Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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“Me …”
Kazushi Sakuraba
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Inside cover
Kazushi Sakuraba
Born July 14, 1969 in Akita prefecture, he started amateur wrestling in high
school and was active on the wrestling team in university. He joined UWF
International in July 1992. On August 13, 1993, he made his pro debut against
Steve Nelson. In December 1996, UWF disbanded. The next year, 1997, he
He joined Takada Dojo in 1998, making his PRIDE debut at PRIDE.2 in March
1998. From then until now, he has repeatedly battled against veterans and
Royler, Royce, Renzo and Ryan of the Gracie family in succession, marking new
a star at the same time that he climbed the ladder to the top of the sport.
He fought in the main event in the first “Dynamite!” held in August 2002 at the
spring of 2006, he left Takada Dojo to become a free agent. At the same time,
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Table of Contents
Um-um-dois………. 109
The fight that caused harsh criticism across the net………. 166
First of all, thank you all, and by that I mean all those that donated to have this
project come to fruition. I will continue to translate more Japanese MMA books
(and there are many!) as long as there are MMA fans around to support the
time and effort it takes. MMA is possibly the greatest sport in the world, and
Japanese MMA was the pinnacle of the sport for many years, so being able to
read about those years, those fighters, those events in English is, I think, to
capture an important part of history. And let us hope the future of MMA is even
was most important to bring across his character. His sense of humor and
unique outlook were what I constantly kept in mind. I hope that it comes
In order to help keep the flow of the book the way that it felt to me while
is equivalent in meaning, and put only that word or phrase on the page.
However, as I want the reader to really see Sakuraba, I have at times chosen
one word or phrase but also included as a note some other words or phrases
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that would have worked, in order to give a better feel for what he was trying to
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get across. Other times, I have given loose translations to phrases that don't
exist in English and have included notes on the original Japanese that
Sakuraba used to bring the reader closer to him. As well, I have added some
Japanese cultural notes for references that he makes that might be lost on
Western readers.
Also, past, present and future work somewhat differently in Japanese than in
English. The way Sakuraba wrote this book, he uses two tenses. The first is the
past tense, where he is writing down what he remembered from that time in
his life, and the second is the present, where he is inside that memory and
reliving it as the present moment. I decided to use these two tenses exactly as
he used them, so that you are there with him when he is remembering and
there with him when he is reliving. I hope the changes in tense are not too
Readers should also keep in mind that Sakuraba talks very directly, with simple
expressions, but that they are loaded with imagery, jokes and emotion, so a
slow and thoughtful reading (with Wikipedia ready for looking up the numerous
I have chosen to keep people’s names the same way in which Sakuraba refers
to them (“Nino” for Antonio Schembri, “Rogerio” for Antonio Rogerio Nogueira,
etc.).
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things in ways, based on their original language, that create new expressions
that have a refreshing impact on the ear and mind. In cases where a somewhat
cliche or overused English expression would do, I tried to put across directly
what he was saying in his mother tongue, part for the refreshing feel and part
for getting more inside his mind. As a small example, at one point he says that
he would rather die than get taken down by a BJJ fighter because of his pride
as a wrestler. However, the Japanese phrase used in such a thought is that one
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Kazushi Sakuraba
Me…
Introduction
Hey, this is Sakuraba. Once again, I went and wrote an autobio. This time, I've
tried to collect together stories from the first Dynamite! in August 2002 up to
Dynamite!! USA in June 2007. To start with Dynamite and end with Dynamite
So much has happened these five years. I found myself putting in a lot of
training with Chute Boxe who, before that, was supposed to have been my
enemy. I became a free agent* as an athlete. Even the ring that I step into
change.
No matter where I went, the only thing that didn't change is the cheers and
warmth I receive from the fans. I encountered many times where I re-realized
how great it is** to have all the people that always support me.
To try to meet those people's expectations, I will try even a little harder from
*
he uses the term shozokusaki which refers to a person's place of employment in Japan - the
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**
he uses arigatami which can mean value/worth/etc. ("to reconfirm the value of having fans" or similar)
here on out. I think life and fights are the same - if you can win, you can also
lose, there are good times, and there are bad times. To continue is strength.
The bad times don't last forever. After that, inevitably, good will come. Balance
I'd be happy if you read this book thinking "I, too, will try to work a little
harder."
Kazushi Sakuraba
June 2007
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The time is August 28, 2002. The place, Tokyo National Stadium in Yoyogi. K-1
and PRIDE concentrated their joint powers to put on the first "Dynamite!" The
The fight against Mirko, thinking time-wise, was my first comeback fight after
a 10-month layoff after the Silva match, though I wasn’t aware of that at the
time. Thinking about it objectively, nah, without even thinking about it, Mirko
is a heavyweight fighter. More than that, it isn't just that he's huge, he is a
weight between us. Why this card was put together, I literally have no idea.
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magazine, I wrote one sentence basically without thinking about it, "Maybe I
will go fishing to catch and eat a delicious Mirko." The fight with Mirko Crocop
was finalized just after this column was put out. I had just written it as a joke,
but now we were really going to fight. Huh? Is this what they call paying for
one's mistakes?* I see, if it's that, what can I do. I just have to fight. Though,
The day of the event, I entered the stadium, and after some hours, the ring
"entrance material,"** the Vader helmet I asked for, was brought stealthily to
the locker room. The worst thing in a match is not getting punched in the face,
not getting kicked in the stomach, but having my entrance material leaked
before it's time. Before my ring entrance, if there are rumors going through the
crowd "I heard his entrance material is gonna be xx," it's over. The freshness
of the idea plummets. I can't put a helmet in a bag that looks like a helmet,
when I use props that are easy to discern, I have to be very careful and
discreet when heading to the ring. Until the entrance music starts, it must be
kept a secret. I want the entrance materials to be, it almost goes without
As the sun sets into complete darkness and the lights inside the stadium
*
he uses jigoujitoku - getting one's just desserts, suffering the consequences (of one's own
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**
he uses neta, "material" like a comedian's material
assault the darkness, we take the helmet and move to the backstage area of
the ring entrance gate. There is an electric current at fighting events. There are
times when, bit by bit, the pulse of the tension builds inside the venue, peaking
at once in the main event, and other times when it alternates between small
swells and abatements as the event heads toward the end. The one thing I can
say is that within one event, the peak is not revisited as often as that.
The pro world is not one of "might is right." The ones that have the say in
whether a match was great or not are not the fighters or the producers, it is the
fans that buy the tickets and come to see it. Like, say that you win but the fans
tell you "it was boring." To ignore the existence of the fans and focus too much
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Maybe because I'm from pro-wrestling, the thought, "In the main match, you
have to build the climax of the event" is imprinted in my head. Will the fans get
a rush they can feel through their bodies or will they feel resigned to sadness.
It is the job of a fighter in a main event to leave an impact that makes the fans
Especially, in the case of a big match like this one, half of the audience are
budding fans that have come to watch MMA for the first time. To introduce such
fans to a match in which you shut down your opponent without motion, it will
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leave no memories for them. If it's the choice of a sluggish match that I'll win
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In the fight between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Bob Sapp, the event moved
towards its first peak. The full impact of what a match is, offense and defense,
The second peak came with the semi-final showdown between Yoshida
cheers and angry roars fell upon my ears. Royce discontent with the referee
stoppage was complaining to the judges. His whole family met in the ring to
hold a protest rally! In some way, the voltage in the venue had hit its climax!
Shit. There's no way that this level of excitement can continue through the
main event. Coming out after something like this makes it really hard to fight.
The current will absolutely weaken. I somehow perceived my fate in the Mirko
Standby, I put on the mask and helmet. At last, time to make my entrance.
Wow, it really is Tokyo National Stadium, there is quite a distance between the
entrance gate and the ring. From here, the ring is about 70 meters. The unique
heat and humidity of an outdoor venue in the summer wraps around my body.
To really stand in front of Mirko, maybe I should say "of course," he is quite big.
He probably only dropped to about 98 kilograms (215 lbs). I would've liked for
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him to drop down to 80 kilograms (176 lbs) for me, but for Mirko who has little
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fat and lots of muscle, that would've been an unreasonable topic to bring up.
There should be a rule that heavy fighters are forbidden from meat intake and
After a long time off, I'm always hit with the question "what about ring rust?"
For me, a half-year or a year off, it doesn't really influence my fights. Perhaps
I had confidence from the beginning to be able to shoot for takedowns. When
you shoot in, there is timing to it, and if you can reliably read that timing, in 10
tries you will definitely succeed 2 or 3 times. Anyway, my shoot timing and
Mirko's low kick timing were for the most part the same. Mirko's low kick is fast
and painful. He can also read the timing well so that made it more difficult. I
ate three good ones and, feeling pissed off, I decided to return the kicks, all of
Going after the shoot too-intently like a maniac won't push the match forward.
First, you have to use striking to scatter their focus. As he is a K-1 fighter, I
have to say, there really was no fear or sense of resistance in throwing strikes.
For sure, Mirko's physical power is quite above mine. But, between us it was
not like the difference between an adult and a child. My opponent is always
human. A human being just like me. If you think like that, you can stand and
wage offense against any opponent. Frustrate him and try to make an opening
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where it's easy to take him down. He probably didn't think I would come in to
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strike. When a punch connected with his face, Mirko showed a surprised look
I wasn't afraid at all of his high kick. If you're frightened, "Whoa, it's coming!"
then you fall prey to the high kick. I thought if I just keep moving forward, the
high kick won't hit. He rests his weight on one foot and that make it easier to
take him down. Mirko was on the watch for the takedown, keeping a certain
distance from me as he fought. That wasn't the way Mirko usually fights. So I
was able to fight with confidence that I wasn't going to eat a high kick.
The biggest trouble was the impenetrable difficulty of our difference in power.
There was nothing I could do about this. Even to get him down on the ground
in a good position, he would quickly just explode and return to standing. It was
painful even being squeezed by his legs in guard position, and it was taking a
lot of effort to pass. It's because of this that I hate fighting guys when there's
a weight difference.
Just one time it seemed like I could get an armbar. The rope was right there.
Maybe I could take the arm, maybe the ropes would get in the way and I'd lose.
In the December 1997 UFC Japan event as well, against Marcus Conan, and in
the first fight in March 2001 against Silva too, the same sensation fell upon me.
Just before someone approaches death, it is said that their life until then comes
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*
he uses mayotta - lost/confused
back to them like a zoetrope* inside their head. It was really like that feeling.
In the span of a few seconds, all kinds of thoughts were running about in my
head. "I'm sorry for pooping my pants." "I'm sorry for stealing a bicycle." "I'm
sorry for stabbing my student in the ass with a saber." "Mother, father, please
forgive me for dying before you and leaving you with such unhappiness."
The problem was, while I was reflecting on my childhood crimes, the chance
disappeared. In the end, I didn't have a conclusion. I didn't go for the armbar.
After all, it takes too much time to look back on my life from childhood until
now. Maybe if it had been limited to from when I graduated high school until
now, it would've turned into something. This zoetrope viewing, is there some
And the final stage of round 2, Mirko uses his guard to immobilize me.
Incredible power. For Mirko, who has been exerting energy since the first
round, he should be tiring. That may give me a chance to finish the fight in the
next final round. But the venue felt like a painted backdrop in a movie; I
wondered if the match was boring. I heard the announcer say "one more
minute!" Being careful would be the safe thing, but I couldn't bring myself to do
it. At any rate, there's only a minute left, so just move, surge before going into
Thinking that, I moved my hips forward, and went to strike Mirko. The guard
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he uses soumatou, a Japanese revolving lantern
was opened, Mirko was using his legs to control me. In that instant, something
made a direct hit into my left eye. Light disappeared from my field of vision.
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In the middle of the darkness, I recklessly moved in for a takedown. Mirko and
his big muscles rolled and fell. From here I want to do one more thing to create
some action. But my vision was so bad, I couldn’t get a feel for where Mirko’s
arms and legs were. Another injury!? What do I do? And in the instant I had
those thoughts, the second round of the fight came to an end. A few seconds
after that, I received the official ruling that I had lost by TKO. My bad prediction
had hit its mark and come true in the worst of ways. "It's definitely gonna
happen today." As the bell that marks the end of the fight rang out, I realized,
like hitting the surface of water, the whole place had gone deathly silent. Really
I don’t think it was that Mirko was mad or anything like that, either. Just, his
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foot snagged my eye on a kick. Such minute offense and defense can’t reach
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out as far as the audience. If you want to do something, you do it right, you get
a clean KO that even the people sitting in the seats at the back of the stadium
can see and understand. Without doubt, it was a horrible match. It was like the
laughs starting before the comedian even got on stage. This match took a
thing to all the people that gathered there at the Tokyo National Stadium. But
my fight was not over. After the fight ended, I felt a heavy fatigue set in like
lead, like I was going to just be flattened. I heard this is a unique symptom of
an orbital fracture. Going back to the locker room, like the burnt out “Ashita no
Jo!,”* I sat on a chair and closed my eyes. For me who usually is laughing
foolishly win or lose, I’ve plopped down on this chair and I’m not saying
anything. I was thinking it seemed that all the people around me were feeling
down. But it isn’t that I was feeling down, it was that I simply felt sluggish and
just didn’t want to move my body. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, I didn’t want
to do anything. The one thing that supported me was the tenacious joy of
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Tomorrow’s Joe
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The first thing I did when I arrived at the hospital was ask the head doctor, “Is
expectations. I was happy, and in high spirits I walked to the smoking area.
But, just as I lit the lighter, “BLUHH!” There was a strong feeling of being sick
to my stomach and I started to feel really bad. With how bad I was feeling at
the time, smoking is strictly forbidden. The doctor told me I could smoke just
so he could see what would happen. The medical treatment was better than
the best. The doctor gave me an anaesthetic injection and stretched the skin
around my eye, holding it in place with pins. The place of the injection, of
course, was my eyeball. You want to close your eyes because it’s scary, but
The needle moved gradually, drawing nearer and nearer to my eye. The pain
really wasn’t so bad, but you can see the needle extending out from your eye.
It was a scene of trembling with fear that you can’t even really find in a horror
Next, the pins scraping against my eyeball. Different from the time I had that
tube stuck up my urethra. A strange feeling circled its way around my right eye.
life easily with this feeling. I thought about his day-to-day life and understood
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*
Daddy Eyeball, a cartoon character that is just a giant eyeball
My field of vision clearly went weird. Everything in the world appeared as pairs
of themselves. After going home when the medical treatment was finished, my
sons, which I should have two have, had become four. Two sets of twins. And
two of Kami.* Overnight, we’d become a large and polygamist family. Minoru
Toyonaga also became two people. Around this time, it was a pain just to open
my eyes.
I was somewhat able to return to training about two to three weeks after that.
My sight didn’t get any better, but if I just do groundwork there’s no problem.
And my next match would be decided soon. A mere three months after my fight
with Mirko. It was to be that I’d participate in the November 24 event at the
This was the show for Takada’s (Nobuhiko) retirement. Takada would have the
leading part, and I'd be the supporting cast. Naturally, I was thinking that
Takada’s fight would be the main event. But when I opened the lid of the box,
I saw that my match was the last on the card. In other words, main. I couldn’t
help but feel a sense of discomfort. This is strange, being Takada’s retirement
event. To affirm it, I proposed like this to Takada, “It’s your retirement match,
your fight should be the main event, don’t you think? Please make mine the
semi-final fight.” He responded, “Nah, I’m a quitter. You’re the one that is
going to pull along PRIDE from now on, so you should be in the main.” “Ye…,
yessir.”
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*
his wife
Bad things tend to continue on. In the middle of November, there was an
incident during training. At the edge of the dojo, I was grappling with M-I
D-Nirou*. There was an exercise bike just past the mat. There is no space to
throw or get thrown here. I ended up in a desperate situation and was fighting
off Matsui’s throw. But finally I wasn’t able to withstand it and I fell from my
knees to the mat. At that instant, a sharp loud sound came from my right knee
was now out of the question. Nevertheless, my match was just 5 days away.
