History Trivia / KazushiSakuraba

* AwesomeDearBoy: While not everybody in UWF-i was content with working with NJPW in the interpromotional feud, as people like Wrestling/KiyoshiTamura refused entirely, Saku loved doing it because he was a traditional puroresu fan and had always wanted to work with Riki Choshu (it was an one-sided affair, as Choshu notoriously hates shoot-style).

* FountainOfExpies: Due to his inventiveness, Sakuraba used to be one of the most imitated fighters around in Japan. Only in PRIDE, fighters like Shungo Oyama, Daijiro Matsui and Daiju Takase (who even used to wear similar tights) adopted moves of him like the Mongolian chop and the cartwheel guard pass.

** Sakuraba was originally going to join Pancrase instead of UWF-i by mediation of Yoshiki Takahashi.

* OneOfUs: He is a long time anime and manga fan. Among other things, he made an entrance in 2009 wearing an [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion EVA-01]] mask instead of his common puroresu homages.

* AwesomeDearBoy: While not everybody in UWF-i was content with working with NJPW in the interpromotional feud, with people like Wrestling/KiyoshiTamura refusing entirely to do it, Saku loved doing it because he was a traditional puroresu fan and had always wanted to work with Riki Choshu.
* BeamMeUpScotty: Sakuraba did not exactly say the phrase which is most associated with him, "In fact, pro wrestling is strong". What he said was "In fact, pro wrestlers are strong", and it was a TakeThat against a sport magazine which had published a headline reading "Pro wrestlers are weak!" after Takada was beaten by Gracie the same year.
* FountainOfExpies: Due to his inventiveness and creativity, Sakuraba used to be one of the most imitated fighters around in Japan. Only in PRIDE, fighters like Shungo Oyama, Daijiro Matsui and Daiju Takase (who even used to wear similar tights) adopted moves of him like the Mongolian chop and the cartwheel guard pass.

** Sakuraba was originally going to join Pancrase instead UWF-i by mediation of Yoshiki Takahashi.

** 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 him a fight against Sakuraba at PRIDE 10, but the American refused again, wanting at least three months more to train properly. After that, the negotiations went sour and the matchup was forgotten.
** UsefulNotes/UltimateFightingChampionship was interested in getting Saku in 2003 as part of a working agreement with PRIDE, but the contract conditions weren't good enough and PRIDE instead offered Hirotaka Yokoi, whom the UFC naturally turned down.
** A match between Sakuraba and Wrestling/KiyoshiTamura was in the works at least in 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 instead Nogueira.

* FountainOfExpies: Due to his inventiveness and creativity, Sakuraba used to be one of the most imitated fighters around. Only in PRIDE, fighters like Shungo Oyama, Daijiro Matsui and Daiju Takase (who even used to wear similar tights) adopted moves of him like the Mongolian chop and the cartwheel guard pass.

* OneOfUs: Is a long time anime and manga fan. Among other things, he made an entrance in 2009 wearing an [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion EVA-01]] mask instead of his common puroresu homages.

** Saku 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.
** In response to his earlier requests for a match with Sakuraba, PRIDE offered Frank Shamrock to host the fight at PRIDE 10, but the American refused, wanting at least three months more to train properly. Shamrock had been originally offered 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.
** UsefulNotes/UltimateFightingChampionship was interested in getting Saku in 2003 as part of a working agreement with PRIDE, but the treat conditions weren't good enough and PRIDE offered Hirotaka Yokoi instead, which UFC turned down quite understandably.
** A match between Sakuraba and Wrestling/KiyoshiTamura was in the works at least in three separate occasions through the history of PRIDE, as Saku used to challenge Tamura after every big match and Tamura always had a pretext to decline. PRIDE even offered them a tag team MMA match, similar to those which ZST would host years later, but it was Saku who objected to the idea, wanting 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 match in which Saku would wear his famous "Saku Machine" mask, but he declined the offer and chose instead Nogueira.

* FountainOfExpies: Due to his inventiveness and creativity, Sakuraba is one of the most imitated fighters. Only in PRIDE, fighters like Shungo Oyama and Daiju Takase (who even used to wear similar tights) adopted moves of him like the Mongolian chop and the cartwheel guard pass, the latter of which is nowadays the kind of technique everybody try in the gym for fun.

** A match between Sakuraba and Wrestling/KiyoshiTamura was in the works at least in three separate occasions through the history of PRIDE, as Saku basically challenged Tamura after every big match and Tamura always had a pretext to decline. PRIDE even offered them a tag team MMA match, similar to those which ZST would host years later, but it was Saku who objected to the idea, wanting 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 match in which Saku would wear his famous "Saku Machine" mask, but he declined the offer and chose Nogueira.

