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Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kiyoshi Tamura set for Dynamite!!
By Zach Arnold | November 12, 2008
It took a really long time, but K-1 got the fight they wanted — Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kiyoshi Tamura. This will headline the 12/31 Saitama Super Arena event. The theme for this fight is UWF-International & PRIDE vs. RINGS. A picture says a thousand words.
Joachim Hansen will face JZ Calvan on the undercard.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, MMA, Media, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
To me the picture says, yeah, Tamura sure is an asshole.
I’d open Tamura as a favorite if I was a bookie, too. You know everyone still wants to think Sakuraba can do it (which shit, he might still).
I’m shocked this fight is happening.
As a huge fan of shoot-style puroresu, I cannot wait for such a nostalgic fight.
Why would you be shocked this is happening?
K-1 needs a big main event at all costs, and I’m sure Tamura played them like a fiddle in terms of money for it. They have to go big or go home this year.
YYYYYYEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fuck yeah! I am stocked for this fight happening! But I will go Tamura for the win, only because he isn’t as broken down as Sakuraba. Sakuraba was always a better fighter than Tamura, but Tamura hasn’t taken beatings like Saku has in the past few years.
[...] via Fight Opinion [...]
i hope this fight lasts longer than the Funaki Saku fight. it should because Tamura should be better right?
Shocked because this fight was never supposed to happen. I believe one of them said they would never fight the other.
Very happy this fight is finally happening! pretty sure have 1 win each over each other from the UWFi days. Wonder if K-1 will use them matches and history for the build up?
But seriously I would honestly pay to watch Saku vs Tamura under U-Style rules!
At the last DREAM press conference Sakuraba’s arm was still in a cast.
[...] H/T: Fight Opinion [...]
On the press conference, Sakuraba demanded special rules: no time limit and no gloves (just palm strikes)! U-Style rules or pure grappling match would be cool!
Tamura and Sakuraba fought 3 times in UWFi and Tamura won all of them. Check out youtube.com/UWFvideos.
Yeah Tamura was a star who Takada mistakingly didn’t give the push in the UWFI. I know its years to late but I’m still excited about this fight happening.
With Sakuraba not having very many fights left in him, I’m happy that this one is finally happening.
I’m not that in tune with Puroresu.
When you say that Tamura won all three fights in their UWFi trilogy, I take it that these wrestling matches were shoots and not works?
“When you say that Tamura won all three fights in their UWFi trilogy, I take it that these wrestling matches were shoots and not works?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTNyKIGXiI
“When you say that Tamura won all three fights in their UWFi trilogy, I take it that these wrestling matches were shoots and not works?”
Nope. They were works. Believe it or not, Sakuraba’s first pro MMA fight was actually with UFC. Well, a Japanese UFC show, but still.
Do yourself a favor and check out old UWFi (for some reason, the “i” is lower case. Not a typo on my part) when you get the chance. It’s great stuff. Especially the UWFi vs. New Japan Pro Wrestling fued stuff from 1994. Financially and popularity it was the greatest year in New Japan’s history. Quality wise it was up there by a long shot too.
Zack (not Zack Arnold, the guy two posts up) was that really necessary? You are showing your ignorance as an anti-pro wrestling MMA fan. In pro wrestling, occasionally, there are special shoot wrestling matches.
They fought 3 times in UWFi.
I’ve seen all of these, but I do not think the fights were worked. They were playing poker and UFC was a roulette. 2 different sports.
Tamura had many worked fights in UWFi and RINGS, primarily because he had to fight super heavy weight opponents. With Sakuraba, he had no reason to fix them.
If you remember Jens Pulver VS Denis Hallman, that was the most boring MMA fight ever in major promotions.
Both guys knew they were equally skilled and the loser would leave town.
So they stalled the fight for 25? minutes.
What if they lived together in the same house and fought each other for 3 times a year? Wouldn’t they try to make their fights more interesting? Wouldn’t they allow each other to show their best tools?
UWFi was situated as the latter case.
Again, I don’t think their fights were predeterminded.
rainrider,
UWFi was a pro wrestling company. Sure they were shoot style, and the rule sets for the fights said as much, but UWFi was purely a worked company. RINGS had shoot matches here and there, but not UWFi.
http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Kiyoshi-Tamura-1451
http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Kazushi-Sakuraba-84
There are the MMA records of both men by Sherdog. Notice that their “fights” against eachother aren’t there, nor anything from UWFi. And I was wrong about Saku’s first actual MMA bout being in UFC (it was under Shoot Boxing. When did they ever have matches with ground work allowed?).