Trivia / Kazushi Sakuraba

• Awesome, Dear Boy: While not everybody in UWF-i was content with working with NJPW in the interpromotional feud, as people like Kiyoshi Tamura refused entirely, Saku loved doing it because he was a traditional puroresu fan and had always wanted to work with Riki Choshu (though it was an one-sided affair, as Choshu notoriously hates shoot-style).
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Sakuraba did not exactly say the phrase which is most associated with him, "In fact, pro wrestling is strong". What he said was actually "In fact, pro wrestlers are strong", and it was a Take That! against a sport magazine which had published a headline reading "Pro wrestlers are weak!" after Takada was beaten by Gracie the same year.
• Fountain of Expies: Due to his inventiveness, Sakuraba used to be one of the most imitated fighters around in Japan, especially moves of him like the Mongolian chop and the cartwheel guard pass.
  • Shungo Oyama was it terms of fighting style and persona, bonus points for being a real Saku fan. He had a couple of victories against Gracies by imitating Saku's techniques.
  • Kazushi's long time lancer Daijiro Matsui has a similar profile. Very much like Saku, Matsui was known for his heart and creativity, as well as his will to fight whoever Pride put in front of him, and attempted some of his moves in his bouts.
  • Daiju Takase also imitated Sakuraba for a time, and even wore tights and spats based in Saku's.
• Hostility on the Set: With Kiyoshi Tamura. He was Kazushi's sempai in the old UWF, and it's said that he used to mistreat him. Later, Sakuraba and Tamura went to become aces of their respective companies, PRIDE and RINGS, and after years of negotiations, they faced each other in Dynamite 2008. Tamura won the fight, albeit in a rather uneventful way, and while carrying much less injuries and body wear than Saku at that point.
• Promoted Fanboy: During his chilhood, he was a fan of Tiger Mask and the Universal Wrestling Federation.
• Real Song Theme Tune: Used "Speed King" by Deep Purple when he was in UWFI.
• Throw It In!:
  • Sakuraba's signature orange tights originally belonged to Masahito Kakihara, who lent his gear to him when Saku forgot his before an event.
  • His signature flying stomps were actually devised by Hiromitsu Kanehara when they were sparring at the Takada Dojo. Kazushi liked the idea and adopted them for his moveset.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Sakuraba was originally going to join Pro Wrestling Fujiwara-Gumi instead of UWF-i by mediation of Yoshiki Takahashi.
  • He could have debuted originally in PRIDE 1 against Renzo Gracie, but it didn't happen due to bad negotiations between Kakutogi Revolution Spirits and Kingdom.
  • He could have fought Frank Shamrock in two occasions. After Frank requested to fight Sakuraba, PRIDE offered him a place in the Grand Prix 2000 in order to secure a potential match against Saku, but he was not interested, as he thought PRIDE was using Saku as a carrot to have him fighting through his cards. They then offered Frank a fight against Sakuraba at PRIDE 10, but the American refused again, wanting at least three more months to train properly. After that, the negotiations went sour and the matchup was forgotten.
  • Ultimate Fighting Championship was interested in getting Saku in 2003 as part of a working agreement with PRIDE, but the contract conditions weren't good enough, so PRIDE instead offered Hirotaka Yokoi, whom UFC naturally turned down.
  • A match between Sakuraba and Kiyoshi Tamura was in the works in at least three separate occasions through the history of PRIDE, as Saku used to challenge Tamura after every big match and Tamura always had an excuse to decline. PRIDE even offered them a tag team MMA match similar to those which ZST would host years later, and Tamura actually accepted, but then it was Saku who objected to the idea because he wanted an individual bout. The matter was so heated that Tamura actually promoted his autobiographical book by announcing he would reveal in it the reasons why he never fought Sakuraba in PRIDE.
  • Before his match against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Saku was originally offered to fight Mexican wrestler-turned-fighter El Solar in a special fight in which Saku would wear his famous "Saku Machine" mask, but he declined the offer and chose Nogueira instead.
• Wrongfully Attributed: Despite what many MMA fans believe, Saku's fighting style is not catch wrestling, but shoot wrestling, which is catch mixed with judo and sambo among other arts. They are correct in that catch wrestling composes the biggest part of his grappling method, but Saku's overall strategy was more personal and less catchy that orthodox shooters like Rumina Sato or Minoru Suzuki.