Damone

So, I'm not as educated in K-1 kickboxing as I am in MMA, so I was wondering just how good Satake was in kickboxing. In MMA, he sort of sucked. Well, he did suck, but he had heart and could take a shot. I'm just curious, because I remember some of his Rings worked kickboxing bouts, and they were okay.

Just how good was he?

Discuss.

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MLS

He was actually pretty decent for the time that he fought during.. His record is a little skewed, he was 23-12-3 but he held some titles.

1998 K-1 Bushido tournament champion
1997 K-1 Japan Grand Prix hampion
1993 Karate World Cup champion
1993 ISKA World Heavyweight champion
1993 UKF World Heavyweight champion
1993 KICK World Super Heavyweight champion
Karate Japan Open champion
Karate Real Champion Tournament 2nd place

Damone

What were his best fights?

I saw this one fight in Rings between Satake and Gordeau, where they were working their strikes and all of a sudden Gerard just unloads on Masaaki, and Satake just has this, "What the hell?" look on his face. Ah, Gerard, such a class act.

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MLS

He had good fights against, Glaube Feitosa, Tsuyoshi Nakasako, Toru Oishi, Yoji Anjo, Branco Cikatic (his biggest win)

The thing with Satake in K-1 was he always lost to the top flight guys.

BloodJunkie

Satake was one of the original fighters in the beginning of K-1. He started fighting in K-1 when Seido-Kaikan was disolved so he was really a strict Karate fighter in those days.

Satake was never really able to translate well from Karate to kickboxing so when he facedd top level kickboxers he usually got shredded. The way I see him is like the guys that fought in the early UFC days. At the time they were competetive but as the sport evolved they were left behind.

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MLS

Perfectly said.

Damone

Awesome, thank you both.

So, Satake was pretty much the Jeff Monson of K-1: Looks good fighting lower-tier fighters, but gets exposed once he fights a top fighter? Cool.

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MLS

Pretty much.