Takada had looked after me ever since I started pro-wrestling, and I thought of
worked for. It was his retirement event, and it would be unforgiveable to leave
a hole in the main event. He even told me at one point that it was okay if I
dropped out, but there was no way I could do that. I sealed up my knee stiff
Takada’s final opponent would be Tamura (Kiyoshi). I waited silently just to the
side behind the ring entrance gate for it to be my turn. The retirement of one
of our athletes was a sad thing for me. The music marking the end of the fight
spilled down from the speakers. Ah this is no good, I’m starting to feel tears. I
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*
a pseudonym
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**
older brother/mentor, a part of the vertical hierarchy of Japanese society
come across as always smiling and laughing but really I’m this kinda crybaby.
Already before this, I was sobbing while watching a replay of “Dr. Kotoh –
Medical Clinic”*. Here I was about to start my match, and the tears wouldn’t
Here was the main event, my fight after Takada’s. Wearing the Tiger Mask, I
headed toward the ring. I could see words, “We’re counting on you, Sakuraba.”
opponent was Gilles Arsene, making his PRIDE debut. In this kind of “who the
hell is this guy?!” match, and with my condition as it was, I wondered if I could
even put on a match that the fans would approve of. A difficult problem was
thrust before my eyes. While it may be true that he was a no-namer, that
doesn’t mean I’m guaranteed to win. In fighting, there are times when you win
and times when you lose. You don’t know anything until you get into the ring,
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*
a Japanese manga turned into a television drama series about terminally ill patients living in
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Right at the opening bell, Gilles came in buzzing, showing off with his knees. I
could hear the wind being cut with his punches. If we start swinging, this could
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But while it was good that I took him down, his guard was strangely tight.
While Gilles wasn’t the most skilled of fighters, he really knew his ground
defense. However many times I popped him in the face, he didn’t make a
single sound. Conversely, it was my hand that started to hurt from punching
continues like this, I’ll probably get the decision. But this is the main event.
After all, I’d like to wrap up the event with a decisive victory. I can’t bend my
leg, and the sound of my cornerman yelling (I have to say I’m happy that he
did) instructions, “He’s open for an armbar!” came to my ear. If I went for it, I
would have to get it. “Yeah, I know.” I mean, I can’t bend my leg! I felt like
crying again.
But there was no time for crying. So let’s see what we’ve got here. How would
matches I’d seen in the past. Butcher had the Fork, Tiger Jet Singh had the
Sabre. Oops, I was only thinking of the heels. On top of that, I have a feeling
neither of those would work in MMA. Which wrestlers were there in the
orthodox school… Thinking these kinds of things, the bottom rope in the ring
I grabbed his arm and the tip of my toe snagged the bottom rope. From here,
even not being able to bend my leg, I should be able to lock it in. A perfect
cross-body armbar.
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I suppose you know the pro-wrestler Ric Flair. He was the NWA World
Champion back when I was a kid. More than being strong, Ric was a “never
lose” champion. Sometimes he would get his opponent in a cobra twist and
grab the ropes, with his opponent folded up like a shrimp, he would put both
legs on the ropes and increase his weight to get the 3-count, or he would
By no means did I think that Flair’s finishing moves would be of any help in
PRIDE. Watching pro-wrestling from when I was young, I’ve lived so much.
Using the rope to get an armbar. Drawing on Flair’s moves, I was actually
and others were all gathered waiting. We took a group photo together. Behind
us, Gilles Arsene was happy, saying, “I took Sakuraba to the third round! I’m
Afterward, with the condition of my right knee having gotten worse, I put
training on hold. Thinking back, it had been ten months since my last match
where my orbital bone broke. And three months later, I had ruptured
ligaments in my knee.
And lastly, Ric Flair. Like this, my year 2002 came to an end. Now, what about
next year?
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KS: Normal. Not particularly cheerful, not particularly gloomy. Only, his
Takada Dojo to train. It was before his fight with Yoshihisa Yamamoto (PRIDE
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things but I said, “Please excuse me, someone else from the team will do it.”
KF: He has a seat in the Croatian Parliament but he was constantly coming to
Japan, right?
KS: I suppose he was always absent from the Parliament. Maybe he smashed
reality?
KS: When I approached him, he was all smiles. He says, “Ah, good to see you”
“Whoa, look at his hand,” “Damn, huge!” His fists and his frame seem really
strong. Like, “If I were to get his by this, what the hell would happen!” He just
smiled while I told him things like that. He’s always getting touched.
KF: Where do you think the secret lies to Fedor’s abilities and strengths?
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KS: Probably his composure. For example, there was that time he was thrown
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avoid the throw, more like, if you’re gonna throw, then throw. And after that
insane throw, he goes firmly after the arm, right? He lets the opponent do what
they want to do, takes the opponent’s attack, and from there he goes for it. I
KS: Yeah, really. Or, maybe always nervous. I see him at events quite a lot.
I’m also nervous, but he really seems so. Before the bell rings, he’s always
staring down his opponent. But if you see him up close, it seems he is on edge.
The first time (our first fight), it was irritating so I tried not to look at his face.
But the second time, seeing his face at a glance, there was nervousness on his
face. I thought, “Hm, from far away you can’t see it, but up close he’s scared.”
KF: Out of the foreign athletes, who talks to you the most?
KS: Probably Murilo Ninja. I don’t understand that guy at all. All the time, that
(December 23, 2001), Renzo (Gracie) and others were coming in and out of
the place. Me and my guys were sticking out our tongues and kind of
were doing it as a gag. But one guy there who wasn’t drinking saw us and
started saying, “For real, those guys are gay.” So, that story flew from Fukuoka
back home with them and it spread. That one was one big backfire of a joke.
Wada (Ryougaku) was also there, and we had a blast with dirty jokes and all,
like idiots.
KF: You mean the rumor spread around the other side of the earth…
KS: Yeah. I’ve heard that in Brazil everyone knows me as being gay.
KF: Of course, among Brazilians too, there’re all kinds of personalities, right.
KS: Right. Nino (Schembri) is kinda shy. He doesn’t look people in the eye. On
the other side, the guys always saying dirty jokes do nothing but. The fighter
Fabio Silva. But, when I went to Chute Boxe, I also learned a lot of techniques
from them. “Don’t talk about this to anyone. Don’t even say it to any of the
other Chute Boxe guys. We got this from a fighter from Europe.” They looked
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KS: Not yet. But, those guys, it seems they won by KO five or six times so far
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Before, in “I’ve Returned Home,” I wrote that I didn’t want to use Tiger Mask
that it’s become a little too obvious or ordinary. But for Takada’s retirement
event in November 2002, I decided to use the prohibited Tiger Mask. There
was only one reason. Soon, the Mask gag would be used up.
My first bout in 2003 was against Nino “Elvis” Schembri on March 16 at PRIDE
25. If I can’t think of a mask, I’ll have to think of something with paint. It would
be the second in my paint series after going with the Great Muta at PRIDE 17.
This time, I would enter the ring with “Oriental Mystery” the Great Kabuki.
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As an aside, any kind of ointment is not allowed in MMA. No water, no hair gel,
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no lipstick. So to really apply paint to your face is against the rules. So talking
about paint, what I really had to do was make a mask using the Great Kabuki’s
face as the motif. And if you think of the Great Kabuki, you think of poison mist
and nunchucks. But I went with poison mist at PRIDE 17 against Silva, so today
I went with spiderwebs from my palms. Well, if I flick it off properly when it
comes time, it should at least look like that. My preparations are complete. And
the tune-up went pretty well, too. This would be the first event in awhile where
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However, at the point where there was nothing to do except head for the ring,
I suffered a major disaster. Right before heading out, I took a giant spill. Of
across the floor. In front of me, the strings were entwined around one young
athlete, floundering, struggling, unable to move. Shit, I gotta run to the locker
room to pick up a spare. Nothing is going right before the match. I felt the
same thing then as I did before the match with Mirko, a bad premonition swept
over me.
Nino is not really a fighter that strikes fear in the hearts of men. His striking
myself in the “poor” category, but when I squared up with him, I could pretty
much see his real level. His stance was really bad. To stereotype him, maybe
he’s basically like Royler Gracie. This isn’t BJJ, this is MMA. You can’t just have
ground skills* and you can’t just have standing-up skills. No matter how good
you are on the ground, the fight doesn’t start there. Just like the name “Mixed
Nino came at me and clinched, looking to offset my balance and drag me down
to the mat. There is no way in hell I want to be taken down by something like
this. I started wrestling in high school, and ever since then I’ve been training
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*
Japanese “newaza” for ground skills translates literally as “sleep/sleeping skills” because you
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down by a top-class wrestler is one thing, but even if I were dead, I wouldn’t
want to get thrown by a BJJ guy. Wrestlers have wrestlers’ determination. Nino
Come on!” and inviting me to the ground. I have a weak spot for this kind of
You yourself invited me to the ground, and now you’re kicking up at me!? Shit.
While I gave him a piece of my mind in Japanese, I went to face him on the
ground. The fight came to a stall and we were restarted on our feet. The match
was not really going smoothly at all. The audience was growing quiet. I’d have
punches, started to ooze blood from his nose. Chasing him into the corner, I
tried for a Mongolian Chop. I started seeing stars in front of me. My memory
went on vacation.
I lost, with no idea what happened. I don’t really remember, but I was told I
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became desperate, yelling “I quit! Quit, quit!” as they pulled me up. When I
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to me what had happened. Right when I went for the Mongolian Chop, Nino’s
head hit me square on the jaw. As I crumbled, this time his knee caught my
face with a bang. I lost by KO… to the vicious headbutt-knee combo. But hey,
headbutts are illegal. You think you’re Bobo Brazil or something? Maybe
punishment for my stunt in the Gilles Arsene fight had come. I got KO’d by
Nino’s headbutt.
I lit the cigarette and pondered whether I should make an objection to the call.
“Alright, let’s go protest. But before that, just one more cigarette.”
But this second cigarette made me cancel the plan. If I were to go and
complain, it wouldn’t cover up the fact that I lost. A loss is a loss. It would be
my fault to do what I did with the Mirko fight and repeat the same mistake.
It’s not good to play around too much in a fight, and it’s also no good to get
overexcited and rush into brawling. I have a lot of points that need to be
worked on. Afterward, it was just about this time that I was asked, “How about
To mention the headlining star of the Chute Boxe team, the man who is a
opening round of the PRIDE middleweight Grand Prix. It was decided that my
The nervous tension that comes with fighting him is enjoyable. To give an
example, it is like when you’re playing Resident Evil, and you go up against a
giant monster that has a bazooka and you just have a single pistol. I exchange
fire with the bazooka blasts, firing the pistol “pow pow,” aiming for his weak
points. If I get hit once, it’s game over. This nervous tension is irresistibly
enjoyable.
My third match against him is my first fight in one year and nine months.
program. I was 91.2kg (200.6 lbs) the day before the event. This is exactly the
same weight that Silva came in at at the public weigh-ins. There should only be
a difference of at most five or six kilos (11-13 lbs) on the day of the fight.
(242.5 lbs). Because of this kouhai*, Silva felt light today. In the back and forth
against the ropes, I was able to easily pummel and force back his big muscles.
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*
younger brother/disciple/underling, part of the vertical hierarchy of Japanese society
Also, my entrance this time was The Road Warrior. I was able to satisfactorily
But there was something about Silva that was off. Usually, he barrels in like a
dump truck that’s lost its brakes, but he wasn’t coming in at all. He was
Last time when he hit me low, I was able to shoot and easily get takedowns.
I’ve got to see what he’s doing. I was being forced to change tactics.
Just to test it out, I throw a low kick. If he doesn’t return a strike, I may open
up with strikes. What the hell is this guy thinking? One hit, two hits. To try to
push the fight into the next stage, I just keep throwing leg kicks. And as I do,
finally, Silva comes firing BOOM with his bazooka. His fists are coming at my
face. And right then, the place I was in completely changed. Snapping out of it,
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In response, I heard a far-off voice say, “You had a fight with Silva and you lost.
You were knocked out. Please don’t get up.” A fight with Silva? When? Who
Please lie down? Why am I being made to lie down? And, in the locker room at
Saitama Super Arena? Ah right, I was going to fight Silva? Could it already be
game over?
“I…, lost?”
“Yeah.”
My consciousness had warped through time since the beginning of the year
and finally caught up with the present time. My corner tells me that while I was
with them. A bitter short story. Being told what happened, I could somewhat
remember something about that when I threw a low kick, something came
The real situation was this. When I threw a low kick, Silva came in with a
left-right 2-punch combo. The first hit air but the second punch was a direct hit.
I was thinking he’d only come in with one punch. The reason I lost is because
I misread him. There’s no way he’ll throw two in a row. And as I suffered a
complete loss, falling, my head struck the mat. Two times my brain was
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violently shaken. In retrospect, I would agree if someone told me that I’d been
losing my memory for a long time. A KO loss, and no use arguing about it.
Later, I heard that after the match, Silva was shaking my hand, saying “My
friend, my friend.” From now, I might not fight Silva again, but we might end
having lost to the same opponent many times. I may often have memory
spurts, but on this, it’s like water off a duck’s back. Someday, without fail, I will
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Ultimate ecstasy!
If you want to talk about ridiculous matchups, the November 9, 2003 bout
champion. Huh, why am I facing another fighter like this… I hugged my head.
But, when I was approached with this card, my personality of hating to lose
feelings. Once again, I went and bit off more than I could chew. At that time,
Of all the fighters I’ve battled until now, the ones with the most strength and
physical prowess were Mirko Crocop and Kevin Randleman. With a physique
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*
he uses sunao, a positively looked upon trait among Japanese people, meaning obedient,
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like it was made out of muscle armor, and not only that, incredibly fast
reactions. When I feinted a shoot, Randleman sprawled and was back to his
feet before I knew what happened. No opening at all. If he learned how to use
his brain more when fighting, he would be at the top. I’ll never cinch a shot on
And what I mean is, rather than trying to take him down, I need to get him to
amazing speed. Randleman using all his might to push me up against the ropes.
From behind me I detected the hint of a knee flying up. Not struggling too
much against this is best. Me leaning against the ropes, a slight rest. This too,
is an activity of Ric Flair. The fighter pushing against you is using up energy,
while you’re just relaxing, letting the ropes carry your weight and draining
cage.
On the ground, I started working toward the triangle choke. But Randleman
was too strong, making me unable to get to the actual choking part of it. As I
tried this and that, advice from my corner flew into my ear, “the grinding you
always do, DO IT!” I started working my fists and elbows into Randleman’s
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body, pestering him with shots to try to set up an opening for grappling
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techniques.
I could read some impatience on Randleman’s face. With the fight on the
If I were to start grinding again from here, it would just piss off my opponent,
I would be helpless. With one punch from him, it could be instant death. I
decided not to rile the beast, so there was nothing I could do but wait quietly
for a chance.
“I did it!”
But the first one to have a problem was me. As the second round started, I ate
a left to my face from Randleman. This one rocked my head. I lost sight of
myself.
Just at that moment, with me burning red, I heard Shimo**, who accompanied
me to the fight, “Saku, calm down! Calm down!” His voice cooled me down to
striking with Randleman, I might’ve been KO’d. This is the pattern of how I lose.
Even throwing kicks wouldn’t result in a good end. I hit the emergency brakes.
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*
he uses Japanese katakana script to spell out the English “God damn”
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**
Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi of the Hanshin Tigers baseball team
The fight was taken all the way to the third round. Randleman is good at
punching but he doesn’t throw kicks. I started to gradually see his weak points.
Taking my turn, I threw low kicks to take out his legs. It was plain to me that
Randleman again stuck to my back. Like always, I wrapped up one of his arms
with both of mine. If I can lock up his arm tight here, I can time it when his
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power lessens and move to an armlock. But the way my arms were locked was
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unfortunately not deep enough. There was no opening for the first part of the
As I thought that, Randleman lifted me in the air. And like that he dropped me
to the mat. An opening appeared. Like figuring out the pieces of a puzzle, I
Randleman was lying on his face, defending against his arm being bent. I could
feel the breathing body of the monster. As we stalemated, our eyes met. What
is he thinking now.
