Hayato Sakurai

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Hayato Sakurai

Statistics
Nickname	Mach
Height	171 cm (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	70 kg (155 lb)
Born	August 24, 1975
Town of birth	Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
Fighting style	Shooto, Judo.
Mixed martial arts record
Wins	29
By knockout	6
By submission	10
Losses	7
Draws	2
No contests	0

Hayato "Mach" Sakurai (Japanese: 桜井“マッハ”速人) (August 24, 1975-) is a Japanese mixed martial arts fighter. He was born in Ibaraki Prefecture^[1], Japan. His nickname, "Mach", is pronounced ma-ha in Japanese. He has a professional MMA record of 29-7-2^[2] as of October 26, 2006^[3]. Sakurai has been fighting in mixed martial arts since October of 1996 and was at one time considered pound for pound one of the greatest fighters^[4]. He holds impressive victories over the likes of UFC Veterans Frank Trigg, Jens Pulver, Dave Menne and Yves Edwards, former Shooto 160lb Champion Joachim Hansen, Shooto superstar Caol Uno, and Luiz Azeredo^[5]. Sakurai is a very well rounded fighter who possesses a great striking skills, grappling and submission skills having finished 2nd in the Abu Dhabi Combat Club submission wrestling annual competition in 1999. Despite his accomplishments as a grappler Sakurai's recent style has been more stand-up oriented, with an extensive use of kicks and knees.

1 Shooto
2 PRIDE FC and Comeback
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Shooto

Sakurai made his professional debut in the Shooto organization on October 4, 1996 by submitting Caol Uno. Over the next five years he would go undefeated in twenty bouts, a feat rarely achieved in professional mixed martial arts, and would win that organization's middleweight (167 lbs.) title. Sakurai was finally defeated in August of 2001 by Brazilian ace and current UFC middleweight (185 lbs.) champion Anderson Silva. After the loss Sakurai would travel to the United States to fight the UFC's welterweight champion Matt Hughes. While Sakurai possessed superior stand-up and submission skills in the eyes on many, Hughes would use his large size and strength advantage to take the fight to Sakurai. His impressive wrestling ability and experience fighting in a cage would help him control Sakurai for the majority of the bout with slams and "ground-and-pound", eventually scoring a TKO victory in the fourth round.

[edit] PRIDE FC and Comeback

After losing to Hughes, Sakurai fought periodically in Shooto and Deep before joining PRIDE Fighting Championships, Japan's largest MMA organization. During this time he was inconsistent in his performances, often losing to much lower ranked opponents. He also attempted to fight at 183lbs., but it was clear that his frame was far to small for that weight, and his preformances suffered. Some speculated Sakurai's seeming loss of spirit and mental focus came from a car accident he suffered a month before fighting Silva. However, in 2005 Sakurai seemed to have gotten his career back on track, and it was announced that he would drop down to 160 lbs. in order to participate in Pride's Lightweight Grand Prix. Despite his legendary early career some questioned if Sakurai could make an impact in the division. Sakurai silenced his critics when he defeated former UFC champion Jens Pulver and former Shooto champion Joachim Hansen on the same night to advance to the tournament finals. On December 31, 2005 Sakuari fought mixed martial arts superstar Takanori Gomi for the first ever PRIDE Fighting Championships 160lb championship of the world. Sakurai initially had the upper-hand, pounding Gomi with brutal inside-leg kicks; however, after a failed judo-throw Gomi was able to get Sakurai's back and rain down stikes upon him. Sakurai was knocked out at the 3:56 mark of the first round. Despite the loss to Gomi, Sakurai would continue to impress with his performances. At Bushido 11 he scored a brutal KO over fan favorite Olaf Alfonso. On August 26, 2006, Mach fought Luciano Azevedo at Bushido 12. After several minutes of attempted ground-and-pound by Azevedo, the fighters were stood back up. Mach then consistently stuffed Azevedo's takedowns, and landed a fight-ending knee on Azevedo over his left eye. The fight was stopped, TKO by cut.

Despite his status as a MMA veteran, Sakurai remains one of the top three lightweights in the world.