Kazushi Sakuraba's War on the Guard

The Japanese crowd roared its approval as the 185lbs Kazushi Sakuraba took it to the 200lbs Brazilian, Ebenezer Fontes Braga. On commentary Stephen Quadros remarked that the Japanese fans seemed to have found a hero in this exceptional young catch wrestler. His broadcast partner, Bas Rutten, responded "Who hasn't?" Kazushi Sakuraba was PRIDE FC's home-grown star, and it seemed to happen almost by accident. Sakuraba was never fed easy fights, he almost always gave up weight to his opponents, and he seemed to succeed in spite of this at every turn. Running through Brazilians, Sakuraba wound up in a rivalry with the first family of mixed martial arts, the Gracies, and wound up rattling off four wins against them.

There are fighters who do it all perfectly, who look textbook in their form, but who just don't have that intuition. Kazushi Sakuraba was not textbook. In fact a lot of times he looked downright goofy, but he had a quality that is so rare. In Matt Brown we referred to it as 'a gift for violence,' but Sakuraba wasn't that kind of fighter. Whatever you want to call it, Kazushi Sakuraba was a mixed martial arts genius and that is no exaggeration. He was the kind of guy who could look at something, copy it in horrendous technical form, but still manufacture the situations where his opponent would fall for it hook, line and sinker. We could talk about Sakuraba's famous looks all day… perhaps his legendary low single—a technique you don't just 'not see anymore' but which you never saw in MMA before Sakuraba either.

Beautifully set up with low kicks in this instance.

Or we could talk about his concession of the back body lock whenever possible. Everyone got behind Sakuraba, but the best fighters in the world couldn't work from there as he stuck his head under the top rope and began hunting for his kimura grip. That top rope was just a small sample of Sakuraba's genius, protecting him from the choke by keeping his opponent's chest off his back, and even hiding him from push away high kicks.

Or we could talk about how that rolling kimura has become a staple in the highest levels of grappling, with fighters now using it to take the back rather than attack Sakuraba's favourite armbar.

But today it might be more fun to consider one of the narratives in Sakuraba's career that is often overlooked. 'Sakuraba versus Gracie' was the name on the headlines, but it could just as easily have been 'Sakuraba versus The Guard.' Sakuraba's first few fights in PRIDE befuddled the grapplers of the world—he was giving up his back and using it to get dominant position, and he was a good enough wrestler that he barely ever ended up on the bottom. It was Allan Goes who found a way to force a stalemate—using his guard to stall out Sakuraba and attempting to kick the Japanese wrestler in the head any time he came close enough. Sakuraba's guard passes were basic, bread and butter stuff—over-under, double unders, driving into half guard—but as soon as he was forced onto the feet in front of his man he seemed downright confused. Goes spent much of the fight kicking up at Sakuraba, kicking Sakuraba's face any time he came in to pass, and stomping on Sakuraba's taped up knee whenever Sakuraba stood tall.

It was a frustrating fight which was ruled a draw, but it highlighted a serious issue for Sakuraba. Just burrowing in, head first, was not going to cut it against high level Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioners, particularly when upkicks on a kneeling opponent were entirely legal.

Six months after the Goes fight, Sakuraba met Vitor Belfort in Belfort's PRIDE debut. Belfort was 6-1, coming in fresh off his starching of Wanderlei Silva. He outweighed Sakuraba, had a clear edge in striking, and was the scariest thing going. The bout started with the standard Belfort blitz, but Sakuraba's skull withstood it and Belfort's hand did not, and the fight was downhill from there for Belfort. Being a teammate of Goes, Belfort began to fall back on the guard to confuse Sakuraba. Yet stood in the open guard this time, Sakuraba seemed to have worked the position out. Controlling Belfort's left ankle, Sakuraba would work to raise it, ensure that Belfort's right foot wasn't able to stomp on his standing leg, and throw a kick into Belfort's exposed hamstring. And he did this over and over and over as Belfort's leg changed colour.

When the referee stood the pair up, Sakuraba showed himself Belfort's superior there too. Going after Belfort with his herky jerky striking, Sakuraba repeatedly tricked Belfort into eating strikes.

A faked shot into a left hook

A faked low kick into a right straight.

It was in this fight that Sakuraba demonstrated the first successful application of the back kick in MMA. Given that he was a catch wrestler with almost no striking training, that is crazy to think about. But his awareness of when to kick was better than half the fighters throwing the kick today. Each time Belfort began circling towards the kick along the ropes, Sakuraba would spin and meet him half way.

A nice use of the low kick to force Belfort to pick up his leg, and a clumsy back kick to capitalize.

Belfort showed that strange streak that he did against Alistair Overeem, Ronaldo Souza and Jon Jones. When in trouble, he flopped to guard. The Japanese crowd were appalled, and the referee repeatedly attempted to stand them up, but eventually Sakuraba made it clear that he was happy to engage wherever Belfort wanted to go.

