Did Kazushi Sakuraba kill Japanese MMA?

Sure, that's an intentionally deceptive and sensationalistic headline.  I've been wondering about the death of Japanese MMA lately and if there are some causes that nobody has been thinking about.  (I even have a huge blog entry that I haven't posted about an off-the-wall reason Japanese MMA is dying because it didn't really end up making sense)  Of course the often cited reasons for the demise of Japanese MMA all have some validity but there has to be more than that.  The global recession has had an effect, but the USA is doing just as bad as Japan but the UFC is still going strong here and expanding worldwide.  Changing viewer habits?  Makes sense, Japanese fans are notoriously fickle.  You just need to look at the roller coaster popularity of pro wrestling.  Yakuza involvement?  It hasn't seemed to hurt UFC having Dana White in charge.  (I'm kidding, I'm probably more pro-Dana White than most people)

So, is there something else out there that has caused Japanese MMA to slowly die.  Maybe Kazushi Sakuraba has killed Japanese MMA.  Crazy theory, but let's take a look at Kazushi Sakuraba's career.

Stage 1 (Debut - Pride 12)

  

Sakuraba moved from professional werstling to MMA and had an auspicious debut as he lost by submission to Kimo Leopoldo, who came in 60 pounds heavier than Sakuraba.  In his next 15 fights, he went 12-1-1 with one no contest.  His lone loss was to heavyweight Igor Vovchanchyn in a match that happened just hours after his legendary 90 minute victory over Royce Gracie.  During this time is when he gained legend status in Japan with victories over 4 members of the Gracie family; Royce, Ryan, Renzo and Royler.  During this time, Pride was also becoming the biggest MMA company in the world.  They had a mix of small attendance shows with big shows at the Tokyo Dome in the beginning.  Pride 12 saw 27,000 attend Pride's first show at Saitama Super Arena, the unofficial home arena of MMA in Japan.

Stage 2 - (Pride 13 - Pride Shockwave 2005)

This was the period that saw Sakuraba's decline.  He went 7-7 and had three devastating KOs against Wanderlei Silva.  He also suffered multiple injuries during this time.  His worst may have been during the biggest fight of his career.  He was in the main event of the largest MMA show in history.  Over 90,000 at the Tokyo National Stadium saw Sakuraba match up with former kickboxing great Mirko Cro Cop.  Cro Cop came in 30 pounds heavier but was also fighting just his 5th MMA fight.  Sakuraba was able to take Cro Cop down late in the 1st and 2nd rounds but was never close to finishing Cro Cop.  At the end of the 2nd round, Cro Cop caught Sakuraba with an upkick and fractured Sakuraba's orbital bone.  Sakuraba was unable to continue and lost in the main event of the biggest MMA show ever.  His only significant victories during this time were a submission of an inexperienced Quinton Jackson and a suspicious looking submission of Kevin Randleman. 

Stage 3 - (Sakuraba in Hero's)

After Pride Shockwave 2005, Sakuraba left Pride to sign with their rival Hero's, which was run by the kickboxing group K-1.  In 2 years with Hero's, Sakuraba went 4-1 with 1 no-contest.  He couldn't avoid controversy in his time with Hero's.  There was the fight against Kestutis Smirnovas, where he was knocked out thru the ropes.  But the referee decided to drag Sakuraba back in the ring and restart the fight.  Somehow Sakuraba managed to regain his senses and eventually would submit Smirnovas.  His next fight was a high-profile main event match against Yoshihiro Akiyama at the Osaka Dome on New Year's Eve 2006.  After being dominated by Akiyama, the ref stopped the fight in the middle of the 1st round.  But the fight was later ruled a no-contest after Akiyama was discovered to have applied lotion to his body to make himself more slippery against Sakuraba's submission offense.  He then rematched with Royce Gracie at the controversy riddled Dynamite!! USA show at the LA Coliseum.  Though Sakuraba lost by decision, Gracie later tested positive for steroids.  He then beat former pro-wrestler Katsuyori Shibata and the legendary Masakatsu Funaki, who had been retired for 7 years, by submission.  His fight against Funaki was that last show that K-1 had MMA fights, K-1 PREMIUM 2007 Dynamite!!.

Stage 4 - (The Dream Years)

Not only did Hero's see its demise during Sakuraba's time there, but Pride also went out of business.  While Sakuraba was planning to return to Pride for a fight against Kiyoshi Tamura, but that never happened under the Pride banner.  Pride was sold to Zuffa/UFC in the Spring of 2007 and never had another show.  Sakuraba returned to fighting with Dream, a company formed between former Pride executives and K-1.  Dream hasn't come close to reaching the heights of Pride and Sakuraba hasn't come close to replicating his successes from the beginning of his career.  His time in Dream shows his career should definitely be over.  He's 3-6 in Dream.  He has 2 wins in Dream over non-MMA fighters making their MMA debut and a victory over the mostly average Zelg Galesic. He's also been submitted twice in that time, his first submission losses since that first fight against Kimo.

If you look at the career path of Sakuraba, his career peaked at the same time as the popularity of Pride was peaking.  Even though he had bad losses before, the downward trend for Sakuraba really began when he suffered a brutal one-punch knockout at the hands of Wanderlei Silva in August 2003.

After this knockout, his career was a mix of brutal beatdown losses and victories over subpar competition.  As his career slowly faded, Pride was still the top MMA company in the world.  From their start in 1997 thru the end of 2005, Pride was the biggest MMA company in the world.  Interestingly, when Pride's decline started in 2006, the UFC began to take Pride's place as the preeminent MMA company.  It only took a year and a half for Pride to shut it's doors and be bought out by the UFC.

So, did Sakuraba really kill Japanese MMA?  It's no secret that the Japanese fans love to root for Japanese fighters.  They respect all fighters that get in the ring, but they really get behind their own.  This is obvious when you see the fanfare and interest in the MMA debuts for Japanese Judo Olympic gold medalists, Hidehiko Yoshida and Satoshi Ishii.  But for all the Japanese MMA fighters that fought over the last 15 years, the most popular was Kazushi Sakuraba.  Is it possible that Japanese fans became disillusioned by Sakuraba's deteriorating skills and started tuning out?

Or maybe Japanese MMA killed Sakuraba's career?  Maybe he felt pressured to show up to fight for his Japanese fans when his body needed a rest.  Sakuraba is well known for coming to the ring with his legs taped up like a mummy.  Maybe if he would have taken time off to let his body heal, he wouldn't have had such bad losses on his resume.

It's not just the Japanese fans that are disappointed, though.  I'm pretty sure all MMA fans cringe when they see Sakuraba fight now.  He's just a shell of his former self and it is really sad to see him fight these days.  I imagine it's similar to Willie Mays fans seeing him stumble around the outfield for the Mets or Johnny Unitas fans watching him constantly getting sacked for the San Diego Chargers.  Hopefully, Sakuraba retires and MMA fans can just remember him as a great fighter and great entertainer.

Will Japanese MMA ever return to the levels of the past?  Probably not, but maybe there's hope for MMA in Japan.  The UFC returns to Japan to hold a show at the Saitama Super Arena in February 2012.  This show will go a long towards showing the state of MMA in Japan.