Whether he competes in boxing or mixed martial arts, the toughest decision any professional prizefighter must confront is deciding when to end his career. Boxing history is littered with countless once great fighters that diminished their legacy and put their health and well being at risk by sticking around too long. As evidence that MMA has matured as a sport, it appears to be experiencing the same phenomenon with fighters such as Ken Shamrock soldiering on despite being well past their prime. Kazushi Sakuraba is definitely the most legendary fighter in the history of MMA in Japan, but unfortunately he too must be added to that list following his brutal knockout loss to Melvin Manhoef at DREAM 4.

Mixed martial arts is booming in America, but there’s not one specific fighter responsible for its upswing in popularity. That’s not the case in Japan, as Sakuraba is almost universally acknowledged as having brought MMA to the mainstream of Japanese sports and popular culture. In particular, his on-going feud with Brazil’s Gracie family made him a major superstar and national hero.

While Sakruaba’s record in the sport is certainly worthy of this acclaim, the reality is that he hasn’t defeated a credible opponent of any sort since his 2003 win over Kevin Randleman. At this point, he’s doing nothing to enhance his legacy and is putting it at risk by continuing his career well past his competitive prime.

Boxing pundits frequently speak of a fighter’s age in terms of ‘ring years’. For that reason a younger fighter who has endured a series of grueling fights against high level opponents can be considered ‘old in ring years’, while an older fighter who has taken an easier path is considered ‘young’ by the same metric. Under this evaluation, there’s no doubt that Sakuraba has to be considered old in ‘ring years’. His 90 minute battle with Royce Gracie alone took a significant toll on Sakuraba, and he continued to face high level opponents after that.

Sakuraba also made the most of his box office popularity, demonstrating his bravery by facing much larger opponents including heavyweights like Mirko Cro Cop and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. These physical mismatches would never be sanctioned in the more tightly regulated US fight scene, but were big box office in Japan. The result, however, wasn’t as favorable for Sakuraba with most ending with him losing by knockout or submission.

Sakuraba, unfortunately, has shown little indication that he’ll retire any time soon. Hopefully his prolonged career won’t undermine his legacy of greatness, or more problematically damage his long term mental or physical well being.

After a controversial no contest in their first matchup, there was no doubt as to the winner of the DREAM 2 rematch between Shina Aoki and JZ Calvan. Aoki controlled the fight from the opening bell and used a wide repertoire of submission attempts to keep his opponent off balance and on the defensive.

Aoki scored early with a takedown and controlled Calvan on the ground, working a heel lock attempt before taking his opponents back and attempting a rear naked choke. In the second, Aoki put on a submission clinic and demonstrated his ungodly flexibility as he spun from an armbar to a triangle choke and back again. Calvan was able to counter or escape, but looked completely out of sync as he generated almost no offense whatsoever over the 15 minutes.

Aoki was very emotional in his postfight speech to the crowd. JZC had grumbled about the no-contest in their DREAM 1 matchup, and the one sided decision made him even more dejected in his postfight press interviews.

With the victory Aoki advances to the semifinals of the lightweight GP tournament. Thats the plan at least, as Aoki made some statements in the Japanese press leading up to the fight that win or lose there would be no way hed be ready for the next round with only half the preparation time as the rest of the field. Hopefully the impressive victory and the enthusiastic response from the holiday week Tokyo crowd will change his mind as hes now the man to beat even with the short prep time.

The rest of the card was devoted to the opening round of the middleweight GP tournament. Taiei Kin defeated Minowa-man Ikuhisa Minowa in a very closely contested and entertaining fight.

Korean judoka Yoon Dong-Sik also advanced with a unanimous decision victory over Shungo Oyama. Most of the damage in this fight came from Yoons ground and pound from full mount, and he controlled the tempo from the outset. Two one sided contests followed, with Zeleg Galesic submitting Magomed Sultanakhmadov via arm bar in a minute and a half of the first round. That was followed by the MMA debut of former Pac 10 wrestling standout Ian Murphy, who had a worst case scenario draw against BJJ specialist Ronaldo Jacare.

In one of the highlight matches of the DREAM/K-1 Fields Dynamite! New Years Eve megacard, Japanese submission machine Shinya Aoki used a heel hook to submit a top notch opponent in Eddie Alverez at 1:32 of the first round. With the victory, Aoki sets up a rematch against reigning DREAM lightweight champion Joachim Hellboy Hansen and bolsters his claim as the best lightweight fighter in the world.

When the Aoki/Alverez fight was first announced, there was some speculation that Aoki had chosen one of the worst possible stylistic matchups for him. With Alverez’s toughness and heart, as well as a solid background in boxing and amateur wrestling hes become one of the best all round fighters in MMA and among the best in the world at the weight.

Alverez received an enthusiastic reaction from the fans in Tokyos Saitama Super Arena as he made his way to the ring on New Years Eve”his run to the DREAM lightweight finals and particularly the epic battle with Hansen has made him a highly respected and popular fighter in Japan. The reaction he received was nothing like Aokis, however, who was cheered like a rock star as he bounced to the ring.

As the two fighters stood for referee instructions, it was striking how much taller and rangier Aoki was than his opponent. Aoki is listed at 511, Alverez at 58 but the visual difference suggests that theres much more than a three inch height advantage in favor of Aoki.

For the first minute of the match, it appeared that a slow feeling out process was underway. Alverez landed the first blows of the contest, connecting with a nice three punch combination that displayed his lightning fast hands. Aoki danced away, however, and wasnt hurt by the attack.

What happened next can only be described as unbelievable”the sequence started when Aoki grabbed Alverezs ankle after a kick and appeared to go for what looked like a standing anklelock submission. Alverez managed to extricate his ankle and seeing that Aoki was off balance took the opportunity to go for his own takedown with a move that looked more like a judo throw than a traditional wrestling move. Against 99.9% of the other fighters in the world, Alverez would have ended up on top and started working in full or half guard.

When Alverez landed, however, Aoki wasnt there. In one single, almost gravity defying motion hed used the momentum from the takedown to shoot under Alverez and grab his leg. Alverez struggled briefly, but Aoki quickly cinched in a painful heel hook. Eventually, Alverez maneuvered himself into an even worse position and with an audible shout of pain was forced to tap.

Ever the gentleman, Aoki dropped to the canvas after the tapout to check on his opponents condition than started his postfight celebration. He quickly addressed the crowd in Japanese to an enthusiastic response before heading to the back.

One superlative that is no longer in dispute is Shinya Aokis status as the best submission artist in mixed martial arts. Theres simply no one else like him in the sport”theres plenty of good, solid submission based fighters but Aoki elevates it into an art form. Hes got the technical background to be sure, but what elevates him above the rest is his amazing ability at improvisation. This makes it downright impossible to adequately prepare to fight him, as Alverez discovered. Even if an opponent has mastered all of the defenses and counters for every known submission technique, theres no way to defend someone who can make up effective submission moves during a fight.