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The chances of Frank Shamrock beating Kazushi Sakuraba in the 1990s

By Zach Arnold | July 2, 2010

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Jordan Breen picked Sakuraba to win such a dream match:

“As far as a Kazushi Sakuraba/Frank Shamrock fight goes, I would have taken Sakuraba over him. People forget how positively dreadful Frank Shamrock’s wrestling was. I don’t know if it’s because he was in Pancrase and think that, OH, THEY COULD WRESTLE THERE, because I mean they couldn’t. So… No. Kazushi Sakuraba might have the best single-leg takedown down in MMA history. He would have taken Shamrock repeatedly and be able to get positions on him. Would have been fun to watch but I don’t think a lot of the kind of advantages that people like to overstate about Frank Shamrock’s career would have been hugely present there. Everyone’s, OH, FRANK SHAMROCK WAS SO WELL-ROUNDED. Well, he couldn’t wrestle. His striking wasn’t that great and, you know, that doesn’t leave you with a whole lot of stuff. He was really well-versed on the ground, was great in scrambles, could fight out of positions and had good cardio. Fortunately, Sakuraba was, I don’t want to say better at all of those things, but you know, it was not like he had cardio issues despite even being a chain smoker and I think was the far-superior grappler especially with respect to positions. If they’d fought in their respetive primes anywhere from 1997 up to 2000, I would have definitely taken Kazushi Sakuraba. After all, I mean, Frank Shamrock had to go you know tooth-and-nail with a completely inexperienced, nearly teenage Jeremy Horn with a $4 hair cut. I would have definitely have taken Sakuraba over Frank Shamrock in their respective primes, although for whatever reason Shamrock remains one of those guys that people really see as, I think it’s perhaps fair to see him as a forerunner to the well-rounded Mixed Martial Artist. But I do think that people overestimate how truly well-rounded he was because he wasn’t this kind of Georges St. Pierre-type in the year 1998, 1999. There were definite massive gaps in his game at that point in time that could have been exploited, but for whatever reason people tend to overlook en masse.”

Thinking about this topic makes me feel really old (when I’m not). I remember watching a very young Ken Shamrock in Japan in the early 90s and Frank as well in the middle part of the decade. The one match that stands out the most to me from Frank was actually an exhibition match he had with Kiyoshi Tamura in RINGS. It was at Osaka Prefectural Gym and RINGS was more or less making the transition from more worked fights to shoot fights. Their exhibition match was a work, but it was an excellent bout to watch. When Maeda made the decision to change the direction of the promotion more towards a real product, Frank Shamrock’s entrance into the company was considered kind of a big deal by insiders at the time in Japan. However, while the match itself was terrific (the ace of RINGS vs. the former ace of Pancrase), it didn’t draw that strong of a house in Osaka. The building was a little over half-full.

You have to remember at the time what MMA was like in the 1990s. In Japan, you had UWF-International and Takada was the God. Yoji Anjoh was inexplicably the booker and he ended up getting sent as a ‘hitman’ to fight Rickson Gracie in Los Angeles. (Lots of stories to tell about that ordeal.) At that time, Anjoh had put himself over a lot of the guys on that UWF-Inter roster, including Sakuraba. The cover of Weekly Pro said, “Hitman, knocked out.”

Then, in America, you had “The Alliance” with Kohsaka, Maurice Smith, and Frank Shamrock. Remember, at that time, it was viewed like a super-team. The idea of training camps floating around like Greg Jackson’s squad does just didn’t happen. So, The Alliance was viewed at as a big deal at the time.

Meanwhile, WWE and WCW couldn’t quite figure out what to make of MMA. WWE ended up having Ken Shamrock and “The Lethal Weapon” Steve Blackman.

(Steve is actually promoting MMA events in Pennsylvania now.)

WCW had Glacier (a ridiculous character), Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker, and Sgt. Craig “Pitbull” Pittman.

So, yeah, about that dream match-up… Jordan’s right in that Sakuraba would have won. A lot of the Japanese wrestlers are/were chain smokers and still maintained amazing cardio. I wish the fight between Sakuraba and Frank would have happened. It reminds me of just how much the business has changed in a decade.

Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

15 Responses to “The chances of Frank Shamrock beating Kazushi Sakuraba in the 1990s”

  1. edub says:

    Gotta disagree.

    Shamrock by late TKO.

