I came across the video below and thought it was a poignant tribute to the arc of Sakuraba’s career in Pride. It combines Sakuraba’s beautiful grappling with the extreme violence of Japanese Pride, along with a melancholy undertone that reminded me of the movie ‘The Wrestler’ starring Mickey Rourke from a few years ago.
For those of you not familiar with his career it’s hard to convey the shock we all felt when Sakuraba dominated (and outgrappled) FOUR Gracies in close succession. Here’s a little flashback of what Kazushi Sakuraba looked like in his heyday: