Masakatsu Funaki

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Masakatsu Funaki
Statistics
Height	6 ft 0 in (182 cm)
Weight	195 lb (87 kg)
Born	March 13, 1969 (1969-03-13) (age 39)
Town of birth	Aomori Prefecture, Japan
Fighting style	Catch wrestling
Mixed martial arts record
Wins	38
By knockout	4
By submission	33
Losses	12
Draws	1
No contests	1

Masaharu Funaki (船木優治, Funaki Masaharu^?), best known under his stage name Masakatsu Funaki (船木誠勝, Funaki Masakatsu^?) is a Japanese professional wrestler who performed in New Japan Pro Wrestling, PWFG, as well as the UWF. He is also the co-founder of Pancrase along with Minoru Suzuki, one of the first modern-day non-rehearsed shoot wrestling promotions (following five years after the inception of Shooto but predating America's Ultimate Fighting Championship). Not only the organization's co-founder, Funaki was also one of Pancrase's most successful fighters to date, scoring submission victories over the likes of Ken Shamrock, Frank Shamrock, Guy Mezger, Yuki Kondo and Bas Rutten through the course of his 50-fight career. He is the only fighter in mixed martial arts to hold wins over both Shamrock brothers and Bas Rutten, and was the first man to win the King of Pancrase title twice.

1 MMA career
2 Appearances
- 2.1 Anime
- 2.2 Movies
3 Links

[edit] MMA career

Many mixed martial arts pundits point to his second meeting with Bas Rutten as one of the most significant bouts in the sports' modern epoch, its excitement helping the sport reach the mainstream appeal it currently enjoys in Japan.

Funaki retired from competition after a win over Tony Petarra in September of 1999 due to accumulated injuries and, according to fellow Pancrase fighter and friend Bas Rutten, being burnt out from the hectic Pancrase schedule. However, in 2000, he returned for a fight against Rickson Gracie. Though Funaki scored the first takedown of the bout and subsequently broke Rickson's orbital bone, he was ultimately defeated by a rear-naked choke. Funaki refused to submit to the hold, passing out before the referee intervened.

In 2006, he was elected to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame. According to Sherdog.com's ratings, he was one of the top four mixed martial artists in the world from 1993 to 1998 (being the top-rated mixed martial artist in 1996) and is currently rated as the second most successful Japanese fighter of all-time behind Kazushi Sakuraba.^{[citation needed]}

On August 2007 he and Keiji Muto discussed the possibility of Funaki returning to regular professional wrestling in Muto's company, All Japan Pro Wrestling.

On 12/31/2007, Funaki fought Kazushi Sakuraba at the K-1 Dynamite event at Kyocera Dome Osaka. Funaki almost caught Sakuraba with a kneebar early in the opening round, but eventually tapped out due to a kimura near the end of Round 1.

On April 28, 2008, Funaki fought legendary Japanese fighter Kiyoshi Tamura at DREAM.2 in Saitama, Japan. He was quickly taken down, mounted, and eventually lost via TKO at 0:57 of Round 1. This was his first (T)KO stoppage loss since September 14, 1998, when he was knocked out with a body blow by Semmy Schilt.