  2. Zack says:

    Dream fight. I’d take Sak though. Frank wouldn’t have been able to stop him, and Sak had the quickest single in the game which gives him a huge advantage cuz even in Frank’s prime, wrestling was not his strong suit. Sak most likely by dominant 1 sided decision…unless he decides to turn it up and blast Shamrock through the ropes Yuki Kondo style.

  3. edub says:

    Early career (before 97) I think Sak takes it.

    97-2000 I gotta go with Shamrock. His striking and submissions just seemed to meld together perfectly. I really think he would’ve outlasted Sak Tito style.

    Another fight I would really liked to have seen would be Bas vs Frank 4…

  4. shootor says:

    don’t forget about Dan Severn’s run in the WWF, or David Abbott in WCW.

  5. 45 Huddle says:

    Shamrock didn’t have the wrestling takedown defense to beat Sakuraba.

  6. David M says:

    Sak was an infinitely better wrestler than Frank(I guess that isn’t saying much; so was Renzo Gracie), and he had better submissions too. Prime Saku beats anyone in mma history at 185 or 170 in my opinion. GSP and Anderson are the only guys who even make it particularly competitive; Saku also had very underrated standup-kicked like a mule and could actually punch, I have not forgotten the surprising sight of seeing him drop Mirko with a punch, and I believe he dropped Wanderlei in one of their fights as well before eventually succumbing to someone so much bigger and more roided out than he was.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      Wanderlei Silva?

      Sakuraba was good for his time but would get wrecked by the current fighters.

  7. Vic Mackey says:

    Sakuraba was just better at everything. Nobody would have “outlasted” him in that era. Especially somebody weighing 185lbs. He fought for 90 minutes, took a nap and came back for 15 more. That’s 21 rounds in one night. “Outlast” Sakuraba? LOL

  8. grafdog says:

    SAKU’S super single leg > Frank’s inferior wrestling ground skills. Frank would have a better chance against Shoji.

  9. rainrider says:

    > The one match that stands out the most to me from Frank was actually an exhibition match he had with Kiyoshi Tamura in RINGS. It was at Osaka Prefectural Gym and RINGS was more or less making the transition from more worked fights to shoot fights. Their exhibition match was a work, but it was an excellent bout to watch.

    They fought under RINGS (UWF) rules so technically it was not a complete MMA bout. But was it a work?

  10. Mark says:

    Come on now, you could never pick against Sakuraba in his prime. He’d beat Shamrock by decision. People comparing the fight to what Frank did with Tito are way off. Tito came in in mediocre condition and Sakuraba never gassed even though he was 5 times faster than Tito back then. Frank would probably use that same strategy, but much like with Lawal-Mousasi it would backfire when Sakuraba would never gas out for him. He’d just lay on his back and get hammered and kicked non-stop.

  11. Bryan says:

    It’s too bad the newer fans will never get to see a prime Saku. I’ll never forget watching his high intensity style of grappling , how he would never stop working for a sub or his positioning and his ability to to catch subs in a heartbeat. Personally, my favorite example of this is the Shannon Ritch fight. Quick single, finishes the shot, catches the Achilles lock, gets the tap.

    • Mark says:

      Though to be fair my grandmother would submit Shannon Ritch. But you are correct he was like the MMA Energizer Bunny in his 1998-2000 prime. But he took too many bad beatings to last at that level.

  12. Mark says:

    Also I don’t think the Glacier-Wrath-Mortis-Cat WCW gimmicks had anything to do with MMA. While Eric Bischoff was a big MMA fan, the gimmicks were a takeoff on Mortal Kombat, about 3 years after everybody stopped giving a crap about Mortal Kombat. Glacier said in his shoot interview that while he was a martial artist he was told to “do moves like video games.”

    Outside of ECW, who had Taz perform as an MMA fighter and supposedly almost signed Frank Shamrock, pro wrestling had no respect for MMA. WWF just wanted to leech off of UFC’s late-90s controversy and WCW as I said was more interested in emulating video games than MMA. And Tank Abbott was quickly turned into a comedy character who ran a boy band fan club.

  13. Safari_Punch says:

    Since when would Sakuraba right like some lay and pray wrestler? He’d more then likely stand with Shamrock to try to make an exciting fight. Back then Saku was really experimental and would probably want to pull out a new move on Frank.

    No idea who would win. It’s a shame this fight didn’t happen.

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