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Sakuraba on Shinya Aoki NYE Fight: ‘He’s Like A Sticky Anaconda’

Sakuraba on Shinya Aoki NYE Fight: ‘He’s Like A Sticky Anaconda’

 

Japanese MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba Kazushi Sakuraba has fought in the UFC, Pride Fighting Championships, K-1 Hero’s and Dream. He is known as the “Gracie Hunter” due to his wins over four members of the famed Gracie family: Royler Gracie, Renzo Gracie, Ryan Gracie, and Royce Gracie.

Sakuraba made his name during his first fight with Royce, that lasted over ninety minutes and with Royc’es corner throwing in the towel.

Sakuraba is considered to be one of Japan’s greatest MMA fighters ever. his biggest victories were against Carlos Newton, Vitor Belfort, Quinton Jackson, Ken Shamrock and Masakatsu Funaki.

On December 29th Kazushi Sakuraba will be facing Shinya Aoki in a super fight. Despite the fact that he will be making a comeback after a 4 year absence, he says he has always been in the condition to compete.

 

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Sakuraba told Rizin about how he’s preparing for the fight with Shinya Aoki:

—What was the process on getting this fight confirmed

I have been hearing rumors about the event in March, but my opponent was confirmed 3 weeks before the press conference in October. When I first heard about my opponent, I had no idea how they were going to deal with the weight difference, but I was told that there was no other option so I accepted. Before they were telling me to gain weight since I was supposed to fight a bigger guy, but now they are asking me to lose weight. Funny.

—What are your impressions on Aoki

I’ve trained with him before but it was a while back so I don’t remember. He reminds me of a sticky anaconda watching the way he fights. He’s taller and has a longer reach than me, so it will be annoying if he starts getting into sticky mode.

—You have not fought in MMA for a while

You say that because everything is separate now, but for me there was no difference between MMA and Pro-wrestling during U Inter and Kingdom times. I still am the same way so I really don’t have the feeling that this is a MMA fight. So for me I’ve been working out this whole time so I don’t consider myself being out of the game at all. I’m ready, I have been ready to compete this whole time.

—You’ve fought on a few New Year’s Eve events in the past, do you have any special feelings

I don’t have special feelings, but I think I haven’t been performing that great on New Year’s Eve. A fight that lacks in movement is boring so I prefer not to do so, but I won’t be able to continue to move 10-5-5 total of 20 minutes, and I’m old too. You never know what to expect from a fight, but want to keep moving throughout the fight. I say this all the time, but I want people to think my fight was the best fight of the entire event.