Taking my time, reading his exhales and his expression, I threw a leg over his
face and moved toward the armbar. Randleman, possibly sensing danger, used
his head as a fulcrum to roll forward. He did me the favor of trying to escape in
“Oh! Lucky!”
Using my back muscles, I yanked and stretched out Randleman’s huge arm. A
decisive victory that’s been a long time coming! Not with strength but with
timing I was able to bring his arm out straight. This feels good. A feeling of
With that kinda escape, you are submission bait. I had heard afterward,
probably because it was such a beautiful armbar, that “The fight was a work”
But whatever, to win by submission is really a great feeling. It’s the ultimate
ecstasy. It wouldn’t be going too far to say that this moment is why I keep
training.
With a KO, the match ends while the opponent has lost consciousness. For the
loser, it takes some time before they come to know the fact. They don’t
remember the moment they lost, so their consciousness of the fact that they
But with a submission win, they lose knowing that they lost. Only with their
declaration of intention to give up does the fight end. When the opponent says
he lost, I immediately let go. They tapped of their own accord, so there is no
excuse they can make. I won, the fighter that gave up lost. That feeling of
conquest is irresistibly good. And I have another confession. I’m a real “S”*.
But you see, pain and pleasure are two sides of the same coin. I continued to
throw the low kick which he didn’t like but it also hurt my ankle. Shit, maybe
another injury. Just walking causes pain to run through me. At least for a while,
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*
as in sado – it is typical in Japanese to use “S” and “M” to describe where someone falls along
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the scale
I won’t be able to train. I turned down the offer to fight in the New Year’s Eve
“Otoko Matsuri”*.
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*
Man Festival
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Gassen*. For this year’s New Year’s Eve, there would be three separate live
broadcasts - Fuji TV had “PRIDE OTOKU MATSURI,” TBS had “Dynamite!” and
during the primetime slot. The guns were locked and loaded for the MMA vs.
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*
an annual music show on New Year's Eve produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK that
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has been getting the highest viewer ratings of any Japanese show in history, for decades
I, too, descended into that war. At first, they came to me asking, “What about
happening.
left ankle, leaving me in a condition unable to train. Naturally, not being able to
train means that taking a fight is impossible. I turned down the offer to fight in
There were three candidates. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s twin brother Antonio
Rogerio Nogueira, El Solar, who had once fought the original Tiger Mask, and a
fighter I’d never heard of that was supposed to be between those two in terms
of skill level.
I was able to return to training around December 10. Only three weeks until
the event. There was still pain in my ankle. I can’t train standup or cardio. With
my body like this, it really seems tone of those three. I made an immediate
reply.
But, no, wait. If I go and choose El Solar here, Rogerio will think, “Sakuraba
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ducked me.” I can’t have that. The result of me rethinking it was that I
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Lining up these three names, Rogerio was the only choice. If a rumor spread
that I only fought weak opponents, people would be laughing at me until the
the Randleman fight was set up. So, my participation in “Otoko Matsuri” as well
proclaimed, “Sakuraba ducked me!” in Mexico Mat, but I haven’t been able to
To fight around that time on the New Year’s Eve card, is, to be honest, a pain
in the ass. The world is in vacation mode. And I want to vacation, too. Just
wanting to go and relax at my parents’ house, the one wish I had was that my
other wish, “I’ll fight Rogerio,” would go ungranted and turn out just to be a
dream.
The event was starting at 6 in the evening. Because of traffic, I was late, big
time. I made it close to Saitama Super Arena, but from there, traffic wasn’t
moving at all. And, I’m tired! Ridiculously sleepy! I arrived at the arena at 5:55.
After parking, I grabbed a t-shirt and some other things, ran to the toilet to
change, and went directly from there to the stage. Not even going to the locker
room, just like that I went to join in for the opening show. After that, I couldn’t
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fight back against the urge to sleep and passed out. I was sunk, immerged in
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I opened my eyes, and it was already time to warm up. Shaking off the sleep,
I quickly warmed up my body. And then, I don’t know why, I was feeling really
good. Light. As if wings had sprouted from my back. My body was moving so
However, good times tend to come before bad times. Just as I finished
warming up, I fell into a complete exhaustion. Because of the way I had been
feeling, I overexerted myself in the warm-up. Well, there is some time before
the fight, maybe I should sleep again. And as I thought that, the staff came
running in saying, “Please get to standby soon.” I’m exhausted, want to sleep,
and now they’re pulling me up behind the entrance gate to the ring. Heat was
gradually escaping from my body. And come to think of it, the wings on my
make me look like Sachiko Kobayashi for the ring entrance. Feeling
it to do. I want to head to the ring ASAP. It’s that time. Like water thrown on
reverberates through the venue. “And now we will have a 20-minute break.”
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The event isn’t being broadcast live, it’s on a twenty or thirty minute delay. And
for that reason, they inserted a 20-minute break to set up the equipment
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In these twenty minutes, my body has gone completely cold. I somehow feel
The time is past 11 at night. Finally having entered the ring, I measure up
Rogerio’s shape. As the fighter is being called, I always look at their body. He
has really thick legs. We’re both in the middleweight class, but our body types
are so different. Well, this is the twin brother of Rodrigo who’s a heavyweight,
right. So then, isn’t Rogerio a heavyweight, too? I really should’ve gone with El
Solar.
No sooner did the bell ring and Rogerio charges in. He hit me with a knee.
Unlike me, he’s raring to go. A sudden wild rush. I jump back to create distance.
I can’t keep up with him at this pace. I was tired before the fight even started…
Around the two-minute mark, Rogerio got a big cut in the corner of his eye. The
ref quickly stepped in and they had the doctor check it. At this point, my legs
are done. Like the feeling after having done a number of uphill sprints, I sink
into a silent lethargy. “I’m begging you, end it here for me with a doctor
stoppage!”
I stood in the neutral corner just praying. I didn’t have the luxury of being able
to think about the fans. In the end, my prayers didn’t reach god, and the match
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quickly resumed. And there’s still 8 minutes left in the first round. I feinted
some low kicks while waiting for the clock to tick down.
person’s abilities from the instant we start grappling. And same as that, after
piling up some experience in your career, you come to be able to read the
the ground.
Comparing him to other BJJ fighters, his ability to tie me up was not at that
high of a level. Usually, when a fight goes to the ground, the BJJ fighter works
to tie you up like a snake, but Rogerio’s fighting style is its own thing. He isn’t
looking for submissions, just punching. As I usually only expend lots of energy
in standing-up fighting, I felt that being on the ground was like a safety zone.
But while I was able to get the takedown, after that, it went nowhere. And even
if I want to get past his legs, I can’t jump. I’m so exhausted, my head isn’t even
working. What can I do. How can I push through this. Rather than victory and
all that, I couldn’t help but make toughing out this match my major goal.
I’d gone dazed, so my corner poured water over my head. My head cleared just
a tiny bit. The bout rushed into its final round. Just stand five minutes, five
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more minutes. Vowing that, I put the red corner behind me.
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I heard my corner telling me, “put your guard up,” to keep my hands up. I
know, but I’m so exhausted I can’t lift my arms or my legs. My legs are
profusely heavy. My muscles don’t follow my lead. I had no plan other than to
Just a little time left. And my body, just a little energy left. And I slipped.
And after that, it was nothing but strikes. I lost the decision. I didn’t fulfill my
plan to stand until the end. It sucks. There was just a little bit of time left. And
that makes me recall, the NWA used to have a pattern of world title matches
with the champion defending until time runs out. Those twenty minutes of
waiting that wreaked havoc on my body. And in a way isn’t this like Ric Flair’s
techniques? And before I knew it, I was looking forward to a new year.
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Some days later, Rogerio’s older brother came to me saying, “You, you hit my
younger brother!” Of course it was a joke, but how do I reply to this kind of
charge? This requires a comeback. Some months later when Nogueira was
Yes, as it is written above, “a bad time.”* That was a first for me in my entire
MMA life.
I honestly shouldn’t have fought Rogerio. No, Rogerio shouldn’t have stepped
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*
he uses an idiomatic expression, hidoi me ni au, meaning literally “to meet a wicked eye.” This
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About two weeks after the fight was over, I felt something strange around my
eye. My eyelid turned deep red. Gradually, the unpleasant itching turned into
comes from bacteria. The bacteria spread along the edge and underneath my
eyelid. Who the hell could’ve pushed bacteria into my eye? I could only think of
one culprit.
until I turned pro, I never had something like this happen. Really terrible luck.
The bacteria Rogerio brought from Brazil to Japan drifted from him onto me
and infected me. Kami and my months-old son got it from me. By the turn of
the new year, everyone in my family had red eyelids. The power of this
The most major damage I suffered from the whole New Year’s Eve fight was
this sty. I don’t mind getting hurt, but please leave my family out of it. What
the hell was he thinking going into a fight with a contagious disease! Yo Rogerio,
you a bacteriological weapon? Feeling miffed, I let his older brother know what
“I’m sorry. A friend brought it into our dojo and my brother got it.”
Motherfucker. The Don of Brazilian Top Team, Mario Sperry, is also responsible
for what Rogerio brought into the ring. Hearing him, it seems a good portion of
Top Team suffered from this bacteria. They should’ve known from the
beginning that Rogerio either had it or there was a good probability that he did.
You should recover 100% from it before you come to Japan! (from Shiro
In this awful way, I cut a start in 2004. While the symptoms are still there, I
can’t train. And in daily life too, I had to be careful not to give it to anyone else.
looking toward a rematch with Nino, and this time, I hurt my knee. And after
that, I injured my hip, my knee… In the end, I was only able to fight once this
year.
Planning to fight in the New Year’s Eve “Otoko Matsuri,” I prepared up until the
Tamura also says yes, this match can be put together in an instant. But I
And once again, without a say in the matter, a possible fight with Tamura goes
up in smoke. Instead, a fourth fight against Silva was put on the tentative card.
I had no reason to refuse. I worked slowly toward the end of the year, getting
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myself in shape.
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The press conference to announce the card was on November 30. That day, I
was sparring at the dojo as usual. Then, of course, in the afternoon I would
attend the press conf. Heading straight from the dojo to the hotel where the
press conf was being held after training was the schedule for the day.
on top on the ground, looking to pass my partner’s guard. His knee went deep
Bent over, I couldn’t move at all. Even trying to move my body just a little, a
sharp pain would stab me in the abdomen. I couldn’t even make it to the car.
Looking like they were moving into a new house carrying a huge box, 3 or 4 of
hospital.
As it’s my character, I used the most overused excuse, saying I overslept, and
they excused me from the press conf. The results of the medical examination
were “torn cartilage” and “broken rib.” One month before the event, I
unavoidably went in-patient. There are some people that are completely fine
even if they break a rib. In my case, my nerves were connected with the
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broken rib and the pain was immediate and direct. I had to stay bent over. If
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my body left this safe zone even a little bit, the pain came with a vengeance. I
couldn’t straighten my back so even peeing was a damn chore. While I stayed
Despite that, as is always my way, I put it at about two weeks before I’d be
okay. Then, I can start training again and just about be on time for New Year’s
Eve. More than anything, if I can’t make it into the event, I would really be
believe.
But my condition, after one week had passed, after two weeks had passed,
didn’t improve one bit. I could return home, but even doing cardio caused
around that time that my compatibility with New Year’s Eve isn’t so high. Last
year’s, I had also dropped out but then had the fight with Rogerio. And after
the fight, I got an incredible bonus no one would’ve expected, a sty. And this
year, despite being eager to fight, I decide right before the event that I can’t
fight. For some reason, I can’t be in good condition and in a good fight on New
Year’s Eve.
Maybe taking what happened as a sign, this time too, I was really late getting
to the event. New Year’s Eve in 2004, there’s snow everywhere in this part of
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the highway, I get as far as the entrance ramp and it’s already a traffic jam.
Just like last year, I can’t get out of the rut. I decide to abandon my plan with
the car and take the train. I head back to the house to drop the car off.
And as I get near my house, the road has frozen over and I can’t get up the hill!
I get out of the car and walk the rest of the way, and head to the garage.
Planning to take the train to Saitama Super Arena, Kami takes me to the
A whole lot of time was lost. I took the bullet train to Oomiya for a transfer. I
take an older train line just one stop and arrive at the nearest station to the
arena, Saitama Shintoshin, about an hour after the matches have already
started. I walk into the arena as the second fight on the main card is already
underway. I rush and get changed and head toward the ring. I apologize to the
After all the fights are over, I approach Silva to bow to him. Because I dropped
out, Silva’s opponent was switched to heavyweight Mark Hunt. This is my fault.
Causing someone else troubles, for example, even if he looks like Gorillaman,
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*
he says in Japanese to Silva
I felt some hesitation about the word “friend,” but he accepted my apology
(probably). Right after that, Fedimar* came to me smiling and said “It’s okay.
OK! Everyone gets injured.” Viva, Chute Boxe! Among the Chute Boxe fighters,
Especially, their head guy, Fedimar, is always paying attention to me. After my
KO loss in the third fight with Silva, Fedimar told me, “You were throwing nice
uppercuts. If you landed clean, my Silva might really’ve lost.” I’m supposed to
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*
he combines Rudimar and Fedrigo to make a nickname for Rudimar Fedrigo
KS: A little bit before my fight with Rogerio. Having lots of siblings is good.
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KS: No. I want them to be kind. Children that take care around other people.
bullied kid, I think having a bullied kid is better. A bully is weak here (heart). A
bullied kid has to put up with it and learn to endure, so he is strong. He’ll be
able to endure a lot of things. If they grow up along those lines, I think they can
learn to be kind. Bullies are weak so they bark. In a group, they get strong, but
alone, for example getting in a ring one-on-one, they wimp out. 100%, that’s
a bully.
KS: Yeah. He’s also going to Yoshida Dojo. On the small chance that he might
get bullied, he’ll learn to defend himself. If he gets pushed, he knows how to
fall. And he can throw a bully like, “This kid’s training Judo, you better watch
out.”
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KF: That’s the pro-wrestler theory of being the attackee*, right. Not attacking,
but you learn by starting with something that gets done to you.
KS: Yeah, yeah! (laughing). And I think knowing an art to protect yourself and
KS: Yeah. My oldest had an athletic meet at an indoor pool. They put a cover
over the pool and have the meet on top of that. It was like having a meet at
Yokohama Arena, you sit in a seat and watch. Just going outside for something
to eat.
KF: There are also events where they want the dads to participate too, right?
KS: There is at the kindergarten. A game where I carry them piggyback and
they have to grab hats or dancing the Anpanman** dance. For me to do it, it
would really turn into a show, so I wouldn’t dance at any price. I stood on the
sidelines.
*
he uses “ukemi,” the word for a person who, for example in Judo, allows the other person to
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**
a Japanese cartoon character
KS: I think it’s that parents are being too protective. Is anyone really properly
and he didn’t die. You don’t die from that.” “If you don’t like being hit, then do
KS: Yeah. Even if they do the same thing, the oldest one has to sit seiza, the
younger one has to sit next to his bed and not move. I turn off the lights and
KF: Like the “I’ll lock you in the cellar” of olden times.
KS: Yeah. “You don’t understand when I say it, so I’m doing this.” Children
don’t understand when you say it so they keep doing the same thing. But if you
scold them, and say “you can’t do this,” they understand. The parent has to get
mad and discipline them. These days, parents are leaving all that up to the
teachers. It isn’t the teachers that are bad, before that, it’s the parents.
Children don’t receive any punishment so they have no idea how others feel
when they do something bad to them. And then you have bullying.
*
it’s a trope in Japan that a person under too much internal pressure will get a nosebleed
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**
seiza is the standard traditional Japanese way of sitting, kneeling, your shins on the floor,
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KS: If they start to play a game, it’s nothing but that game. The Nintendo DS
lets you connect with other DS users, so they all gather in a park. We have a
one-hour rule for games. If they play games too much, I hide the game system.
