Sakuraba Injured at Dynamite

Friday, 31 December 2010 08:54

Written by Fraser Coffeen

I'm sure I'm not the only one here who holds Kazushi Sakuraba in high esteem.  One of my absolute favorite MMA fighters of all time, Saku is rightly hailed as the God of Japanese MMA.  But tonight was yet another hard to watch loss for the legend.

Facing Dream champion Marius Zaromskis, Sakuraba suffered an early ear injury that brought the fight to a close before it could get going.  The owner of one of the worst cauliflowered ears in all of MMA (and that covers a lot of ground), Sakuraba took a quick shot that popped the ear, causing it to bleed.  A few minutes later, he took another blow and immediately recoiled, holding his hand to his ear.  Doctors stepped in, and it looked like Sakuraba's ear had been partially torn away from his skull, resulting in a much needed stoppage. The stoppage was reminiscent of Kimbo Slice v. James Thompson on CBS, but unlike the Kimbo fight, we thankfully did not get any graphic footage of Sakuraba's ear.

Overall, it was a fight that didn't say much about Zarmoskis, and once again demonstarted that Sakuraba's time is done.  He's had a lot of loses recently, and sadly has looked old in those loses.  The lasting image of him here, with his hand covering his bloody ear, is not the way anyone wants to keep seeing this legend. 

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