If I had creative control over the shirt Sakuraba wore at the Dream 14 press conference, after ‘Liquor’ I would add ‘Wake up in the Starbucks parking lot on the corner of Western Ave and Hollywood Blvd. without any shoes.’ It’s happened before and I’ll be damned if it won’t happen again. I’ve long held that Ben Askren is the new Sakuraba based on his innovative wrestling and forever-evolving jiu-jitsu. However, considering that Askren isn’t a chain smoking catch-wrestler that loves to get drunk, that statement no longer applies.
No doubt you’ve been wondering where Sakuraba has been since his final MMA bout in 2011 at DREAM 17. Well for starters he’s been participating in wrestling events and pretending they’re actual MMA bouts.
Last weekend in NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 7 at the Tokyo Dome, we think Sakuraba got just a little too real in his wrestling match. Specifically this killer knee that he landed on his opponent. We combed the entire 5-hour-long wrestling event and have queued up the part of the video in which the switch sort of ‘flips’ for Sakuraba. Check it out.
