Sakuraba vs Smirnovas

[Origami Itto]

Weird fight.

First things first, i don't think the ref would have kept the fight going it there was any other than Sakuraba in there (except Hidehiko Yoshida of course ;)).

That said, Saku did not give up for even a moment. He was rocked, dazed, and confused, but still trying to defend himself - watch him grab the rope while trying to block the incoming strikes just before the ref made them go back to the center. Turtling up only to come back soon after is something that he has done on the past, more than once.

Then, what was wrong with the other guy? Smirnovas had dozens of chances to finish off an already weakened and tired Saku, including a RNC, but he failed each one of them. In the second half of the fight he wasn't even trying to attack! Could he be that exhausted already, rope-a-dope style? Could he be intimidated because Sakuraba refused to be knocked out? Did he think that the fight would go to Saku no matter what?

No matter what the ref did or should have done - and K1 refs leave a lot to be desired - Sakuraba displayed amazing endurance and experience. When he literally got back on his feet, he managed to defend against and eventually outstrike Smirnovas. Then again, Smirnovas was hardly trying seriously by then.

Overall a weird fight, what do you think?

Any news on what happened to Saku after the fight (hospital etc) also appreciated :).

[slipthejab]

Haven't seen the fight yet.
But for once in my life I'd like to see a champ retire gracefully.
It doesn't look Saku is going to be that person.
From everything I've read seen and watched his a great person as well as having been a great fighter... but he's past his prime. I hate to see him get dragged around like this taking hidings in matches left right and center.

Sigh. Damn. :cry:

[Sever]

Sakuraba has the heart of a real warrior - we know this, he's shown it time and time again against the likes of Wanderlei Silva, Mirko Crocop and Ricardo Arona. He's the fighter that made me love MMA the way I do, that man will never ever quit, no matter what kind of beating he's taking. That's part of the reason why there are refs. It's not the fighter's responsibility to call a TKO stoppage, it's the referee's. These people are in the ring as an advocate of both fighters and are directly responsible for their safety and rightly or wrongly, they've sometimes gotta make calls that they don't necessarily like. This was one of those instances
There was a lot riding on Sakuraba in this fight - K-1 made a HUGE investment bringing him in at this late point in his career for the kind of money they paid for him, and have seemingly based their 185lb GP around him so they can say that their champion is Kazushi Sakuraba, and for him to lose to a fighter who he was supposed to beat quite handily would have been a major setback. I believe there was probably some pressure on the ref to let it go a little longer than it should to see if Sakuraba could recover (conspiracy theories aside, it's not like this has never happened in Japan). The stoppage to "move Sak away from the ropes" was quite clearly the point when a competant referee would've stopped the fight - Sak was out. He fought on nothing but heart, this time he won, but this fight should have been stopped for the safety of the competitor
As for Smirnovas - his gas tank is crap. By the time Sakuraba was making some kind of recovery, he'd punched himself out. Simple as that, really.
After the fight, Sakuraba was taken to hospital for an MRI scan and taken back into hospital the following Monday and it's unclear as to whether he'll fight in the next round of the GP. Incidentally, K-1 are blaming this all on the ref

[neryo_tkd]

i haven't seen the fight yet. will it be on eurosport? what's the exact name of the tournament?

[Sever]

Don't say I never give you anything ;)
Clicky (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp5P_fWSt_U)
It'll probably be on Eurosport in about six months when they've finished dubbing Will Vanders going "It's a knock doooooowwwwwwwwnnnnnnn!!!" all over it :D

[Apotheosis]

Saku was out, lucky(or can you call getting smashed lucky?) but his opponent just wore himself out.

He gave everything he had at the beginning and then ran out of gas.

[Origami Itto]

I do love Sakuraba, but i also know that K1 quite often will try to set up fights and control the outcome so blatantly as to get booed by the audience, repeatedly.

