Royce v Sakuraba II signed.

dlofnep

Confirmed by Royce Gracie himself over on the UG. I know some think of this as an aged Royce & and aged Sakuraba throwing down in a pointless fight.. But I still think this is an interesting bout, and no matter what way you look at it - it's two of the pioneers of the sport getting together once again.

I'm excited, screw the haters!

cmb.

agree - i am excited about this and expect them to put on a great fight and was glad to hear that its scheduled for 5 X 5 rounds - while i dont want to see saku take anymore of those unmerciful beatings, this shoud be a good match-up if a little bit late in either mans career

cletus

the full card:

5 Round Fights:

-Royce Gracie vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
-Brock Lesnar vs. Choi Hong-Man


3 Round Fights:
-Mighty Mo vs. Choi Mu Bae
-Marvin Eastman vs. Ray Sefo
-Melvin Manhoef vs. Yoon Dong Sik
-Johnnie Morton vs. Bernard Ackah
-Jake Shields vs. Ido Pariente
-Gina Carano vs. Jan Finney
-Nam Phan vs. Gesias Calvancanti
-Javier Vazquez vs. Katsuhiko Nagata
-Hideo Tokoro vs. Brad Pickett

Also rumored is Ricco Rodriguez vs. Antonio Silva, but that one isn't official yet.

Above is copy and pasted from MMANEWS.com

Other news is that Saku hasn't taken (and hence passed) the medical for this bout yet

Anyway, good looking card, kinda looking forward to seeing what lesner can doo in his first mma bout, although i haven't seen Choi Hong-Man fight mma, so possibly an easy first fight?

Nothingcompares

Be interesting to say Ray Sefo in an MMA context

Mark Hamill

cletus wrote:

the full card:

Anyway, good looking card, kinda looking forward to seeing what lesner can doo in his first mma bout, although i haven't seen Choi Hong-Man fight mma, so possibly an easy first fight?

Hong Man Choi vs Bobby Ologun:
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ-qnvBBTPM )
was Choi's firts mma fight.
Has a 13 and 10 record in K1 (5 knockouts)

cletus

thanks for that mark, i have seen quite a few of choi's k1 bouts, but hadn't seen (& didn't know about) it. I reckon lesner might give him more problems in the takedown department than olugun did in that fight

edit. i remember hearing that Choi was a korean (Ssireum) wrestler, here's a (short) clip of the style

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDz_ub4uVWs

HammerHeadGym

I heard that after his last fight, in his first training session back, Sakuraba took a couple of shots to the head and had to run out to be sick.

Anyone hear anything on the health of Sakuraba?

Also, I thought Hoyce milked it a bit in his fight with Shamrock, but I wasn't in the ring so I don't know. Still, should be a great fight. I give it to Sakuraba in the third, by ground n' pound.

cletus

I heard (on sherdog mind;)) that he suffers from vertebrobasilar insufficiency. Here's a link to some info

http://www.surgerydoor.co.uk/medical_conditions/Indices/V/vertebrobasilar_insufficiency.htm

If this is so he may have trouble passing the medical. Even if its not this exactly this problem, any codition concerning the bloodfow/spinal column/brain will not look good on the medical exam

Pride Fighter

The Gracie hunter is out for more prey. It would be a great way for former UFC champ Sakuraba to retire, with a fifth and hopefully final win over a Gracie. It would also be a great way for Royce to retire, regaining the Gracies family honour over someone who beat so many of them, Royce included. Where can one watch this bout? I would love to see it.

cmb.

the thing is that it will be dificult for saku to get a licence with the vertebrobasilar damage he has suffered - even a basic amount of research will throw up a red flag on this one for the csac