All you have to say is “Saku” and most people will know you’re talking about the great Japanese MMA fighter Kazushi Sakuraba! Many remember Saku for his pro wrestling style entrances in unique costumes, signature entrance music and bandaged cauliflower ear. But I think Saku will be most remembered because of the fact that he put crowd entertainment as his top priority. His innovative and highly unorthodox style included: the double Mongolian chop, jumping guard pass/ foot stomps, cartwheeling guard passes, and amazing fluidity in his ground game.
Of course Saku’s famous entrance music
Saku
Here are some tributes to “The Gracie Hunter” Enjoy!
Check out this awesome documentary of “The Gracie Hunter”!
This highlight is the one I watched many times during Saku’s reign in the early years of the Pride Fighting Championships.
Ok, this post is half rant and half warning to all of you budding BJJ players out there. In all the years I’ve been training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Sub Grappling, Muay Thai, and MMA I’ve seen, heard first hand accounts of, and been a victim of really bone headed things guys have done to their training partners.
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
Let’s just start with my biggest peeve and poses the biggest threat to the safety of newbie and veteran grapplers alike – SLAMMING! I guess with the explosion MMA and the UFC wannabe Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s come out of the woodwork. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Rampage. I’ve been a fan and will always love his entertaining attitude toward MMA. I mean have you heard his interviews? The guy is just flat out funny! I’m talking about the guys that see his high flying slams in the octagon and think that somehow translates to BJJ and Sub Grappling.
Just to be clear on this: “It is NEVER ok to slam your training PARTNER during live sparing or grappling opponent in a tournament EVER!”
Rampage slamming Arona in PrideFC
K there I said it, feel’n a little better now. One of my instructors was rolling with a guy who was new to the gym
and basically “flowing” with him to get a feel for his skill level. For those of you who don’t know, to FLOW with your partner is to basically work with him to improve transitioning from technique to technique with the emphasis on transition not submission. Anyway, my instructor at the time who weighed maybe 150#’s moved up for a triangle. In this case it was a leg triangle choke
which traps the head and one arm. Before he could flow to the next transition the guy picked him up about head high AND SLAMMED HIM! His head hit first and he
Rampage slamming Minowa in PrideFC
was knocked out!
He ended up coming to rather quickly and recovered just fine, thank goodness. The guy was bounced out of
the gym and was lucky he was allowed to walk out (vs. dragged out).
I’ve been lucky enough to have avoided this in my years. Maybe it was because world class grappler Dean Lister
"The Boogeyman" Dean Lister
was one of my first instructors. Dean always taught us ways to defend against, well basically stupid and crazy things people do. I learned to hook their leg with one arm which makes it
One of Many of Rampage's slamming of Sakuraba in PrideFC
virtually
Lister hooking Sakara's left leg thus preventing slam and escape!
impossible for them to gain the leverage required to slam you.
Why do they do it? Well, my guess is either their ignorant or have bad intentions. Sadly, both have the same result, someone getting badly hurt. I mean in an MMA fight it’s an accepted form of attack. Those guys sign a waiver saying, “I understand that I could get seriously injured or even die from participating in this event.” When you see Rampage pick up guys and when he’s in a full arm bar or triangle and get out of the sub by slamming them in the ring, it’s exciting. But that’s where it should stay, in the ring.
Fast forward to 8:00 if you just want to see Mike get spiked on his head. This is a pretty amazing match between US superstar and Lloyd Irvin prodigy, Mike Fowler vs. Brazilian super star Daniel Moraes. The spike on head is ABSOLUTELY not allowed in any tournament. Mike proceeds to release the submission assuming Daniel will be DQ’d but this match is in Brazil and I guess home court advantage applies.
Bottom line, is until you know someone well use extreme caution when you roll with them.
Originally, I intended for this to be a single post but after more thought it will be multiple posts. I’ll also be releasing some new audio programs that will go into many grappling topics that you may find helpful. Love to hear your comments on this topic or anything you’d like to know more about!