Now, watching the fight again, here is an interesting detail: It seems that the ref did nothing outright wrong. He just stopped the fighters when they got entangled in the ropes, which is what he is supposed to do. Sakuraba was not out yet; probably a couple of punches away from being knocked out, but he was trying to block when the ref stopped them, and he did exactly the same thing when they started again. Amazingly, it worked :D. A more experienced fighter would have finished Saku off a dozen times after the stoppage though.

Probably 3 things happened:

-The ref probably got lucky because he found a chance to 'legitimately' help Sakuraba

-Sakuraba displayed phenomenal endurance anyway; after the stoppage when he was already rocked and in a bad positionand getting GnP'ed he protected himself enough, got to his feet and gained control of the fight, all while being continuously punched on the head (approximately 2 minutes of raining punches with a few submission attempts thrown in).

-Smirnovas. I know nothing about the guy, but he seemed to lack experience, both in fighting and in ringcraft. How it is possible to pound and toss around someone for that long and not manage to finish him off is beyond me. Yes, he got too tired too fast. Probably K1 made sure that they didn't throw the best fighter around on Sakuraba for that fight.

As for blaming the ref, i guess that comes with the job and an extra fat paycheck.

[Apotheosis]

I disagree, I think Sakuraba was clearly out.

[slipthejab]

Ok just watched.
Not good. Saku was out with that flurry of punches that sent his head through the ropes. The ref's did what Japanese ref's are famous for... they jumped in and fanagled it for their own. If the ref hadn't jumped in when he did to give Saku a break... they'd have carried Saku out on a stretcher.

He's done for. Too old. He should bow out gracefully.
That sort of bout is way beneath Saku. Way beneath.
Saku in his prime would have eat that guy for an between meal snack.

Man it's sad to see Saku look so pathetic. :bang: :bang:
I will now go pray at my Saku shrine for him to hang up the gloves and exit gracefully... :cry: :cry: :cry:

[neryo_tkd]

Don't say I never give you anything ;)
Clicky (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp5P_fWSt_U)


thank you :Angel:

[Origami Itto]

I disagree, I think Sakuraba was clearly out.

Well, he clearly raised his arm to block the incoming punches, so there is no way he was out YET when the fight was stopped. Of course if they were located in the middle of the ring he would have been out (though i like to have a small doubt here on account of Smirnovas' incompetence :rolleyes: ).

In any case, what matters here is that...

He's done for. Too old. He should bow out gracefully.
That sort of bout is way beneath Saku. Way beneath.
Saku in his prime would have eat that guy for an between meal snack.

I still think the way he recovered was amazing, but he shouldn't have to do stuff like that. Saku is not one to back out from a challenge, but he really should rest now, do a farewell show or something and continue being a hero in japan outside the ring :).

[Apotheosis]

No, he did not.

He was sitting there for about 15 seconds getting hit in the face. His arm was up, but it wasn't even by his face and it wasn't blocking anything.

Then the ref brings them back in the ring, and he was hit for about 20 seconds in the face while holding onto the other guys leg(not sure why, perhaps he thought he was being kicked?)

I don't mean he was knocked out cold, simply that he was not defending himself.

[LiaoRouxin]

That fight should have been ended earlier. It was painful. Smirnovas is good, but he's not of the caliber of people that Sakuraba, the prime Sakuraba, could defeat with one hand.

[Origami Itto]

No, he did not.

He was sitting there for about 15 seconds getting hit in the face. His arm was up, but it wasn't even by his face and it wasn't blocking anything.

Then the ref brings them back in the ring, and he was hit for about 20 seconds in the face while holding onto the other guys leg(not sure why, perhaps he thought he was being kicked?)

I don't mean he was knocked out cold, simply that he was not defending himself.

Yes he did, watch it again. He tries to block but he can't, because the ropes are in the way. When he did the same thing away from the ropes, it worked just fine. Sorry dude, the fight sucked but facts are facts and they are on video :cool:.

[Apotheosis]

From about 1:02- 1:20, Sakuraba's only "defense" was flailing his arms. Not what I would call an effective defense.

the ropes were not keeping him from defending himself, the fact that he was almost ko'ed was.