Once, I really got mad and I broke the game system. And that turned into a big
argument with Kami. Her saying we had just bought it. I folded it in half in front
of the kids. With that, without saying a word, they went right to study. I say, if
you study like that every day, I’ll buy you another one.
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For what reason, I don’t exactly know, but a surprising number of people were
getting their pulse up about “Sakuraba vs. Tamura.” In reality, I was offered by
Dream Stage to fight him a number of times in the past. Like making
something official by pushing your seal onto the paper, I would reply, “OK.”
At this point, I want to avoid fights against Japanese opponents, but if a lot of
fans are saying they want to see it, I should go with that. Tamura and I aren’t
that much different in weight. We both came from UWF International, but we
weren’t so close that it would make it difficult for us to fight each other. There
That said, I had a feeling that Tamura was ducking me. As year-end
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approached, Tamura’s name disappeared from the New Year’s Eve lineup.
Every year, the same thing. Always leaving me waiting for a response,
If we fought, who would win? Without stepping up into the ring, you can’t get
an answer to that. I could win. He could win. But if us fighting gives the MMA
world a boost, I think we shouldn’t just fight once, but continuously. Like Riki
Choushuu and Tatsumi Fujinami a long time ago, wouldn’t it be good to fight
In the first PRIDE of 2005, PRIDE 29 on February 20, I got some action going.
I wouldn’t be participating in it, but Tamura would be, in the seventh match of
I put my and Tamura’s names together on the list of candidate athletes for the
April PRIDE middleweight Grand Prix. I should drum up something at this event
to tie it to the April tournament and possibly get the eyes and ears of a lot of
fans.
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Before doing it, for the time being, I requested to Sakakibara, “After Tamura’s
match, can I take the mic and talk a little?” Sakakibara said, Sure.” All that’s
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My strategy was like this. This is Mahmud’s, his opponent’s, first fight. Tamura
will probably win. After that, I imagine he will take the mic. At that moment, I
will come in and say, “Tamura, let’s do it!” Maybe I’m a little full of myself, but
If I do the “mic appeal” well, it won’t be Tamura’s victory but rather my calling
him out that will leave a big impact on the fans and mass communication
I watched Tamura’s fight quietly from a ringside seat. The fight went as I
expected, with Tamura victorious. There was a break in the action due to a low
blow. For both the winner and the loser, the match left a bad aftertaste.
Here, Tamura took unexpected action. Maybe unhappy with the match, he
raced out of the ring without taking the mic. He took off, starting to leave the
ring. I’ll miss my chance. I get up and rush toward the ring. From behind, I hit
“I don’t think this kind of fight is interesting at all. Please take a match with me
Tamura retraced his steps back into the ring. He answered my request with a
one-liner, “You think you can do it!?” I cut my bangs while answering, “I can do
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it.” In my head, I instantly had this wild idea, “The Saku Revolution starts from
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here……”
talked steadily into the mic. There’s no way he couldn’t hear. Possibly he was
ignoring it. In the end, I wasn’t able to trade verbal blows with him. With this,
April 23, Osaka Dome (now the Kyocera Dome Osaka). The 2005 PRIDE
middleweight Grand Prix starts at last. There are 16 fighters. The Japanese
(Kazuhiro), and Kondo (Yuki). Tamura didn’t come to fight in the tournament.
I hate tournaments. I can do them, but I don’t want to. Why? Because they’re
a pain in the ass. Even if you win, your next fight is right there waiting for you.
You have to fight two or three times just for the thing to end. The more you win
My first matchup is against a Korean Judo player, Yoon Dong-Sik. This is his
first fight in MMA, but in Judo, he is the real deal, with victories over Makoto
Actually, Yoon had asked awhile back to train at Takada Dojo. Of course,
training with the person you’re supposed to fight next is not going to happen.
So I left it with him as, “after the fight, let’s do some sparring.” Later, he
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Aside from all that, I knew absolutely nothing about Yoon. I received some
materials from Dream Stage, but the videos were just Judo. And the video
started after the two had already engaged each other. With this, there’s no
way I can judge what he’ll do in MMA. The day of the event, I faced off against
This day, from the first match, it was decision, decision, decision, making for a
really sluggish event. The complete opposite of the situation when I fought
Crocop. There are no waves of electricity at all. My match is the sixth of eight
like this.
striking at all, but right at the gong he came at me with a straight punch. After
creating some space, I was pissed and started answering with some punches of
my own. Yoon collapsed to the mat. This night, I got the first KO victory of my
life.
“Well, there were so many decisions tonight, so it’s fine isn’t it.”
Saying ‘what should I do?’ after a match is meaningless, but that’s what I was
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talking about in the ring with my corner. Up until now I’d been a follower of
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losing but to enjoy careful offense and defense throughout the fight.
However, winning by a quick KO felt really good. As well, the fans seemed
About two or three months after this, Yoon and I started training together. By
the way, this guy is amazing on the ground. He’s caught me a number of times
February 26, 2006, while he lost in the end by decision, he had Rampage
locked up in a perfect armbar in the first round. Yoon thought he had it, and he
lost all his energy after that. He was so close. Maybe Rampage had taken him
lightly. After the bout, I went over to Rampage, without thinking, to bitch.
“What, you thought he was weak but he almost got you. He’s really good, isn’t
he!”
“Eh? Really?”
Well then, making it through one fight naturally means I can’t but fight again.
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The next stage happens at the Saitama Super Arena on June 26. Before that
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Even if it's only dust that's collecting, it can still form a mountain. And if it's
stress that's building up, it can form a volcano. Boom! At the beginning of June
No matter who it is, a person always has a button that they can't stand other
people pushing. If you push the button even once, the grudges and
pissed-off-ness you'd been enduring since then erupt at once. It's a matter of
degree, but everyone has a boundary line like "up until here I can't take it, but
if it goes past there, I'll burst." Someone steps over your boundary line,
pushing that button with their shoe, and it's inevitable that you'll explode.
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The fighters that get in the ring and the organizers that make it happen.
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Looking at it from the point of view of the organizers, we are one type of
But I’m human also. I experience joy, anger, pathos, and humor. Of course we
can also be products, but we are not robots that have been built to fight. If one
necessary.
About a month after my fight against Ricardo Arona in the second round of the
pushed *click*. Probably, the person that pushed it wasn’t aware that they had.
The real truth behind me separating from Takada Dojo has never been written
down, in any book or magazine in the world. Likely, I’m the only one that
But I don’t want it to be misunderstood that I was upset about the cards or my
treatment and decided to quit the dojo. My button was pushed, and things
added onto other things, and something exploded. At that instant, my anger
was well over 1,000 points. A feeling that “I don’t want to be here any longer”
suppress.
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*
he uses mochigoma, a captured piece than can be reused (in the game of shogi)
There was nothing I could do but use up the anger I was feeling in training.
Training, training, I did nothing but train. There is a will in a pawn, there is a
will in a product. Somehow or other, this strong feeling of wanting to just pass
through Arona and move beyond the second round of the tournament became
my prime motivation.
(187.4 lbs) I was looking at going into game day 8 kg (17.6 lbs) under the limit
for the middleweight tournament. And Arona around 97, 98 kg (213-216 lbs).
No way. This isn’t what winning is. Once again I realize going overboard in
training or in a fight is not good. Ignoring the line past moderation is one of my
Arona, how can I say, was a pain in the ass to fight. The fight went on like he
only had in mind not losing. He would not gamble if he thought he could lose.
This kind of fighting style reminds me closely of someone from the past, a guy
I call Great King Stalemate, Guy Mezger. What can I say about this, a fight the
mere watching of causes stiff shoulders. He doesn’t have a bazooka like Mirko
or Silva, and this kind of punch here and kick there isn’t something to worry
about. I didn’t really feel him as very strong either. But due to the too-big
whatever, just heavy. I felt like I was going to be crushed by his large build.
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“Sakuraba, move!”
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If I had been able to move, there would’ve been no problem from the start. For
some reason in the middle of the match I’m arguing with my corner. I try to
resist against Arona’s pressure using the power of anger, commonly referred
to as “Kajiba no Kusozhikara”*, but that kind of power only comes for a second.
Right after that, your body is back to its old form. And Arona is Arona, when he
puts the pressure on, that same damn knee comes again and again. I couldn’t
Nothing really hurt that bad. But for him, calling them femur strikes instead of
my guard up, I’d be fine with eating these all night. It wouldn’t come close to
a fatal injury. A real knee that drove through and dizzied me happened maybe
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*
a special power in Kinnikuman
In the back and forth, I was blessed with an opportunity for an armbar. My
forgotten past comes back to me. It’s come. My old friend, it’s zoetrope time.
Danger, danger. If I go any more into the past like this, it’s gonna turn into
Mirko part two. Coming back to the present, I went for the armbar. But Arona
When I fight against a smaller guy in sparring, I can just blow him off like that,
too. I should’ve calmed down, and moved toward the technique while keeping
balance. Impatience is forbidden. In this world, balance and timing. For the
armbar, too, balance and timing. It would’ve been good if I had remembered
In the second round, I ate a full-blast knee to the head. My forehead split wide
open and the fight went into its second doctor check. And what was the
determination going to be, I somehow had a sense of it. I timidly check with
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the doctor.
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“Yes, right.”
“No good?”
“Yes, no good. Please don’t drink alcohol tonight.” I felt my body drain. I had
the post-fight festivities I had been looking forward to stolen from me. More so
than the injury, more so than anything, that was the worst thing.
And with not a care in the world about that, Arona came, bam bam bam,
kneeing me in the face. My swollen eyelid covered my eye up. How many times
have I been in this shower of strikes? In the midst of the horrible darkness, the
kind bell marking the end of the second round rang out for me.
“Fuck it. I can’t do it. I can’t see a thing! Where’s the doctor? I can’t see
I was throwing all kinds of talk at the guys that came rushing up to me. At that
time I strangely felt no sense of anger or anguish. If you can’t do it, you can’t
do it. The outcome was a loss by TKO. My field of vision had up and vanished,
so there was nothing I could do. Fighting like that in the third round would’ve
been impossible.
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As I asked that, everyone accompanied me, not to the bar, but in what’s
After an evening of icing it down, the swelling in my face had subsided a bit by
the next day. In a way it was sad but the medical examination didn’t find
anything wrong with my brain or bones. A big bouquet arrived in my room sent
“Thank you very much for the flowers. Gah, I really came into that fight too
light.”
“Fedimar was saying the same thing. ‘At that weight, you can’t do anything.’”
Why was Fedimar bothering to worry about me? Looking at it from Chute
Boxe’s perspective, I’m an enemy camp fighter. All this when it wouldn’t even
be surprising to hear something like, “Eh, he ran to the hospital in fear to avoid
“Really, Fedimar said that? Sakakibara, could you get me into Chute Boxe?”
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Though they were words I said somewhat in jest, I was led into a brand new
world. August 18, 2005, I really did it, I started my trip to the Chute Boxe
Brazil is as far from Japan as two countries can be. It takes roughly one day
from liftoff to arrival. I hate big airplanes. Especially being forced for eternity to
wear a seatbelt for international flights. This is close to torture for me. Making
this kind of trip is a real pain in the ass, so I’d been refusing to go on any
overseas campaigns.
But at some point, I’d started really liking Fedimar. As a coach, and as a person,
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fighter. Ah, loveable Fedimar! My mood just before heading to Brazil was
surely, “I’m coming to see you.”*. Maybe that example’s a bit old. To put my
mental state at this time into an expression of inequality, it would be like this:
If I can train under Fedimar, I can endure a long trip. I can wash off my stress
and feel anew. I can get physically bigger. And I can take in new skills. There
were a lot of things I wanted to do in Brazil. It was my first trip to the country,
I finished the press conference at Narita airport, leaving them with, “Because
I don’t want to be here.” I boarded a flight for Sao Paulo by way of New York.
At the stopover in New York, it was a spectacle that left me mesmerized. New
York, a melting pot of all types of people. Tall people and short people. Fat
people and skinny people. All the people lined up at immigration – their body
types, the things they were wearing, their skin color, each person was different.
I really had a feeling of there being all different types of humans mixed
together and living on the surface of the earth. It was just like that one scene
Two or three hours later, I boarded the second plane heading to Sao Paulo.
Going from Sao Paulo to Curitiba I would take a tiny Airbus. Fedimar, who had
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*
an old Japanese reference lost on me, probably a pop song
come to pick me up at the airport, relieved the stress from the long trip with
what he said.
“Please think of me as your Brazilian dad. If you ever have a problem, just call
me.”
I was really taken in by Fedimar’s charm. Why have a bunch of talented young
I take my first steps into the Chute Boxe dojo. A bunch of guys are already
there, having been called in for some training. The atmosphere and harmony
that they were not being forced to participate but were having fun while they
were training.
I was paired with Daniel Acacio (26 at that time) for agility training. As I had
also been in the hospital for awhile, I (36 at that time) didn’t really train all that
much the first month. After such a layoff, it really wouldn’t be expected that I’d
be eating from the same menu of physical strength training as the guys in their
20’s.
And maybe it was my bad luck but this Daniel Acacio was hardcore, always
pushing me, pushing me! While everyone around us was going light, just using
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enough strength, he and I alone were doing real hard training. It was quite a
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“Malandro!”
As I lie groveling on the mat, everyone around me was shouting that out. It
in Samurai period films. I heard this word “malandro” a lot throughout my time
pull your hands away, “malandro!” To translate those, “Quit faking being tired,”
“Stop trying to be clever,” “Train right.” Listed out like that, it seems a person
Of course, there was also sparring at the dojo. Chute Boxe has a number of
coaches specialized in different fields, with like a striking day, a clinching day,
It is often referred to people as a Muay Thai gym. But the striking practice they
do was clearly different from the striking in Thai kickboxing. It would be better
In ground sparring, I got one submission, and then tapped out the rest of the
time. Each time was with a completely different guy. What would the next guy
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*
or bad apple, crook, filth, gangster, rascal, thug, etc.
come with, you had no idea. And if you get too desperate, it was quite likely to
Most of my training was like I had come to Brazil to learn how to stop getting
beat to a pulp. Going against all these guys allows you to steal their techniques.
Breathe in their art. But if you just act as a mop for them to clean the floor with,
they’ll think you’re a joke, so I went with getting one tap first. After that, it was
completely back and forth exchange of offense and defense. I would take my
The person that would make me groan in anguish on the ground was (Murilo)
Ninja. He is known more for his striking than his BJJ game, but his ground
barrage of attacks. Impossible to stop his movement. He is strong and also has
technique. I think maybe his win list in MMA is going to start including more
“My Brazilian dad” Fedimar also really did a lot to coach me. He is always
incredibly busy, but whenever at all he has the chance, he shows up at the dojo,
holds the mitts himself for guys that have a fight coming up, etc. With this, his
guys are always thinking “Coach brought me this far, so I want to have a good
finish in my fight.” Fedimar puts his faith in them and the fighters try with all
I felt no stress at all in Brazil, and was able to devote my attention 100% to
training. I didn’t even hear the noises in the background. In the morning was
technique training. Weight training started from 3, and hitting the mitts from
6:30. There was also swimming and cardio. The last time I could remember
being able to devote myself this much to training was when I was living in a
My weight also increased well. I wasn’t sure whether Brazilian food would suit
sugar rice and drink-type “balance meal” meal replacements with me. But it
Brazilian food caught my tongue and wouldn’t let it go. About four times a week
I would eat churrasco. I would wake up and slam two or three bottles of meal
replacement. Then have a regular meal for lunch after the morning training
was finished. And about two or three hours after that, another liquid meal.
After weight training, I’d go back to the hotel and eat curry. And when evening
training was done, beer or wine. All the activity my stomach was forced to do
let me stuff in more and more churrasco. Finally, right before sleep, I would
If I was awake, there was never a moment where my stomach was empty. My
body had started growing. Or I should say, I got fat. My face was chubby. Fat
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was being stored around my stomach. Lying on the ground, it was hard to get
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up. My stomach would get in the way, and I couldn’t hit the armbar from the
bottom anymore.