In the course of this bout, Sakuraba also debuted two of the techniques he would become most famous for. The first was an attempted cartwheel guard pass—because Sakuraba never completed one in his MMA career. What is interesting about Sakuraba's cartwheel as he teaches it is that he often attempts to cartwheel while holding his man's foot, which is clever but also doesn't provide much stability.

The other infamous look was the double footed jump stomp. Sakuraba never succeeded in two-footed head stomping anyone because it's almost impossible to do with the guard in the way. Most often he would fall over the guard in the air and look to scramble in some punches.

Occasionally he would come down testes first onto his opponent's heel.

But as Sakuraba got more comfortable controlling Belfort's ankle, exposing his hamstring and pounding away, Belfort became more reluctant to put his feet on Sakuraba. Sakuraba was free to circle and pound away at his man. This was another theme that would develop over Sakuraba's career: stepping to the left or right to force his opponent to turn, then kicking them as they did—fairly safe in the knowledge that the jamming kick to the knee wasn't going to come in as they moved their hips around to face him.

But standing over the guard became a theme in Sakuraba's fights from this point on. It became a familiar sight to see Sakuraba standing over his opponent with his hands on his hips, so much so that some gyms call this 'one up, one down' scenario 'Sakuraba position'. And his creativity continued to keep fans coming back for more. Against Anthony Macias, Sakuraba used Mongolian chops and two handed bell-claps to raise Macias' hands and line up decent punches to break out of the guard.

Sakuraba even used the reaction of the crowd to fake his opponent's out. Slowly backing away from Macias' guard, the crowd began to "oo" in anticipation of the two footed jump stomp. Sakuraba ran up, and slid in with a side kick to the head.

How much of Sakuraba's game was legitimate and how much was showmanship was blurry. Sakuraba seemed to believe that dragging an opponent around the ring would give them mat burn on their back—but equally this plays very well with judges and fans. Plus, getting his man back out into the centre of the ring gave Sakuraba more chance to circle and throw in those hard low kicks.

When PRIDE managed to book a Sakuraba versus Gracie match, it was Royler Gracie who answered the call. This was one of the few occasions when Sakuraba had a size advantage, and it also allowed him to show something of a mean streak. Royler was hopeless in his attempts to take Sakuraba down and attempted to butt scoot after him. Sakuraba retreated, easily dodging kicks that a few fights earlier would have bamboozled him, and pounding in low kicks. Through a few fights he had become the most experienced fighter in the world from this peculiar position. Sakuraba was even able to kick Royler's face as the Brazilian scooted after him.

At one point Sakuraba slammed in a kick to the shin that had Royler Gracie clutching his leg, paralysed with pain and it seemed as though Sakuraba was on the verge of a TKO. In the second round, Sakuraba flattened Royler out and attacked a kimura from the half guard which saw the fight stopped by the referee.

In the legendary ninety-minute fight with Royce Gracie, Sakuraba's pounding low kicks on the feet and on the mat forced Gracie to quit after the sixth fifteen-minute round. In the course of that fight Sakuraba pulled Gracie's gi over his head, dived over his guard with flying punches, stacked Gracie with a hold on his belt, and looked at no point to have trouble with the guard at all. As Sakuraba Mongolian chopped Gracie from the guard with a smile, the U.S. commentary team mused on whether Sakuraba came up with these ideas in dreams and ran to write them down when he woke up.

Renzo Gracie proved the most trouble from the 'Sakuraba position', and that is something that B.J. Penn attests to in his books. Renzo kept his hands on his knees and his knees coiled into his chest. Each time Sakuraba kicked he looked to release his foot and stomp on the incoming kick or on the standing leg. Against Renzo, Sakuraba attempted to use his cartwheel to take Renzo's back, but was unable to.

Through that bout Renzo, the best fighter out of the Gracies, did a great job against Sakuraba mainly on the feet. Sakuraba won the fight, oddly enough, by getting his back taken from Renzo's deep De La Riva hook. Renzo rushed to get hooks in from the body lock and Sakuraba tore his shoulder apart with a spinning kimura in the final moments.

In a career marked by rivalries and unusual techniques, Sakuraba's struggle against the open guard is often overlooked. And perhaps that just shows the real genius of Kazushi Sakuraba. He was not able to pass the guards of the better grapplers that he met, but through attrition and simple tactics he was able to make that unimportant, and through showmanship he turned something of a stalemate into what appeared to be him toying with his opponents.

While the UFC Hall of Fame is essentially pointless—having no actual location and only considering those fighters that UFC brass aren't currently bickering with—news of Sakuraba's induction warmed this writer's cynical heart this week. If you have an hour or two free at some point, try to binge Sakuraba's first few fights on Fight Pass. We haven't seen another fighter quite like him.

Pick up Jack's new book, Notorious: The Life and Fights of Conor McGregor.