* OneOfUs: Is a long time anime and manga fan, and in 2009 he made an entrance wearing an [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion EVA-01]] mask.

** 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.

** Saku could have debuted originally in PRIDE 1 against Renzo Gracie, but it didn't happn due to bad negotiations between Kakutogi Revolution Spirits and Kingdom.

* BeamMeUpScotty: Sakuraba did not exactly said the phrase which is most associated with him, "In fact, pro wrestling is strong". What he said was "In fact, pro wrestlers are strong", and it was a TakeThat against a sport magazine which had published a headline reading "Pro wrestlers are weak!" after Takada was beaten by Gracie the same year.

* WrongfullyAttributed: Despite what many MMA fans believe, Saku's fighting style is not catch wrestling, but shoot wrestling, which is a mix of catch, judo and sambo, among other arts. They are correct in that catch wrestling composes technically the biggest part of his grappling method, but Saku's overall strategy was more freestyle and less [[IncrediblyLamePun catchy]] that orthodox shooters like Rumina Sato or Wrestling/MinoruSuzuki.

* FountainOfExpies: Due to his inventiveness and creativity, Sakuraba is one of the most imitated fighters. Only in PRIDE, fighters like Shungo Oyama and Daiju Takase (who even used to wear similar tights) adopted moves of him like the Mongolian chop and the cartwheel guard pass, the latter of which is nowadays the kind of technique everybody try in the gym.
* OneOfUs: Is a long time anime and manga fan, and once cut a promo with ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' action figures.

** His signature flying stomps were actually devised by Hiromitsu Kanehara when he was sparring with Saku and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka at the Takada Dojo. As Kazushi liked the idea, he adopted them for his moveset.

** Sakuraba's signature orange tights originally belonged to Wrestling/MasahiroKakihara, who lent his gear to him when Saku forgot his before an event.

* ThrowItIn: Sakuraba's signature orange tights originally belonged to Masahiro Kakihara, who lent his gear to him when Saku forgot his before an event.
* WrongfullyAttributed: Despite what many MMA fans believe, Saku's fighting style is not catch wrestling, but shoot wrestling, which is a mix of catch, judo and sambo, among other arts. They are right in that catch wrestling composes technically the biggest part of his grappling method, but Saku's overall strategy was more free and less [[IncrediblyLamePun catchy]] that other shooters from branches like Shooto or Pancrase.

* WrongfullyAttributed: Despite what many MMA fans believe, Saku's fighting style is not catch wrestling. He did learn catch under Takada and Billy Robinson, and it composes the biggest part of his grappling method, but his strategy is actually a mix of catch, judo and sambo, as is taught in [[Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation Japanese shoot-style]].

* BeamMeUpScotty: Despite what many MMA fans believe, Saku's fighting style is not catch wrestling. He did learn it under Takada and Billy Robinson, but his grappling method is actually the mix of catch, judo and sambo found in the Japanese shoot-style circuit and not pure, orthodox catch.

* OneOfUs: Is a long time anime and manga fan, and once cut a promo with ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' action figures.

* ThrowItIn: Sakuraba's signature orange tights originally belonged to Masahiro Kakihara, who lent his gear to him when Saku forgot his before an event.

* FountainOfExpies: Due to his inventiveness and creativity, Sakuraba is one of the most imitated fighters. Only in PRIDE, fighters like Shungo Oyama and Daiju Takase (who even started to wear similar tights) adopted moves of him like the Mongolian chop and the cartwheel guard pass, the latter of which is nowadays the kind of technique everybody try in the gym.
* OneOfUs: Is a long time anime and manga fan, and once shot a promo with ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' action figures.

* FountainOfExpies: Due to his inventiveness and creativity, Sakuraba is one of the most imitated fighters. Only in PRIDE, fighters like Shungo Oyama and Daiju Takase (who even started to wear similar tights) adopted moves of him like the Mongolian chop and the cartwheel guard pass, the latter of which is nowadays a well-known technique.

* PromotedFanboy: During his chilhood, he was a fan of Wrestling/SatoruSayama.
* ThrowItIn: Sakuraba's signature orange tights originally belonged to Masahiro Kakihara, who lent them to him when Saku forgot his before an event.

* FountainOfExpies: Due to his inventiveness and creativity, Sakuraba is one of the most imitated fighters. Only in PRIDE, fighters like Shungo Oyama and Daiju Takase (who even started to wear similar tights) adopted moves of him like the Mongolian chop and the cartwheel guard pass, the latter of which is nowadays a well-known technique.