I could really see that as I gained in size, my movement got sluggish. If I’m
lbs). I didn’t get as far as the “d” in diet before I was shoving more churrasco
in my mouth. When I’d gotten on the plane to Brazil, I was 88 kg (194 lbs) and
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Um-um-dois
Birth of my new style!
While I was racking up training in Brazil, my next match had been decided.
Around the time when I had just entered U-Inter, he was already battling the
“Shamrock, he’s Guy Mezger’s teacher right. Maybe it’s gonna be another
boring fight.”
training with Chute Boxe feels fresh, and every day brings new motivation.
There are so many resident fighters and you’re never at a loss to find a
sparring partner.
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I also received a lot of advice on striking from Fedimar. According to him, for
“OK, Sakuraba. From this stance, um-um-dois. This is your new style!”
And in reverse, I started teaching some ground stuff to the Chute Boxe guys.
Fedimar’s “new style” might just reach perfection. In the middle of a world so
different from that of Japan, I was able to spend my time wisely and make
significant progress.
My return home was September 28. I ended up staying in Brazil for about five
weeks. This was the first time since having children that I’d spent such a long
time away from home. The one thing I felt bad about going to Brazil for was my
children. My youngest son is still just one year old. He must have been missing
Returning home after such a long while away, I said that, looking at Kami and
the kids who were hugging each other. But, they were bashful and somehow
My son wouldn’t look up to meet the eyes of his parents, just looking down
embarrassedly. When kids meet someone they haven’t seen in a long time,
they tend to get embarrassed or to brighten up. I could read my son’s mind.
“I’ve seen this old guy somewhere before but who was he?”
The day before the event, October 22, for the first time since I’d ever stepped
into the PRIDE ring, I skipped breakfast, hoping to make weight. I was even
heavier than in my third fight against Silva, 92.4 kg (203.7 lbs). I had received
The day of the fight, Fedimar and the coach Rafael Cordeiro accompanied me.
prepared my entrance gag. I went to Tokyu Hands and bought a bald wig and
drew Silva’s head tattoo on it with magic marker, the plan being to put that on
my head, put my hands together and stretch and wiggle my wrists the way he
always does.
But with Fedimar and Rafael right next to me, that could have a bad effect on
the image and color of Chute Boxe. There was no need to go too far with props.
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Then, the fight. There was a “star aura” emanating from the entire body of
Shamrock. There he was, Ken Shamrock, built up from Pancrase and the UFC.
However, the opening bell forcedly tugged me back to reality. Shamrock kept
his distance from me, not really making any forward moves. No overextending,
just waiting for his opponent to move. The flying knee I’d just learned in Brazil,
even if I decided to launch it, with this kind of distance between us, there’s no
Fedimar is right next to me. Ninja and Shogun and some other Chute Boxe
guys are also watching us from ringside. For those guys that had given me so
With my opponent hiding inside the safety zone, there was nothing I could do
but leap in. Um-um-dois, um-um-dois. I smacked Shamrock’s left hand with
my right. I directly followed that with my left straight. I could feel in my fist
I could see that Shamrock was losing some of his energy. His eyes weren’t
um-um-dois, um-um-dois.
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cheers, I made my way back to my corner. My dad Fedimar met me there with
an expression like he was hugging his just-born son. I looked at his smiling
“Daaad! I won!!”
Ninja, Shogun and the other Chute Boxe fighters picked me up, as uplifted and
excited by this victory as I was. This is my new family. You guys, you are all my
important friends.
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You can see that unlike any other gym, the Chute Boxe dojo is firmly held
together by a tight bond. There is no room at all for jealousy or bad blood. I
heard someone on Brazilian television say something about that. You can train
in a really positive way with a lot of guys at Chute Boxe. You can share in
rejoicing together with a lot of guys at Chute Boxe. A lot of thoughts rose up
from inside my chest. While hugging Fedimar, I thought all of this, that it was
really good that I was able to meet the people at Chute Boxe, from the bottom
of my heart.
In the ring, the scene was painted with a mood of celebration. In that air like a
he was saying he wasn’t knocked out. The ref stopped it too early.
As my left straight went through his face, his power switch definitely turned off.
The thing is, as I continued hitting him, the second or maybe third punch woke
him back up. I knew he was sleepy, and the ring is no place for that, so I used
opponent comes to me with something like this, I just try to be respectful and
accept it.
Shamrock felt okay at that (did he?) and left the ring.
November 17, preparing for New Year’s Eve, I flew once again to Chute Boxe in
Brazil. I learned the dangerous art of opening the opponent’s guard with my
hands and dropping bombs from the top. Maybe it’s something like slapping
When I entered the dojo, everyone looked at me pointing and yelled this.
“Malandro!”
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*
this is called Nekodamashi in Japanese, “the cat’s trick.” Sakuraba later used press
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conference and entrance gags with him as a cat with this Japanese phrase written on his body
match between myself and Tamura in 2005, and for the New Year’s Eve event,
time, I would’ve never thought that this would turn out to be my last fight in
PRIDE.
Minowa is one of the fighters I like. At his entrance, the way he can energize
the place is amazing. Just with his appearance, the crowd shrouds him with
feelings of expectation, he has a really strange power. And he has the heart of
a pro-wrestler. He’s a fighter I hope continues more and more into the future.
The fight is over, it’s 2006. Right at the start of the new year, FEG’s Tanikawa
came to my house. Actually, I also received a phone call from him directly after
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**
he uses the suffix –kun, implying a friendly relationship
the Arona fight. It wasn’t me that answered though, it was Kami. He said
something like “it’s been awhile since we’ve had dinner together…” I told Kami
to tell him, “if it’s just dinner or something like that, anytime is fine.” This was
It’s actually been a number of years since I have met Tanikawa. That time, I
was still a Takada Dojo fighter and my contract was until the end of March. He
didn’t bring up anything about it, you quitting Takada Dojo? You going
I had already decided not to renew my contract with Takada Dojo around June
of the year before that. On April 1, 2006, I legally became a free agent. Besides
me, there were a lot of other free-agent Japanese fighters competing in PRIDE.
At first, I looked into, not through Takada Dojo but as a free agent, how to
continue in PRIDE.
There was no idea in my head at all about choosing HERO’S. There were a ton
But, it was not so possible for me to change the situation surrounding me even
if I can change the environment by being a free agent. It wasn’t that I had to
matter what I did, I couldn’t break off ties with some things in my past that I
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I love PRIDE. Even now, this feeling hasn’t changed. That I was able to go out
and make it in the world is all thanks to PRIDE. I really feel grateful, and I held
On the other hand, day after day I received “love calls” from Tanikawa.
painful. PRIDE and HERO’S are arch-rivals. If I talk to the PRIDE people, they
say, “Stay with PRIDE.” If I talk to the HERO’S people, they say, “Come to
HERO’S.”
I couldn’t see which way I should go, what the right move was. Should I stay
or should I go? I asked a lawyer I know for his opinion. He wasn’t so up on MMA.
He was something like the most neutral of people around me. What he told me
The lawyer’s simple and decisive words released me from the maze of my own
thoughts. The next day, we went together to tell Sakakibara about the
expression on his face. Something had ended, and something else had begun.
This all happened the day before my first appearance in HERO’S on May 3
From the HERO’S side, Tanikawa said that if I had made the big decision, he
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would like for me to come to Yoyogi the very next day to greet the audience.
Somehow feeling humble and embarrassed to go out to the public like that, I
made a plan to wear a mask. That said, there was no time to order one, so I
had to go with one of the Tiger Mask masks I already had. And Tanikawa, he
had no problem at all with the mask. And with that, my plan proceeded for
Only a small group of people even knew I was going to enter the ring. Figuring
I asked that the fighters that would compete after me be told in advance about
the whole thing. Only the referee, Wada (Ryougaku), was kept in the dark.
“When I go to the ring, make sure Wada is made to sit ringside. Please, just
I don’t know anyone that deserves this kind of thing, screwing around, more
than him. His reactions are always funny, as I’ve been messing around with
him since he was working as a referee in U-Inter. If I were to just get up into
the HERO’S ring without a hint or warning, what kind of reaction would he
have? I think this would be the biggest surprise I’d played on him yet.
May 3, I bury my head very deeply in the parka hood, throw on sunglasses, and
sneak into the event hall. Avoiding people’s eyes, I move quickly and hide
myself in the locker room. I don’t even get together to plan with Maeda (Akira)
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who is going to call me to the ring. Barely meeting a soul, I slip backstage.
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The same day, an ominous announcement resounds through the hall, “What is
this about Silva coming?” This rumor too added excellent cover for me.
After a little while, I put on the mask and head to the entrance gate. There, Uno
(Caol) was doing a bit of prep for his match. Ah, hi.
These words from Maeda were my sign to head to the ring. “The warrior of
warriors” from “the man inside man.”* Should I say that this raised things up…
Maybe it was because I was wearing the mask, but as I jumped through the
Straddling the ropes, I immediately looked for Wada. There, there! The
reaction I’d been hoping for. His gaping mouth told the story of his shock. I
don’t know if it was because he was so surprised, but if you looked closely at
his shaved head, right in the center, one hair sprouted straight up. I stifled my
laughing while playing around a bit with the ring announcer. After that, we
broke up with a wild dash. Like a car squealing its tires, we left the event hall
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*
alternatively: “man among men,” but this is less close to what he said
For a few days after, I don’t remember whose idea this was, but I vanished
from Japan. The day after the event, we explained the gist of things at the
press conference, but after that, I was on the lam away from the country until
the heat dies down. Getting busted by the mass communications people at a
My destination, Guam, Los Angeles, and Brazil. First, I spent two weeks in
Japan and took off for LA the next day. I just waited there, besides going to see
In my 5th floor hotel room, I accidentally spilled water on my pants. Cold! While
Kami remonstrated me like a child that had done something bad, she took the
A few minutes later, I realized that I had been keeping the cellphone in my
pocket. But no matter how much I groped around in the pocket, no cellphone
would come out. It didn’t fall on the floor either. Kami called a security guard
and soon a big search was underway. What was found, after it had fallen from
the 5th floor, was the body of something, something that was no longer a
cellphone.
My cellphone had really been in my pocket. When the pants dried, it fell far, far,
to the ground below. The shock when it hit sent pulverized pieces scattering.
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KF: At Chute Boxe, Fedimar is really cut out for giving guidance to pros, too,
isn’t he…
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depending on whether he is there or not. There were always days when I didn’t
feel the usually nervous tension I always feel, and those were exactly the times
when Fedimar was in Japan. And then when he would go back to Brazil, the air
KS: After training, all the fighters would gather together in a circle and then
Fedimar would say something. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but
later on Takahashi said to me, “he was really mad today.” After all, he does get
mad. Something like, if a fighter trains right, he will win, but if he doesn’t train
right, he can’t fight. He also really praises the fighters. Like “good punch” and
KF: Knowing when to use candy and when to use the whip
KS: Yeah. Usually, he treats everyone nicely, he has warmth. Like, after the
Arona fight, when I went to Chute Boxe, Fedimar asked after my feelings.
KS: All the guys at Chute Boxe, even though I had been their enemy up until
now, they all welcome me. The first time I went to the academy, they all
greeted me with applause. And after training, they would invite me saying
things like, “Come on, let’s all go out and eat together!” They’re really good
guys.
KS: The first time I saw him mad, he said something like, “You guys are all
Chute Boxe guys, so work well together and stop fighting.” I thought to myself,
“But the one fighting the most wasn’t Fedimar?” (bitter smile) Because he did
things properly when he was younger, so he can teach the younger guys.
Fedimar has a young son now. It seems his kid got a baseball bat as a present.
He swung the bat at the TV and broke it. In the car, Fedimar had the bat with
him, and when I asked him, “what is this, for self-defense?” he said, “My son
destroyed the TV with it, it’s dangerous so I can’t leave it at the house.”
KS: The first time I met him, he was really shy. He had a toy figure of me. He
has a lot of figures of fighters in his house, so when Fedimar said, “here’s the
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No more shoot!?
From my HERO’S debut to the development of problems
The concrete itinerary for my participation was decided around the middle of
May. It was also decided that the stage for my HERO'S debut would be the
Tanikawa moved as slippery as an eel through my attacks, finally going for the
pin. In the end I was seduced and got flipped, and I was pushed into the
given the old NWA champion a run for his money. It's what they call "Tanikawa
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magic."
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Not exactly in exchange for that, but I was able to put forth a few ideas on the
format for the matches. In normal HERO'S bouts, the format is two rounds of
five minutes each and a single extra round. To take the opponent down, get
position, and work for a submission all within such a short time limit verges on
absolute advantage. I could tell him that for a grappler, the rules were
extremely harsh.
They listened to me, and the bout format they chose to use, for the light
round, and the second and third rounds would be 5 minutes apiece. The weight
limit for the HERO'S light heavyweight tournament would be 85 kg (187). For
me, this is a really easy class to fight in. The rules included no kicks to a person
on all fours, slightly different from PRIDE rules but not enough to bother me. I
was told that my fight wouldn't be the main event either. Like this, I will be able
My opponent was Kestutis Smirnovas. With a name so long you think you'll end
biting your tongue when you say it, and get this, his nickname is "The
like Takada's. I see, it's going to be like this. For me who just quit Takada Dojo
“And of course, you’ll change his entrance song for the fight with me?”
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“It’s the song he uses every time, he says that’s the way he wants to make his
entrance.”
“……”
Well, if my opponent wants it that bad, what can ya do. I reluctantly agreed to
letting Smirnovas use it. As this is my debut fight in HERO’S, they’ve made the
entrance order so that I go in first, then Smirnovas. I’m nothing more than a
newcomer in HERO’S.
And with that, everything was set. From here, it’s just stepping into the ring,
but then an explosion of Tanikawa magic. As the day of the event got within
range, Tanikawa started asking me about fighting in the main event. Of course,
I refused.
“……”
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I’m a sucker when it comes to being pushed like this. Being begged like “I’m
begging on my life!” – there’s no way I can turn it down. Tanikawa, he has skills,
doesn’t he. If I were a woman, maybe I would’ve been spending many a night
I got to the event and was waiting in the locker room when Yamamoto
(Yoshihisa) came in from behind muttering, “What the hell’s this? It’s a
complete class reunion.” I was there, Minoru Toyonaga was there, Wataru
Takahashi was there. It really was, everyone here was an original member of
Originally, Yamamoto and I had separate locker rooms. But with a crowd of
people talking like this, you can really relax. We took it upon ourselves to bring
the name board from Yamamoto’s room and put it in front of mine. We turned
While it was my HERO’S debut, I wasn’t really nervous. My mental state, the
same as always. I just have to show the techniques I’ve been polishing up in
training. At the crucial moment when I entered the ring, hearing Smirnovas’
entrance song, I didn’t feel any mixed feelings that might’ve raised my
temperature.
Only, when I really looked out at where I was standing, I could tell that the
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*
a feminine cat sound of submissive refusal
HERO’S ring was a bit more cramped when compared to PRIDE. This means
that a guy going for a takedown will immediately end up by the ropes. It’ll
interfere with the back and forth of the match, too. The area of the ring makes
me think twice and I wonder if it’s going to become a topic of debate in the
future.
I don’t really remember much of the fight. For some reason, what stands out to
strong hips. Shooting in, even getting right into the pocket, Smirnovas would
It was established later that the strength of his hips was that this Smirnovas
had used a trick. A rare experience. The next day, after having guzzled some
cellphone.
