It's been a while since I updated (as always it seems!) I've had a lot on with the new book and becoming a big attraction at BE (my articles are now being listed as "Jack Slack Breaks Down" rather than "Judo Chop", which is pretty awesome). I wanted to share a moment from an old PRIDE fight which I consider one of the most intense displays of emotion in MMA history.
This moment comes in round 7 of the incredible fight between Kazushi Sakuraba and Royce Gracie - which was scheduled to have no time limit other than being fought in 15 minute rounds. After fighting for an hour and a half both men were exhausted but Sakuraba began to best Royce with low kicks. At about 3:40 you can witness the start of the end for Royce Gracie as Sakuraba lands two such kicks on Royce's thigh to an eruption of the crowd.
At about 7 minutes into the clip Stephen Quadros, Bas Rutten and Maurice Smith begin to discuss how Helio Gracie must feel for his son. Helio had been in lengthy fights like this but never against a complete fighter such as Sakuraba. This is accompanied by a shot of Helio Gracie, looking intensely stoic as always.
At 9:25 Sakuraba drops Royce with another brutal low kick and stands over him in his guard. Both men are absolutely exhausted as they return to the centre of the ring and their mouths are open while their hands are low. No-one has ever fought for as long as Sakuraba and Gracie did in this bout and while it was understandably dull in places it remains an incredible spectacle.
By the 11 minute mark Royce Gracie is a shell of himself and simply hanging on through Sakuraba's hard kicks and punches. Every time Gracie drops to his guard he is finding it harder and harder to get to his feet. At 11:50 the camera cuts to Helio Gracie wringing his hands with concern for his son as the announcer declares that there are 3 minutes left in the round.
Helio Gracie is perhaps one of the toughest men in martial arts history - weighing only 140lbs he took on all comers in fights lasting up to an hour with his newly created variant on Judo newaza, Gracie Jiu Jitsu. He had not once considered throwing in the towel when the enormous Dan Severn was seemingly setting his son, Royce up for the kill, nor when heavyweight Kimo Leopaldo was bloodying Royce up in an unexpectedly tough fight in the UFC. In fact any time Helio appeared on screen in Royce's corner, even up until earlier in this round, he had been the epitome of tranquility in the face of his son's pain. This moment in the 7th round tells us more about Helio Gracie as a man and a father than any of the legends can. He may have been the authoritarian father figure, insisting his boys toughen up and come to blows for honour, but when he knew a fight was lost, he didn't want to see his son take any more punishment.
At 12:28 the camera cuts back to Helio and Rorion Gracie and the camera zooms in on Rorion's hand on the ring apron, holding the towel in a white knuckle fist. As this shot happens the crowd erupts and you realize that the image we are seeing on our screen has been broadcast to the entire arena. The crowd know that the Gracie's are going to give in, but Sakuraba and even Royce are clueless - never taking their eyes off of each other.
In the final minutes of the round Maurice Smith asks his co-commentators "How much can a fighter take? How much should a fighter take?" in reference to Royce Gracie, vainly throwing up kicks that visibly hurt his own legs. Gracie has abandoned attempting to stand from his guard and is instead attempting to chop at Sakuraba's legs from the floor. Sakuraba, 90 minutes in to the longest MMA match in history, against an undefeated opponent, summons all his energy to deliver what has perhaps become the defining image of his career.
After the end of this clip there is a minute in the corners before the Gracie family finally throw in the towel, but by that point it is ceremonial. In the course of this single round Royce went from in the fight to being savagely beaten, his family turned from intense, machismo and encouraging to the point where they wanted to end the fight, and the Japanese fans reached a fever point as a shaky camera shot confirmed that the legendary Gracie family were going to give up after years of refusing to submit, even through broken bones.
The fight between Sakuraba and Gracie is one of the most significant moments in both martial arts and combat sports history and I recommend that anyone who hasn't seen it put aside 90 minutes, sit down with a drink and a snack, and watch two master tacticians grind each other down. The lulls in action are more than made up for by the creativity of Sakuraba, the heart of Gracie and the significance of the bout.
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