The battle between two big name Japanese fighters was the solution DSE came up with in a TV rating war against K-1 Dynamite!! on New Year's Eve.

Again, as last year, on the evening of December 31st, PRIDE will be live broadcasting through Fuji Television, for five hours and thirty minutes. In order for PRIDE to keep viewers for that long, DSE President Nobuyuki Sakakibara believes that dueling two known Japanese fighters are absolutely necessary, "Just like in the same world as the Naoya Ogawa - Hidehiko Yoshida fight, along with Takanori Gomi vs. Hayato Mach Sakurai, and Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kiyoshi Tamura, which is currently in negotiation, I am looking for, maybe five bouts between Japanese fighters."

Nobuhiko Takada (left) is sort of like a big brother of Kazushi Sakuraba (right) in the world of professional fighting. Photography by Yoshinori IHARA

This was back on November 14th and since then DSE announced two more Japanese vs. Japanese cards – Sanae Kikuta vs. Makoto Takimoto, and Yuki Kondo vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura. (I don't know if we can actually call Takimoto and Nakamura "big names" but let's leave that aside for now) So, it is now four done, one to go.

For almost the past ten years, MMA fans in Japan were talking about Sakuraba vs. Tamura. Yes, its almost ten years since Sakuraba suddenly emerged into the MMA scene by defeating Marcus Silveira in the final of the heavyweight tournament held in UFC Japan – Ultimate Japan 1 show. It was December 21st, 1997, to be precise, and since then fans were hoping to find out who is stronger, Sakuraba or Tamura.

Why do Japanese MMA fans like to compare these two?
It's because both fighters used to belong to UWF International, and also, what happened then till now. Back in the early 90's, Tamura was a star on the rise and Sakuraba was a new apprentice at this pro-wrestling organization founded by Nobuhiko Takada, and the main objective of this promotion was to slowly make a transition from pro-wrestling to real fights, MMA.
However in 1995, UWF International, without any backing from national TV stations, got into a financial crisis and was force to cut deals with their biggest rival, NJPW (New Japan Pro-Wrestling).

Kiyoshi Tamura (left) showed respect by shaving his head to fight a man who gave him a career as a fighter. Photography by Yoshinori IHARA

But for Tamura, associating with Japan's biggest pro-wrestling organization was a big step backward in terms of moving towards MMA so he refused to participate in a big "NJPW vs. UWF International" show that took place in Tokyo Dome on October 1995, and continued rejecting any bouts with NJPW pro-wrestlers while everybody else in UWF International - such as Takada, Sakuraba, Hiromitsu Kanehara, Yoshihiro Takayama, Kenichi Yamamoto –swallowed their pride and passion holding their dreams on the side, working in a show with NJPW to survive.

Back then, even in the show promoted by UWF International, the main cards were bouts between NJPW wrestlers and UWF International wrestlers so naturally, for Tamura, there was only one spot left, which was the very first bout of the show against a young UWF International wrestler.
Instead of being in the fancy feature bouts, Tamura, in the first preliminary bout of the show, battled a young UWF International wrestler in an MMA-like manner, and most of the time, this young wrestler was Sakuraba. Basically, for Tamura, a star who couldn't be in the main part of the show, Sakuraba was an outlet for his frustration – although it was a pro-wrestling bout, Tamura won every single bout against a young Sakuraba.

Tamura, who really didn't have a place in UWF International, started to look at outside promotions and Master Ishii of K-1 offered him to fight Patrick Smith in a special MMA bout in the K-1 Hercules show that took place on December 1995. Tamura took the offer, and dominated Smith finishing the battle with a heel lock in just 55 seconds in the first round. This was a big win for Tamura. While his peers were dancing with pro-wrestlers, he went on and defeated Smith, who was a runner-up of the UFC 2.

Tamura, in 1997, finally left UWF International and pursued his dream in Akira Maeda's RINGS and since then Sakuraba and Tamura never had any point of contact, at least, until the year 2002.
When DSE first signed Tamura to fight Wanderlei Silva in 2002, Takada, Sakuraba's boss, expressed a bit of displeasure.

On February 24th, 2002, Kiyoshi Tamura finally stepped into the PRIDE ring. Photography by Hideto IDA

Sakuraba was already a star in PRIDE at the time but lost two hard battles against Wanderlei in 2001, and DSE was then giving Tamura an immediate shot at Wanderlei? Takada told the media that it's not fair for Sakuraba who has done a lot for PRIDE and most importantly, he pointed out that Tamura should prove it in the PRIDE ring first before getting an opportunity to fight the champion.

On February 24th, 2002, in PRIDE 19, Tamura vs. Silva took place at Saitama Super Arena but Sakuraba never showed up at the venue.
Even though his name was not in the fight cards, it was customary for Sakuraba to make an appearance at PRIDE show but on this date, he was nowhere to be found.
He never really spoke to the media about Tamura's PRIDE debut but this resulted in the very first PRIDE show without Sakuraba's presence, and that really stirred fan's imaginations - Sakuraba still hates Tamura!

And in November of same year, his master Takada was KO'd by Tamura's right hook. When Takada exited from the ring, TV cameras captured Sakuraba's tears. He was crying because this was his master's retirement bout but the fans were thinking way more.
Sakuraba now needs to take revenge for his master!

DSE is fully aware of these fan's speculations and imaginations and that is why they are pursuing this "dream match" between Sakuraba and Tamura, and since Sakakibara has already made this public, one can only assume that the possibility of this fight happening is very very high.

On November 23rd, Tamura finally talked to the media about New Year's Eve. After his pro-wrestling bout against Josh Barnett in the U-Style Axis show, Tamura said, "As long as the opponent is someone I feel consent towards, then I will move forward."

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