It bugged me, so I called my friend that I’d gone drinking with the previous
night and he said, “The call came when you were drunk last night. You don’t
cellphone. I think I was insisting, “Come here now and let’s drink.” Ah, it’s
coming to me… I’d been attacked by the exact same feeling the day after my
My corner’s evidence and the videotape fished my memory from the bottom
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depths of my brain. I predicted that, “From the start, he’ll come at me,” but
Smirnovas just wouldn’t leave the safety zone. And if I moved forward, I’d eat
a snappy punch to the face from him. When my head had left the arena, the ref
After, “don’t move,” the match continued. Knowing I had to go for the
takedown, I went for Smirnovas’ legs. Here, Smirnovas fully demonstrated his
After checking this part on video later, it turned out it was nothing. He was
simply grabbing the ropes. If I get him a little off balance, the ropes. If he feels
like he’s going to fall, the ropes. On and on, the same thing over and over. Not
knowing the big picture, I kept obediently shooting over and over like an idiot.
In the end, tired from fighting, Smirnovas kindly fell flat. I heard my corner
“Hm, going for an armbar would be better here than striking wouldn’t it?”
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I went very carefully to stretch out his arm. The submission win, my superb
love. I did it! And just as the fight ended, they thrust a microphone at me. The
thing is, maybe from being hit in the head a lot, I couldn’t think at all of what
to say. There was nothing I could do but ask my corner, Minoru Toyonaga, for
advice.
“Hello. Nice to meet you, I’m Sakuraba. Why am I here? I only half-remember,
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but I’ll work hard from here on so please be rooting for me.”
After such a really newcomer greeting to the audience, it was time for my usual
course, hospital, hospitalization. After this fight, the one thing I viewed with
suspicion was the ref’s timing in stopping the match. It’s true that I got hit in
the face a lot and even ate one strong enough that I lost consciousness for a
moment. And there was even a comment in an MMA magazine article that the
fight should’ve been stopped at the moment that it appeared I’d gone out.
A few days later, Shimo came into my hospital room screaming. It seems he
still hadn’t yet seen my fight with Smirnovas. I rewatched the match on video
with him. Losing conscious, hospitalization, it’s always the same. The swelling
I was moving while getting hit, not pressed up and lit up. I was listening
attentatively to both the referee and my corner. Inspecting the video from a
where a match should be stopped. After watching the video, Shimo agreed,
However, and this is a difficult point but the timing of referee stops is different
for every match and there is a lot of divergence. No matter where MMA goes,
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what we do, the timing will always end up scattered across the graph.
Ishizawa, who I’ve known of since I was an amateur, lost his match against
Carlos Newton due to a referee stop. Ishizawa, having eaten an uppercut from
Newton and looking like he was on the ropes, fell to the mat. But he
This was probably stopped too quickly. Ishizawa and his cornerman Takahashi
(Yoshiki) fiercely contested the stoppage. After the bout, there was a meeting
“Is it because of the way Sakuraba’s match went in Ariake that ref stops have
gotten quicker?”
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I don’t remember much of the details of what transpired around this time. My
fighters in HERO’S. I had always had a vague idea from the start, “sometime,
I’ll have to go up against a Japanese fighter,” but that situation called upon me
In the end of September, I was hit with horrible vomiting and dizziness during
training and was taken to the hospital. My illness was called, “Possible
simple terms, it’s a condition where a fine bone in the neck puts pressure on an
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artery causing insufficient bloodflow that makes a lack of oxygen in the brain
A buildup of damage over many years was the cause. From my high school
years onward, my neck had always been bad. In wrestling, you would get
thrown by the neck, landing headfirst into the mat. And if you absorb that kind
of shock again and again, sooner or later your neck is going to bite the dust.
It’s like eating a piledriver over and over for days, to give an easy to
understand example.
As well, in sparring, whether it’s a rear naked choke or a neck crank, you’re
always having moves that put stress on the neck done on you. It’s almost kind
of inevitable that you’d have problems. Like that, a bunch of little things piled
After the Smirnovas match, at the hospital a doctor said to me, “Please keep a
good watch on your condition before you start training again.” But being bored
September hit. Doctors’ advice and cold sake both work better later.
bloodflow insufficiency, but there was a high possibility that I had it. Taking
that seriously, I didn’t fight in the October 9 Yokohama Arena event. I watched
a technical question like, “From this position, which person has the advantage?”
But I have no answer to something like, “What is the mental state now of this
fighter?” Only that fighter knows. I’m a pro-wrestler, not someone with ESP
On top of that, the arena is so muggy, and I’m in a tuxedo, causing me to sweat
so much that my handkerchief fails to mop it up. I don’t think there is any way
Smirnovas was put back into the tournament in place of me. The brackets put
prediction was that “power fighter” Manhoef would take the tournament.
Skill-wise, I would have to say that his are still being formed, but you really
have to be careful against the physical ability and power of black athletes.
But in the final, Manhoef committed an egregious error. He had gotten his arm
trapped up and just decided to lift his opponent and slam him to the mat. And
in an instant he was tapping from the armbar. It’s just like when I fought
Randleman. It’s such a waste. If he hadn’t gone for the slam, he might’ve had
a chance.
The champion was decided, and who was it sitting in the light heavyweight
tournament champion seat, gleaming? “Him.” He called down from the ring to
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me in the TV seat.
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“Sakuraba, please have a full recovery. I’m waiting for you on New Year’s Eve.”
To tell the truth, I thought to myself, “Why don’t you give it a rest.” Can’t you
just be happy with winning? What’s the point in raising my name at this point.
Only, I had already dropped off of one card, and in my mind there was a feeling
of, “who’s my opponent for New Year’s Eve going to be.” And then Tanikawa
came to me after the match and put it to me, “For your fight on New Year’s Eve,
there’s no one but him.” As for a reason to refuse, I was unable to find one.
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announced there and the “me vs. ’him’" bout was made official.
times a week and weight training two times a week. Sparring was Monday,
Saturday. After a training session I would go to the hospital for electric muscle
this time, and as far as conditioning goes, I was progressing relatively well.
I came to hear this kind of rumor but I didn't really give heed to it. That after
their fight, Manhoef complained that he was slippery. That in his judo years,
the same claim was made and he was forced to change his judo-gi whereupon
The HERO'S rules clearly lay out that you can't apply or affix a number of items
to your body (oil, vaseline, topical pain relievers, massage oils and creams,
gripping material on the soles of feet/shoes, etc.) from the weigh-ins before
the fight all the way up until after the match is over.
The day of the event, hair gel as well is not allowed. This is common knowledge
for anyone involved in MMA. This far into the game, there's no need to recheck
the rules, right. He also signed off on the acceptance sheet at the rules
meeting.
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The bout is happening at the New Year's Eve event. This ultimate NYE battle is
being broadcast live throughout the entire nation in the same time slot as
"Kouhaku Uta Gassen." For FEG, and for the world of MMA, this is the most
Not to mention that he's the HERO'S champion. That he would openly foul in
with people all throughout Japan watching, there's no way he should break the
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Two days before the event, December 29, we settled in Osaka. Before the
event starts, we slowly make our way through a diet of checking my entrance
music, having interviews for TBS and the HERO'S official site, holding meetings,
photo sessions, etc. At the press conference it's made clear for the first time
"Of course!!"
The order of the fights this year wasn't told to any media even up until the
press conference the day before the event. I had already given my notice to
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hadn't heard a word. I was half beginning to give up. And at the crucial
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moment, I open the box, and of course I really am in the main event. Tanikawa
I use all of the remaining time to go back to the hotel and play videogames.
The day of the event, I'm to board a shuttle bus with other athletes to move to
the arena, arriving there just before 12. The opening is at 3. My fight won't
Each fighter was given his own time to do a ring check. I just think it's a pain
in the ass, so I haven't done any ring checks ever since I was fighting in PRIDE.
That way, even if I show up at the event right before my fight starts, there's no
problem eh heh. I digress, but against my better judgment up until now, I've
my fights. A pro fighter usually has a dentist make one, and uses that as his
own custom mouthpiece. I think it's a pain to go to the dentist, so I've been
way" is my doctrine.
I can be a little selfish here and nothing will happen (something did happen
though......).
I skip the shuttle bus, waste some time, and head there by taxi. But as I had
Looking back on it now, it was truly a day of rage. After the event opened, bout
0 started, with Kaneko (Ken), who I'd been training with. In the opening
moments, Kaneko had gotten his way into mount position against his opponent,
Andy Ologun.
Watching the fight on the monitor in the locker room, I had confidence in
Kaneko winning. But at this point, Andy was just holding on from the bottom,
causing the match to stall. The referee ordered them to break, and the match
For a grappler, working from after you get a good position is where the match
is won or lost. His fight actually starts once he gets there. So, what is it where
a guy can just hold tight, hugging from the bottom, forcing a restart on the feet,
and he doesn't even get a yellow card? Shaking with anger, my shouting
"This is fucked up! Why are they standing them up from here!? Why didn't they
A Gracie manager came into the room. I'm also a member of the Gracie family
"Ah......"
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This day, Shimo also came along with my corner. He's come along with us so
many times, but this is the first time we will be going together to the ring. And
we'll look the same. Both wearing a Tiger Mask mask, an orange gi, and
fingerless gloves.
L-size gloves. I don't wrap my hands, so this size fits perfectly. For Shimo,
who's a pitcher, he has really wide palms so I prepared XL's for him, but there
Heading to the ring, it'll be me first, then "him." I was told by the people at TBS
broadcasting the event, "Sakuraba, enter after him," but I firmly rejected it.
This is only my second fight in HERO'S, and the guy I'm fighting is the
Right before heading to the ring, Shimo stepped onto the elevator below the
stage humming a song to himself that I thought I'd heard somewhere before.
I have to say, Shimo is a really funny guy. We're about to head to the stage and
he can't stop cracking up. We look at each other and both burst out laughing.
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But this light-hearted atmosphere didn't last for long. For Shimo, this is his first
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experience of walking the ramp through the audience to the stage. He began
"Any second this elevator is going to start lifting us up, so please just look
"We're going to take them off and throw them into the audience. When it's time
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But when the elevator started to move, the twitchy shaking that had controlled
his body instantly stopped. A pro, after all. Where did all his flustering go. He
showed no signs of nervousness, making his way down the long, long ramp.
"I know what it feels like now for a fighter to head to the ring. They have to
the ring together sometime soon again. But next time, without any of this "Dun,
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Dun, Dudun."
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Finally, at my first New Year's Eve HERO'S event. I went to face “him” in the
same state of mind I'm always in. There was nothing in my head about the
rumors from his judo era or anything. What was in there was, and it goes
Royce (Gracie) gave flower bouquets to me and "him." Royce quietly said to
me, "Porrada!" (Beat his ass. Kill 'em.) I replied, "Muito, muito" (I'm gonna go
Bit by bit, closing the distance on him, I was using the double knee technique
I'd learned at Chute Boxe, beng beng. Even if I do say so myself, it made a
good impression*. At the press conference the next day, he said that he had a
broken bone in the right side of his chest, and I can't think of any other way
that could've happened than with my double knees. Maybe, definitely, it must
Timing it off a punch, I shot in. He managed it showing some agility and I
wasn't able to get control over the lower half of his body.
After the double knee, I shoot for the second takedown. This timing was right
in the groove and I was able to grab a real hold of his heel with my right hand.
This was the first time in the match that I touched his body. His supposedly
*
he makes a Japanese pun, where usually the Japanese character meaning "hand" is used in
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the word for "response." as in his knees creating a good response. He replaces “hand” with
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"leg."
He's so slippery!
"Whaaat?"
"What's this?"
"He's slimy!?"
Many doubts filled my mind. Question marks were floating around my head. I
The fight had just started. Neither of us had been moving so much as to cause
It left a strange feeling in my hand, like after having grabbed an eel, adding
credibility to the rumors I had heard about his earlier Judo days. However, at
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this point I don't want to believe and can’t believe that this champion would so
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overtly break the rules in such a major event. Did he really lube his body with
So what just happened a few seconds ago, really? He was definitely slippery.
He was absolutely slippery. What the, what the, what the...... With my
thoughts all messed up, I threw a low kick. The kick hit his groin.
While waiting for him to regain composure, I started speaking to the judge at
ringside. But my way of phrasing it was bad. I should've stated it more clearly,
"Please check his body." If I had used a word other than "slippery," and
The fight was immediately resumed. Low kicks were his main attack. And so, to
bring it to the ground, I have to set up the shoot. While he may be slippery, I
had no choice but to adapt my style to try to win. I shot in on him again. He was
moving forward on the offense, so I was able to get in really deep and hook his
However, again leaving the same strange feeling on my hands and arms, the
The question marks in my head turned into exclamation points. My will to fight
vanished entirely. This was no longer a fight. I really need the referee to stop
it. My opponent needs to have his body checked. There was still some space
between us.
"Time! Time!"
Even going for a shot in on him again, he would have nothing of it, “he” who
could boast of having such a special feel to his skin. His punches pushed me
"He's slippery!"
"That’s illegal!"
"Check him!"
During the rain of punches coming down, I appealed to the judge. Focusing all
my energies on trying to tell them the truth of what was happening, I had no
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But if I could just grab his arms or legs, then I could somehow affect his
balance but, unfortunately my head was on top of the bottom rope. The rope
was in the way, and I couldn't move my body at all. I don't know if the referee
was aware of this or not but he persistently said "Action." Though I'm
"Action!"
"Move! Move!"
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Anyway, the fight was stopped because I didn't move. To avoid a referee stop,
I tried hugging his leg, but as predicted it slipped, too. What am I supposed to
do!?
"He's slippery!"
"Where?"
Because I was riled up, I don't remember this exchange clearly. Just after the
bell rang, it seems I and the judge had an exchange something like this. But is
ten minutes really this short? Didn't the first round end a bit too soon?
punches had not yet inflicted any critical damage. "The 103rd hit, 104th hit,
105th hit..., soon the 108th hit. What am I, a Buddhist temple bell?” I was calm
enough to be joking around like this. Well this is a joke but, differently from the
Smirnovas fight and the Silva fight, the fact is that I remained conscious
"Why!?"
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I was about to explode in anger. The palms of my hands, though I didn't notice
during the fight, had a coconut-like sweet smell. The evidence is right there.
I protested to the referee and the ringside officials. There was no way I was
going to let his actions slide. Could anyone allow such a thing? You know, I can
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With these words, the referee tried to stop my protests. The butterflies in my
stomach wouldn't calm down. Feeling like this, I won’t be able to calm down
and enter the ring again. I can't believe anyone right now.
Returning, I could hear the voices in the stands. Even the audience didn't agree.
Among them, there were a lot of people that had come from afar to see me. I'm
Yelling things like that, I withdrew to the locker room. On the way there, the
group of referees camping out around the HERO’S staff room appeared before
me. I couldn't bear being there. I barged into their room and continued my
something that shouldn't be there, that his skin was really slippery and about
the smell that remained on my hands." Please wait a bit, I will go get the
As I was told, I went to smoke in the locker room next door while I waited for
his arrival. I tried using my manager's nose for confirmation, saying, "Hey,
there's a sweet smell!" while moving my palm toward him but he said, "It just
smells like smoke." I put the cigarette out in haste. After a little while, Maeda
Maeda, worrying about my physical health, and me, appealing against "his"
violation of the rules. The two conversations wouldn't quite mesh. The
cigarette smoke lessened it, but there still was a faint smell left on my palm.
Satou (Takenori), who was in the corner for bout 0 with Kaneko and also in the
corner for my fight, also gave evidence saying, "the smell in the ring was
clearly different between Kaneko's fight and my fight. During the main event,
Coming near the end, he still hadn't showed himself in front of me. I received
word from the referees that they checked his skin in the presence of my the
My suspicions were not cleared up. After the fight, I went to the hospital, then
returned to the hotel, then made a mad rush for the party. According to what
Shimo learned at the hotel, the other fighters in the event were all talking
amongst themselves about what "he" did. I heard that at the event, Royce also
Of course, at our party too, it was the main topic. Among us, the most mad was
and is the type to realize the gravity of someone breaking them. We went til
It was verging on the sunrise of the first day of the new year that I returned to
my hotel room. Before long, bright rays from the sun started to brighten the
streets of Osaka. From my window, I could see a fresh new rising sun. I put my
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KF: Besides training, how did you spend your time in Brazil?
