History Wrestling / MasakatsuFunaki

* IKnowKarate: He is naturally known as a shoot wrestling specialist, but Funaki also learned Chin Woo kung fu later in his career because he was a childhood fan of martial arts films. Also, he might have trained in koppo (a martial art that allows kicks, grappling and more notably features hand strikes that doesn't use the fist) with Seishi Horibe when he was still part of the New Japan Dojo and took a few boxing lessons under Chiaki Kobayashi.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: Had a more tanned skin in comparison with fellow Japanese natives.

* IKnowKarate: He is naturally known as a shoot wrestling specialist, but Funaki also learned Chin Woo kung fu later in his career because he was a childhood fan of martial arts films. Also, he might have trained in koppo with Seishi Horibe at some point in his life and took a few boxing lessons under Chiaki Kobayashi.

* AchillesHeel: Grapplers with a strong top game could give him trouble, sometimes even overpowering him for good if he failed at escaping such as in his losses to Ken Shamrock and Rickson Gracie.

** Conversely, his win against Wrestling/KenShamrock would've been destined to rebuild his image after Ken's defeat to Royce Gracie in UFC and his own loss to Ken at the first Pancrase event, and also to preserve Ken before his next UFC fight, which was some days after. However this is contested by Ken in his podcast interview with Stone Cold Steve Austin where Ken states unequivocally that all his fights with Funaki were legit, while being super shady about the Suzuki fight.

* AchillesHeel: Funaki's chin was less than impressive, so striking to the face, especially ground and pound, used to be his personal kryptonite. Grapplers with a strong top game could give him trouble as well, sometimes even overpowering him for good if he failed at escaping.

* CombatPragmatist:
** During his first match with Creator/BasRutten, he capitalized on Rutten apologizing for a closed fisted punch to seize him and slap a leglock, which finished the match and injured Rutten's leg.
** Once he realized Jason [=DeLucia=] had just injured his leg against him, Funaki started targeting the leg with low kicks until dropping him.

** Conversely, his win against Wrestling/KenShamrock would've been destined to rebuild his image after Ken's defeat to Royce Gracie in UFC and his own loss to Ken at the first Pancrase event, and also to preserve Ken before his next UFC fight, which was some days after.

** In his second fight with Creator/BasRutten, Funaki himself tried to kick Bas when Bas was kneeling, breaking the Pancrase gentleman’s rule of no ground-n-pound and other strikes to a grounded opponent, Bas ditched the niceness and went berserker. He got Funaki lying on his back and broke his nose with a palm strike, and later finished him off with a series of knees.

As usual, you can find the basics at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masakatsu_Funaki The Other Wiki]].

* GradualGrinder: Funaki was never a striker, and preferred to end his matches quickly, but was skilled with leg kicks whenever he needed to soft up his opponents.

* WorfHadTheFlu:
** Unlike the yogic and well conditioned Rickson, Funaki had endured years of career in a form of competition highly destructive to the body, and resented from leg injuries and general worn out. Some well timed up-kicks [[AttackItsWeakPoint to his most injured knee]] were enough to make him fall and render him unable to fend the Gracie off. Moreover, an interview with Funaki had him stating that he was actually scared going into his fight with Rickson, and that he believed his lack of confidence was a big factor in his loss.

** On the other hand, his fights against Sakuraba and Tamura subvert this, as they were as battle worn as him, if not even more so.

* KavorkaMan: Though not classically attractive like Maeda or especially Takada, Funaki had a significative female fanbase as well.

* IKnowKarate: He is naturally known as a shoot wrestling specialist, but Funaki also learned Chin Woo kung fu later in his career because he was a childhood fan of martial arts films. Also, he might have trained in koppo with Seishi Horibe at some point in his life.

* IKnowKarate: He is naturally known as a shoot wrestling specialist, but Funaki also learned Chin Woo kung fu later in his career because he was a childhood fan of martial arts films. Also, he might have trained in koppo with Masashi Horibe at some point in his life.