Let's cut Takada some slack

[Hookah Smokin Caterpillar]

Granted, I know unless its a work he won't beat good ol' Igor in Pride 11 but does anyone else realize that Takada is a good fighter? The only problem is that he's not a Pride-level fighter but he is their top star. Its strange, but you have to remember he's one of the best and most popular pro-wrestlers there ever was. For you guys that haven't seen good professional wrestling, I would definatly try picking up some UWF-i. I doubt you won't like it. He's a B-level fighter whose skill level is approximatly at Sakuraba's. He did teach Sakuraba everything he knows just so you guys know and they both trained legit everyday when they were in the UWF-i togethere. But, the reason Takada isn't the GREAT fighter that Sak is despite having the same skills is

1) Their grappling style is meant for middleweights, not for heavyweights. Due to Takada's size he has to fight guys that will overwhelm him rather then Sak getting to fight guys smaller and his size.
2) The age is again a big difference, Takada is too old to get real good at legit fighting while Sak came in at a good age.
3) In the mid-90s, the UWF-i was having money problems so it started an interpromotion deal with New Japan Pro-Wrestling. While Takada may have held the IWGP Title [Heavyweight Belt] the rest of the UWF-i roster looked terrible and it led to the promotions demise. Basically, Takada stopped carring at that point.
4) Sak is way more intimidating because of his unorthodox and somewhat insane style of fighting. No one ever fought like him and a lot of his style is the masks to the ring, the double punch, the jumping foot stomps, the humiliation of Royce, thats Sak for ya. Takada can't incorporate that into his style.

Also, yes Takada doing works in Pride is horrible for fans here in the States, but the Japanese like that. Do you think the fans didn't know his fight with Otsuka was a work? Otsuke pulled a Vertical Suplex for God's sakes, they know. He STILL gets a louder ovation then Sakuraba and everyone in Pride combined. I don't think Takada sucks and I think he can hang with a lot of fighers, he's just not Pride-level.

[GROUND CONTROL]

Caterpillar - That post was very funny. Sak would whip Takada's ass. Do you really think Takada taught Sak anything? What skills has Takada shown in the ring? Sakuraba trains BJJ with Sergio Pehna(SP?) He came very close to beating Rickson in sport JJ. This is where his grappling ability comes from. Sure he had his base in shoot wrestling and freestyle wrestling. But his game was elevated to the next level when he started training bjj with Sergio.

I agree with you that Takada has some skills. He also has some balls because he will step into the ring and fight.(sometimes) But he is a B level talent at best. If he is really fighting Igor this fight will probably be a work.

Losing to Takada will only damage Igor's image in the US. The Japanese think it is honorable to take a dive because you are sacrificing your record for the sake of the audience's entertainment. Pride will still give Igor fights just like Coleman. So it really will have no effect on his career. That is just my opinion.

[Dhalsim]

You been smokin too much caterpillar!

Just joking. Sakurabu stated in a recent BB article that Takada is not his teacher. As for the style only working for middleweights, Sak beat Conan(145lbs.) and I beleive he could pull off a win over many of the heavies. As for Takada being too old to learn to fight, it does'nt make sense to me.

[GROUND CONTROL]

Dhalism- Conan is not a top quality competitor. What top heavies do you think Sak can beat? Kerr, Coleman, Igor, Erickson I don't think so.

[Patterson]

Common, how often does Sak train with Penha. In his interviews he says he learned his skills through the shoot style pro wrestling they have in Japan.

[Hookah Smokin Caterpillar]

I think a lot of people find it hard to believe that Sakuraba's skills are pro-wrestling and like to add all these other arts to his list. My point is still that Takada is a good fighter and he doesn't get any respect from MMA fans. I definatly could see him winning an early UFC. Not one involving Royce though because Shootwrestlers in the early 90s gave their back to BJJ guys like it was the thing to do. I don't know if I was right to say Takada taught Sak everything he knows, but you can really see a similarity with the way they fight and also with Tamura from Rings.

[fil]

Sakuraba and Takada trained for a short while at Beverley Hills juijitsu club (remember the clip of Takada hitting bags with Ruas before Rickson rematch). Andreh who used to train their and ocasionaly posts here mentioned that Takada was not competitive sparing any others exept for him and John Perreti.

In an interview when asked about Takada, Ruas said he could never turn Takada into a real fighter with any amount of training and called him a "pussy".

At least guys like Matsui and Yoji Anjoh have some heart so they earn respect by not giving up easily. Hopefully Takada will earn some respect by fighting to the best of his ability and not giving in so easily against Igor in a real fight. But I doubt it, remember how he reacted when Kyle Sturgeon hit him harder then he expected in their work, embarasing...

Takada has never shown the abilty to defeat B or even lower level fighters. I seriously doubt he could give a good match to fighters like Travis Fulton, Brad Kohler, "Mad Dog" Macias, John Lober, Tim Laijcik etc.

[Ryu (non-working password]

Poor guy...
Makes me want to root for him simply cuz he's such an underdog.

[GROUND CONTROL]

My former instructor told us that story about Sak, Takada, and Beverly Hills BJJ. He is a Rickson rep who trained in LA with Rickson for 5 years. He still keeps in touch with many of his LA friends and several train at BHBJJ. They were working takedowns and many of the students took Takada down no problem. Sak on the other hand was never taken down by any of the students.

Caterpillar, you are being tricked just like the Japanese people. Takada gets fights for one reason and one reason only. He is a very popular pro wrestler. He was the champion of an organization which he owned. People will come and see him because they hope he will reclaim his wrestling glory. The only problem is not everone will lay down for him.