KS: They took me to a lot of different places. There's an amazingly good pizza
place there. They serve pizza with chocolate and bananas on top. It's really
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delicious. Also, this was scary, but Fedimar owns some camping land, and
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horses and cows and the like graze there. There's also sheep there, and one
time, I approached their pen and the whole flock came charging at me. That
was scary. Fedimar was saying, "It's OK, no problem," but I was like "This is
bad! This is really bad!" The sheep were scowling at me. I tried not to look
KS: It seems Curitiba is a pretty safe place. My third time there, they brought
me to a favela at night, by car. Opening the window a bit, there was a strange
medicinal smell. Tominaga was there and he freaked, saying, "Let's go back
quick!" We started moving slowly and he was going, "My god! My god!"
(laughing). When the children there see adults, they all get scared and take off
KS: Yeah, they watch, the people with money do. It's on PPV there. They watch
it late at night. When it's around 4 or 5 in the evening here, it's 4 or 5 in the
morning there, so you go out drinking, then go right from there to a rich
person's house.
KS: Taxi drivers would get on their CB and say, "Sakuraba's in my cab now."
KS: Right, right (laughing). And on the streets. In downtown Curitiba, there
was a building there that would be perfect for a dojo. Fedimar was crazy about
the place, but the price was a bit too much. "I'm wondering whether or not to
open a dojo here and I can't decide. Sakuraba, you should do it!" "Me? I
couldn't..." And then this old guy near us said, "Sakuraba, if you open a dojo
here, I'll join." I was happy for someone to say that to me, but thought, "If this
old guy's my only student, it sure as hell isn’t going to work out" (laughing).
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KF: Did you have any troubles in your personal daily life?
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KS: Nothing. I really got familiar with Brazil. People do things neatly, Brazilians.
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Even if they're going to take a photo with their cellphone, they always ask first.
KS: Yeah, that too. From our perspective, it's because we know if we're doing
something wrong. It's the same as taking a sneak shot up a female student's
skirt with a cell phone camera! If someone tries to take my photo with a cell
camera, okay. Ah, one time when I was in Guam, when I was going to my
training place, I drove in front of a fire truck. The light was red so it was
stopped, but fire trucks have a microphone, right. The speakers blasted,
"Sakuraba, come on! Picture!" (bitter smile). Out of nowhere, my name was
called. It couldn't be helped so I pulled a U-turn and took a photo in front of the
fire truck.
KF: You mean, they wanted to take a photo with you so they told you to come
back...
KS: Right, right. If someone did that in Japan, it would be a huge problem.
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I think it was about 6 o’clock in the evening of New Year’s Day, 2007. Some
damaging news flew my way that had the power to change the NYE decision.
But to me, the “damaging” news was positive. As the case turned out to be, it
there was not only circumstantial evidence, but physical evidence as well had
The day after the tournament, I took a short forgivable nap, and soon after, I
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checked out from the hotel and got on the bullet train. We sat facing each other
on the train and had a quiet meeting. The anger from the night before was still
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A bit after having gotten home, the sound of my cellphone beeping was ringing
early in the new year? He had just spoken with a company that makes TV
programs a few minutes earlier, and said excitedly: “I got a call from a TV
company about a different matter, but it seems they have actual footage of the
‘scene of the greasy crime.’” The director actually saw it, they said.
people watching the fight must’ve had some doubts about it. So after all, the
fight world really is a shady world. There might’ve been viewers with such
We immediately requested a “retrial” from FEG. Why didn’t they see their own
mistake? Is there a fault in the check system? There was a need to seriously
Tanikawa promised to “investigate.” I can’t make a stake for my life and future
in such an environment riddled with gaps and blind spots. My manager also
contract was on the table. In HERO’s rules, it is decided that in the case of
writing within 2 weeks from when the match ended. While we were making
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complaints verbally with tons of objections, we also went on and made a formal
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then, if we can confirm the existence of the video, the case should be just
However, TBS, which has the video, would be closed until the 7th. So no matter
how much fuss I make until then, the video won’t show itself. Close your eyes,
and wait for good news… I can’t stand waiting! My butterflies showing no sign
What am I supposed to do about this feeling. That’s what I’m so pissed about.
On the 2nd, I called Maeda saying “I won’t just let this happen!” I also informed
Fedimar who was in Japan for the Otoko Matsuri of all the things going on. Even
The situation was completely different from when I lost against Silva. Silva
fought fair and square, and won. There are no fighters in Chute Boxe that
would act dishonestly. So you can get along with them well whether you win or
lose. Last year’s summer (2006) when I went to Brazil, Silva said to me “Happy
cares about me. Though, right now I don’t feel like reciprocating that love.
On New Year’s Day, I also got a mail from Takayama, “So, he was slippery,
wasn’t he?” I called him immediately and vented my feelings, “Oh man, he was
Here, a friend found a new point of suspicion. It was when we were watching
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the NYE fight. It was a scene from just after “he” was announced as the winner.
“Hey, what’s this, Kiyohara’s shirt has oil on it.” Hearing that, you could see,
rubbed off on his shirt. They wrapped around each other, but Kiyohara had a
Sports.
It seemed like many net users took it up as a topic. I don’t use the internet at
all. Or rather, I can’t use it. I have no idea how to use a computer. I’m not even
quite sure how to turn the power on and off. There’s a mysterious inverted
L-shaped button. I still don’t know what the function of that strange button is.
What does “enter” mean? I know “U-inter” but… I can’t use machines that have
So, these are all things I’ve been shown by other people, such as from
webpages. The NYE fight created a huge debate on the internet. A huge torrent
of speculations and doubts. With the “slippery problem” as the main focus,
there were also many people making claims to sponsors through mail and
phone. There was also a website that had lined up photos of all the contestants’
gloves, investigating the brass knuckle affair. When I was shown this page, I
This fight certainly has aroused a lot of suspicion even on the internet.
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Basically, I don’t like the net very much. But I think one of the main factors
bringing about a fair judgment was this internet “protest rally.” To the people
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who struggled hard in the online “ring,” I would like to take this opportunity to
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He’s on the screen, like putting mayo on salad, putting cream on his skin
directly from the bottle. Some people we don’t recognize with passes of a
different color than ours are carefully rubbing it in. His skin is completely white.
A European!?
January 10, I saw the video at a hotel in the city. The refs had already held a
meeting on it on the 7th or the 8th and verification of what he had been doing
backstage was made with the video. Resolution was soon at hand.
immediate answer. On that face, you couldn’t even find a trace of a feeling of
guilt.
There was so much cream applied to his skin that his entire body was white. No,
“applied to,” isn’t right , “caked on.” The cameraman, maybe because he was
bothered by the situation, zoomed in on the label of the cream bottle. The
As well, they showed me footage from the hotel after his hands had been
wrapped and the logo mark on his gloves was peeled and seemed like it would
fall off. The wraps around his fists were incredibly thick, maybe even 2
centimeters. The glove size was 3L, two sizes above the average baseball
player. They say this is the same size that 6’11” Semmy Schilt wears.
As for the logo mark, it was confirmed that it started peeling from hitting the
mitts. Maybe because it got in the way, but he himself took off the mark
portion and threw it. If the sponsors saw this scene, they’d probably burst into
tears. And besides that, isn’t it shameful for a grown man to litter like that. I’ll
When you first apply that cream, it’s light and almost powdery, but with sweat
or water it becomes slippery like a lubricant. Why did he apply something like
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this right before the fight? Was it done in bad faith, was it a blunder, there’s a
lack of knowledge, but you have to say he’s certainly lacking the sense of a
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professional. In our sport, too, there is a rule that states, “it is against the rules
to apply even a dab of something to your skin.” You’re not going to get away
with getting caught driving without a license and saying, “I didn’t know that
while it’s okay with a bicycle, it’s not okay with a car.”
And at the New Year’s Day victors’ press conference, there was something a bit
oversweating problem. If at that point he’d said, “Oh yeah, I put cream on my
skin,” it wouldn’t have broken out in a riot. That would’ve been the point where
Of course, I wouldn’t be able to say that I’ve never erred. At the same press
conference he said, “there’s no fighter that stops when he’s told ‘time.’” Right.
It’s true that point in the fight wasn’t a place to stop at. My timing for calling
time was bad. And I should’ve used a different approach to get the attention of
the officials. What I have to reflect on from my actions are those two points.
The next day, the 11th, the changing of the bout result to a no contest and the
conference. There was nothing in our protest document about how we wanted
it handled. There was no request from our side that we want it handled this
you only forfeit 10% of your fight purse. From Tanikawa, I received an
On the 11th, the day that the press conference was held, I made a public
statement saying, “I’m not satisfied.” I had said this to the FEG side earlier that
again into more speculation. I meant that I wasn’t satisfied because if I hadn’t
On the 10th, when I was watching the video, the rule director and the referee
that presided over our match directly acknowledged their error and apologized
to me for it. Thinking about letting time bury this whole thing, it of course really
could’ve gone that way. But, FEG and the people that judged the matter
and helping HERO’S become even bigger. As for hard feelings for the referees,
that dealt well with the situation, there are none, nothing. I even feel grateful.
As for “him”…… “nothing” again, but in a different meaning. Because our paths
will never cross again. I put a lot on that fight, but he had nothing in it……
Our work, to use a simple phrase, is to give dreams to the people watching our
fight. If he can’t look me in the eye and apologize, I can’t smile and make a
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rematch. It’s to send out energy, to keep the fight up, to live another day, to
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the fans, who buy these not-inexpensive tickets, and make their way all the
way to the arena, the viewers at home that choose MMA over Kouhaku to
watch, the children holding onto dreams of the ring, the 140 judo babies that
came up in the ring. The children can’t hold onto the dreams when the adults
On the 17th, this time I held a press conference and let people know what was
on my mind. “No contest,” in a word, means the fight wasn’t able to reach its
end. For a fight with no real conclusion, I got hit 105 times. I don’t want this
This one match on NYE exposed the inadequacy of the fighter checking system,
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points for improvement in the rules, a whole number of problems. The points to
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be looked at and changed, they cannot simply be left as is, they must be really
go to rules meetings. Because I was thinking, if the fighters and the referees
can meet and exchange all of their opinions, won’t they be able to build an
environment that’s more ideal for the fighters and the fans?
The 18th, the day after my press conference, there was a rules meeting at
which, from the fighters side, Uno (Caol), Tokoro* (Hideo) and myself rushed
to attend. We talked about that for us ground fighters, we don’t really touch
our opponents’ chests and backs. What we grab is usually the back of the neck,
the elbows, the back of the knees, the ankles. We told them all that we would
like the fighters’ bodies checked before every match with special attention
Uno also asked them about whether the bottom rope is really necessary, as it
prevents movement. The changes would be made quickly for the March 12
Nagoya event, with the places for putting on gloves, taking off gloves,
wrapping hands and cutting all put together into one room. As well, the ropes
were changed from five to four, and the vertical ropes from two to one, with
some room opened up for offense and defense against the ropes.
they are today. The history of competition in it is still short. I am wishing for
that one match on NYE to help MMA to take one big step in its growth. If that
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*
he uses the suffix –kun, implying a friendly relationship
happens, getting hit 105 times was worth something. Good medicine tastes
bad.
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event in Nagoya. No way. A pain in the ass. After my NYE match, I went an
entire month without any training. There’s no way I would be able to pull
myself back into shape by then. I want to concentrate on clearing “Blue Dragon”
on the Xbox. So it’s not the main event? No, that’s not the problem. Our back
But I didn’t know the right techniques to defeat Tanikawa magic. Just as time
was running out and it was going to be called a draw, Tanikawa slyly moved in
for the seduction. It was decided I’d fight about two weeks before the event.
Who is he, this guy? An American porn magazine? I tucked the Xbox under my
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arm and still not feeling into it, headed out for Nagoya.
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“I’ll show up to fight, but please let me stay out of the press conferences.”
They went along with my request. If I show up at the press conference, without
fail someone is going to ask me about NYE. It’s over. I have no intention from
here on out of ever talking about that matter again. The January 17 press
As for the fight, even though I was still mentally fatigued, I was healed by the
sweet feeling of a “give up” win. My corner was saying to me, “Calm down!
Calm down!” so without even being bothered, I kept the fight going at my pace.
If I can live out the rest of the year with no problems like this, it would be nice.
After more than a year away, my return home was unexpectedly realized just
can’t remember what we talked about. Digging again and again into the center
of my brain, only those simple words, “Win!”, “Good fight!” come to me.
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It was around 12 at night. In Brazil it was just lunchtime. At that time, right
next to Fedimar was DSE’s Sakakibara. Fedimar handed the phone to him and
Probably, and I say probably because I have no memory of it so that’s all I can
say, this case of drunkdialing is the one thing that lead to me having another
match in the PRIDE ring. A few days later, an official offer from DSE came
floating to my feet. When I had moved to HERO’S, I had let Tanikawa know, “I
also want to fight in PRIDE.” I answered without thinking really deeply about it.
“OK. I’m not injured either. And for me to appear in PRIDE now is also
The first opponent they sounded me out for was Silva. The April 8 PRIDE 34
card had a big “X” where Silva’s opponent should be. Because of a number of
different circumstances, Silva was unable to fight in the event, but that “X” was
really me.
However, this isn’t something that I can just pass judgment on by myself. If
I told the person that called me from DSE, “Talking directly to me could cause
problems, so please talk with FEG.” On March 27, I also called Tanikawa, who
had flown to the US for the “Dynamite!! USA” announcement conference. Just
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by coincidence that day, DSE was also holding a conference, at Roppongi Hills.
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It was the day that it was announced that PRIDE 34 would be the final PRIDE
over to the new owners, the same company that owns the UFC.
I had a talk with Tanikawa just as April came. We talked, confirming the
schedule from then on out and some other matters. I suddenly made a
preemptive strike.
“Enough about that. If you fight here now, PRIDE might really die.”
“Okay, how about this time you just greet the audience. And next time, maybe
For the first time ever, I got a win over Tanikawa. From there, the talks went
really well and my return home became official. For that to happen, for the first
time in some years, myself, Sakakibara and Tanikawa all sat at the same table.
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But if you look from the side of PRIDE, I was a traitor, sleeping with the enemy.
On April 8, I arrive at the event by car and the staff came to meet me. A
strange atmosphere. Their dealing with me was also very businesslike. Hm,
maybe I am after all a traitor….. One of the staff, when we were alone another
time in the past, had shown me photos of his children. Maybe talking with me
Backstage, the people that came in to say hello were Sakakibara and Fedimar.
When I arrived inside, the Chute Boxe guys were at ringside absorbed in a
match. Of course, I wasn’t there to hand them out to people in the audience, so
after the match they came to my locker room. A bunch of muscular men, acting
like old women gathered at a bargain sale, scrambling for the t-shirts. It
brought a smile to my face. I wanted to pat each one of them on the head.
I had a quick meeting with Sakakibara to make arrangements. Here I heard for
the first time that Tamura had rushed to the event. I went in, called by
Sakakibara, and next, Tamura entered the ring. Taking the mic from
Sakakibara, we addressed the crowd. The flow of it was something like this. I
start to talk saying, “I don’t remember the details of the call at all” and
Anyway, no matter how old you get, home is always a good thing. Coming to
the stage, I could see a scene spread out in front of me I’d only recently seen
in fond memories. The fanatic audience, the wild enthusiasm in the air, and in
the center of it all, a giant white “PRIDE 34” logo painted on the white mat. The
warm. The PRIDE ring, a place I never thought I would find myself in*. A
the tears come pouring out. Sobbing like I haven’t since watching reruns of “Dr.
