrestler Tiger Mask being his favorite.

After being convinced against dropping out of high school to pursue professional wrestling, Sakuraba began a career in amateur wrestling at the age of 15, hoping to gain a useful background to achieve his childhood dream.

A high school stand-out, he finished as high as second in the nation before joining the freestyle wrestling squad of Chuo University, a team which had counted Olympic gold medalists Shozo Sasahara and Osamu Watanabe amongst its ranks.

He won the East Japan Freshman championship in his first year and served as their team captain thereafter.

In his senior year, he finished fourth place in the All-Japan tournament.

Amongst his notable wins was one over future Olympic bronze medalist Takuya Ota.

Upon graduating from college, Sakuraba initially thought about remaining with Chuo University as a coach.

However, at the last minute, he decided to continue his road to professional wrestling.

Having weighed 68 kg for most of his amateur wrestling career, Sakuraba was encouraged by his peers to gain weight, as it would be difficult to compete as a smaller fighter in pro wrestling.

After working to gain the weight needed to compete, he never wanted to lose it anymore, something that would be reflected in his MMA career.

Finding himself attracted by the shoot wrestling movement, which had been by his childhood idol Sayama, Sakuraba considered joining the mixed martial arts organization Pancrase, but he ultimately chose the promotion Union of Wrestling Forces International, a professional wrestling league that was nonetheless known for its highly technical and realistic-looking bouts.

His time in the UWF-i would prove to be a formative experience for Sakuraba.

He received his initial instruction in both grappling and striking under main trainer Yoji Anjo, later honing his catch wrestling skills under the tutelage of Billy Robinson.

He also trained in muay thai under master Bovy Chowaikung, the main UWF-i striking teacher.

Those disciplines would serve as the base of the unorthodox game that would later lead him to success in the Pride Fighting Championships.

Over time he became one of Takada's four main trainees, along with Kiyoshi Tamura, Yoshihiro Takayama and Masahito Kakihara.

In spite of his amateur pedigree, Sakuraba was forced to work his way up from the bottom of the UWFi's rung, as it is traditional in puroresu.