In the ring, Sakakibara told the audience with great emotion that he hoped for
a match between myself and Tamura to be realized in PRIDE under the new
management. The person with the most extraordinary desire for this match to
take place was Sakakibara. From years back, I'd been waiting for a moment,
not like this in plain clothes, but where Tamura and I confront each other in
costume. My feeling hasn’t changed. Of course, I’d need the OK from FEG, but
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*
he uses agaru which is standard for “going up” as in the literal and figurative meanings of
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moving up into the physical ring and moving up in greatness to be a part of PRIDE
But with Sakakibara stepping down, the person that worked so fervently to try
to make this match would be stepping down. Considering the realities, the
chances of my and Tamura’s fists meeting in the PRIDE ring seem low. What
Tamura was feeling when he was standing in that ring that day, I don’t know.
I don’t know if the match will ever be made, or if we both will go on to retire
For me personally, though there maybe some people filled with disgust that a
traitor appeared in the ring, but if that starts people talking and activates the
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industry, I would like to fight in PRIDE again. I don’t care who my opponent is.
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Someday, I surely will make my way up into that ring again. This time, it was
only for greetings. Next will be a fight. When I get that feeling of wanting to
step into that ring again, of course, I will call Fedimar, and I’ll be drunk.
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If I’m remembering right, Tanikawa said, “You can skip the June event, so I
want you to be in the March 12 Nagoya one.” The June event would be the June
The arena was the grounds for both the ’32 and ’84 Olympics, the Los Angeles
people, and the ground brings it to well over 100,000.The place might even
surpass Tokyo National Stadium where the very first “Dynamite!” event took
place.
The Los Angeles event was officially announced on March 27 LA time. At that
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point, I wasn’t entertaining even a single offer. I was told, “You can skip the
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But just as we came into April, everything changed. I had said, “I want to fight
completely forgot about Tanikawa’s back-and-forth skills. And with that, not
quite knowing how exactly it happened, it was decided that I would appear in
the LA event. I was supposed to have gotten a victory over Tanikawa this time,
When I heard the fight card, I blurted that out. My opponent’s name: Royce
minutes each.
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If you think just time-wise, we fought each other 6 entire fights’ worth. So I
didn’t really see the need for a rematch at this point. Besides, he had come to
me before my NYE match and said “Porrada!” and had taken my side showing
indignation against “him,” so while I can’t say it’s at the level of friends, maybe
we are at least above acquaintances. What I mean is, at least for me, it makes
it a hard fight.
But already at this point I heard that Royce had begun training for the fight.
And I’m not one to quit while I’m ahead. Nothing to do but fight. On April 22,
The fight would be five 5-minute rounds. Because of the California Athletic
easily digestible pieces of 5-minute rounds. Five rounds of five minutes each,
But this time there were some slight changes to my program, with my past
switched so that it was a 2-piece set with weights and evening training put
together. The 2-piece set let me take some of the burden off my body. Partly
because of that, I was really able to get back in fight shape. And then I received
The Athletic Commission was not allowing any fight to take place with a fighter
that is taped up. I was informed of this mid-May. My knees are so bad that I
can’t even sit seiza-style. To try to go out and fight without them taped is
beyond ludicrous.
That’s what I said to my manager. After that, going back and forth with him,
we eventually learned that while taping isn’t allowed, the use of supporters is
fine. But even then, the Athletic Commission has conditions - the supporter
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stick on some heat pads and fight? Hey, I’m an old woman!
This supporter problem nagged me until the day before the fight.
mysterious organization. The rule that the supporter can’t be rough includes
the outlawing of putting scotch tape on it. I suppose they measure the height
Damn, I have a problem. The supporter I use in practice has some plastic on
the side parts of it so I probably can’t use it in the fight. I rushed to find
someone that could make me a custom one. The ones they sell in shops don’t
fit right. But even then, I doubt one could be made from scratch and make it in
So, take a store-bought supporter and make some alterations to it. There was
no other way left. I returned to Japan on May 18. My doctor found someone
and I quickly made my way to them. There, they just took measurements and
said they would mail the supporters to me later. It was unclear what the
commission would say was okay and what they would say was no good, so I
On the 20th I appeared on a talk show. After that, I made a quick stop back over
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with the people making the supporters. Then on the 22nd, I took off for LA.
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Coming back to Japan, I was only able to rest one day, on the 21st.
When I got to LA, I didn’t stay downtown where the other fighters and staff
stay, but near the beach at Marina del Rey. From 7am the next day, the 23rd,
The next few days, I got a taste of “runaround” hell. Different from Japanese
operate.
The doctor that the commission selected as our final judge was an old man that
“I hear yesterday, that doctor touched the dicks of Choi Hong-man and Yoon
Dong-Sik.”
I heard this from my interpreter before returning to the medical checks. That’s
sexual harassment! And from a man! As the check was underway, I was strictly
This old man, he’s quite a suspicious fellow. He leaves the room right in the
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middle of the check, comes back, then goes right back out again. It turns out
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I suppose it was because of that but he was really hurried with me. I can’t
speak English. So, I brought an interpreter right into the medical check with
me.
First, the old guy asked questions. Then the interpreter would repeat it to me
in Japanese. And then I would answer. And the interpreter would convert my
Japanese answer into an English one for the doctor. The doctor said in rapid fire
succession:
The old man had gotten pissed at the interpreter. Between the two of them,
they just couldn’t converse. In the midst of their mismatched exchanges, the
“And not just the pants, your underwear too. Show me reeeeal good.”
I didn’t think I’d be going all the way to America and then have to reveal the full
monty. The old man was using both hands to hit my pelvis on either side of my
dick. What kind of exam is this? Even now, it is still an unsolved mystery. And
it seems only three people received this special check, myself, Choi and Yoon.
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Along with this, I had to deal with a bunch of other pain in the ass stuff that day.
There was an intelligence test. I suppose this was to test for brain damage. “LA”
“DOG” “4” “WHITE.” Before the test, the old woman doctor instructed me to
“In the middle of the test, you’re going to be asked what the four words were,
By the way, the third word, “4,” I was asked for my favorite number, so I chose
it based on that it’s a bad omen in Japan*. I had a little bit of a battle with this
“4.” It’s not my favorite number or something so I kind of forgot I had marked
it down. “LA” “DOG”…… What was my favorite number again? I sat there in
bewilderment.
And then, they give you a 2-digit number, then add one digit to it, and then
another, and you have to remember it all the way up to seven digits. After that
was some math problems and diagrams, it went on and on like a kindergarten
test. And then at some odd moment, “LA” “DOG” “4” “WHITE.” I’m not that
much of an idiot.
That day, only the ECG results were bad. I got another heart check at another
hospital in the same building. The check came out fine this time, but the old
doctor stubbornly refused to accept the results. In the end, I wouldn’t receive
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*
“4” has the same reading as “death” in Japan so it is considered an unlucky number.
permission on the 23rd. I still hadn’t gotten an MRI, so the final decision would
Finally, the 24th, I go in the afternoon to a different hospital to get my MRI. The
doctor there said, “It’s a pain, right? I’ll help you get it finished today.” He
called ahead to another hospital to put me in for an ECG. But when I went to
that hospital at the arranged time, the doctor in charge seemed to not be there.
The appointment was for 4:30 in the afternoon. The doctor had gone home at
How many buildings have I been to now? The 25th, and yet again, to another
hospital. For the first time ever in my life, someone handed me a pacemaker.
“Keep this attached to your body for 24 hours. It’s now 2pm on the 25th, so at
“No problem.”
“Can I drink?”
“Sure.”
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No matter what I ask, “Okay.” If that’s the case, what’s the point of wearing
the pacemaker, I thought to myself. And they said I could take it off at 2pm on
the 26th, but every hospital in LA was closed for a 3-day weekend until the 28th.
So, at the earliest, I’d receive the final judgment on the 29th. And even if
there’s no problem with the medical checks, there’s still the supporter problem.
I’d started to hear rumors that Choi wasn’t cleared and wasn’t going to be
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Right after arriving in LA, I noticed an important fact. The hotel TV doesn’t
have the red, yellow and white connectors. So I can’t connect my game
console. And I can’t watch my BO0WY DVD (Japanese rock band) either. It’s an
extreme thing. I couldn’t do any practice either, until finishing the medical
checks. And then, because I can’t play games or watch DVDs, there is really
nothing to do. In other words, I’m free every day. I really hate being put in
I ran to the electronics store right away. In the store, they had a 20” LCD
screen going for 299 dollars. Wow, cheap. There was also a 10% discount for
items in stock. With a price like that, you just have to buy it. So, without
hesitation I did. After that, I escaped from the boring days of playing around
with my cellphone. I was a happy camper, filling my days with games and
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Bo0wy DVDs.
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I heard that Royce wants to change from five 5 minute rounds to three 5 min
rounds. “Whaaat, 7 years back he was asking for no limits…” Well, no matter
how many rounds, if one of us doesn’t pass the medical checks, it won’t matter
in the end. Just like me, Royce was punished by the commission and had to run
around from hospital to hospital. I don’t know why but Choi, Royce and myself
were treated quite strictly by the commission. In the end, Choi, who was
scheduled to fight Brock Lesnar in the main event, was for some mysterious
Two o’clock on the 26th, I was released from the pacemaker. On the 27th, I did
light running on the beach. The 28th, I started practice with Chute Boxe USA.
And on the 29th, I grabbed my pacemaker and went to the hospital once again.
My heart was OK. They didn’t find anything wrong in the treadmill test. The
MRI went smoothly. I passed all the tests. I was finally done with all the
medical exams.
Next up, whether the supporter deal will work out. If they say, “This supporter
is no good,” I planned to not fight in the event. Of course, based on the endless
pain in the ass of the medical exams, I was thinking that they wouldn’t say OK
The supporters arrived on the 31st. There would be an official check on June 1
at the rules meeting, but just to be sure, we met directly with the commission
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The old man just picked up the supporter in his hand and quickly said okay. He
didn’t bother to check the roughness, whether it was no harder than ligaments
There was a problem with the number of layers of the supporter. I had used a
non-slip thin supporter and then the main magic tape supporter over that, and
then finally a supporter over that one to cover the magic tape, so I was
“Yeah, my knee……”
“Your knee? Then you should go and get your medical check redone.”
“Uh…… Well, no, two layers would be fine. I don’t need three.”
There was no way I could object. I decided to just use two of the three layers
I’d gotten. By the way, I’d gotten real revenge on the old man.
The day before the event, there was an afternoon press conference, then
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public weigh-ins, and the rules meeting. At the weigh-ins, I unveiled the
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Standing in the restroom, I first draw lips around my belly button, and from
Rickson, moving my stomach muscles all around to make the face I’d drawn
move. When I did that, the needle on the scale kept moving. I can’t get
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*
he uses the word haragei which means “expressing oneself without words or gestures” but it
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The old man that had checked my supporter the previous day was yelling from
the side, “Don’t move! We can’t get your weight!” Completely ignoring him, I
kept on wiggling my belly around. In the end, he tucked his head in his hands
successful.
I found out that day that my match had been changed from five 5-minute
Just sending one person to the rules meeting was fine, so I asked my
“It seems there’s no stopping the fighters and having them restart in the
center in the same position, but otherwise, it’s the same as HERO’S rules.”
We arrived on June 6 at the arena around 2 in the afternoon and checked out
the ring. The mat space was wider than in HERO’S and felt perfect. But the
ropes were really slack. The top and bottom ropes were both pulled taut but
the other 3 ropes were all flopping around. If I get pushed up against the ropes,
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I’m trapped.
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After that, I went back to the hotel for a short rest. At 6, I got on the bus with
Tokoro, Kim Min Soo and everyone, heading to the arena once again. We were
supposed to arrive at 6:30. But near the arena, police were controlling traffic
At this rate, we won’t make it to the 7:00 opening. We got off the bus right
there and headed out on foot. Along the way, an elementary school kid in the
passenger seat of a car saw me and shouted with a really surprised face, “Ah!
Sakuraba!!” All of the fighters that are going to be in the ring just walking down
We arrived around 6:45. Without even changing clothes, we all attended the
opening like that. From that point all the way up until my fight, the commission
restrictions on where I was allowed to eat. Eating and drinking in the locker
room forbidden. The only thing you could put in your mouth was water. Besides
for warming up, you weren’t really supposed to leave the locker room. They
My entrance gag had been decided long ago. My opponent is Royce. I had to
When I entered, I took them off one by one and threw them into the audience.
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*
a Japanese pro-wrestler
I was able to feel just a little of what Mil Máscaras* must’ve felt.
And then, the fight. Royce was throwing his special front kick. Backstage, I had
been practicing just to check the kick and throw punches, beng, beng beng.
This really ended up working. I really got him in the face early in the match. It
felt good in my hand. Royce, fallen on his butt, doing it just like last time,
throwing upkicks from the bottom. And every single kick in change hitting the
knee. Just as I wondered if it wasn’t hurting, from the second round there were
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*
a Mexican pro-wrestler
But, no matter what, it was a difficult fight. On top of everything, the supporter
was weaker than tape, so I was distracted with thoughts worrying about my
knee.
Royce, now standing, and I get both arms around his chest. Royce stayed there,
pushing me up against the ropes. I had this same kind of offense and defense
In the second, I tried throwing knees. But Royce is tall, so my knee couldn’t
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quite reach his head. When I threw what felt like a really high knee, it would hit
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him in the stomach. With that, he buckled a bit. A chance. The next knee I
threw hit his head. This was such a good hit it probably bruised my knee. Royce,
As I sprawled, that’s what I thought. Next, in the third round, I got a hold of
Royce’s arm and just then the bell sounded. Everyone knows the result, I lost
by decision.
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Royce’s cornerman, Royler, and Helio were offering words of gratitude and
shaking hands with me. I shook hands with all of them, but for some reason,
only Rodrigo backed away. Maybe even now he still thinks of me as gay.
The reason for the loss resides in me. I should’ve been able to finish the fight.
A lot of things in America left me mentally fatigued. The next time I fight
overseas, I hope it’s not in America but in Brazil. And writing it here, it just
might come true. I’ve been going for so many years now. So, I’m not going to
fight at the event in July. Well, everyone, good night. Let’s meet again next
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KF: I would like to know what you think about how much longer you will go.
KS: I’ll fight another two, three years, then think it over then.
KF: How often do you plan to fight? Your pace now is to fight about two to three
times a year.
KS: About that much is good. If I don’t have injuries or anything, I could see
KF: You have also just started to put out some good young fighters. I don’t
think you’re quite ready to leave it all to the young generation of fighters but…
KS: No way.
KS: Yeah.
to simply vanish.
KF: I don’t think anyone would forgive you if you did that.
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KF: In your career, is there some one thing that you’d like to do before you
KF: What about the mysterious murmurs we’ve been hearing about you
KS: There’s no place. We found a good place but it turned out to be an illegal
construction project.
KF: Too bad. Well, what kind of dojo do you want to make it, even if you just
KF: You shouldn’t be laughing. Forming a fight family all under one roof, when
you open your dojo – this will be a first for you. Will the model for it be Chute
Boxe?
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KS: Yeah. Like Chute Boxe, even if I’m not training, just to go there and watch
other people training. If I can make it a place that a lot of people come to, I’ll
be happy.
KS: Of course, an incredibly powerful and good fighter. Not a guy that’s got
great strength or a guy that’s really aggressive, but a guy that’s got cunning,
KS: Not just for MMA. I think it’s true for all sports. And not just sports, also for
shogi and chess. I don’t mean “cunning” as a bad thing. I mean to think it all
KS: Yeah.
KF: Maybe a person that likes tricking other people would be really good at it?
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KS: Hm, I don’t know. If a person is strong and can use that strength in their
fights, that’s the right kind of athlete. They use their strong points. Like
Michael Jordan in basketball. He’s really damn good isn’t he. I’d be happy to
KF: The kind of person people see and say, “That guy, he’s good!”
KS: Yeah. When Michael Jordan is looking one way, he’s passing in a
completely different direction. It’s amazing, and passes between his legs and
all that.
KF: Well, the, finally, a message to the readers… This time, we didn’t have any
KS: Now that you mention it, yeah. I wonder what happened… We didn’t have
KS: I also want to become a great and cunning fighter. Malandro! 214
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