Should you ever puzzled what occurs when a residing mountain collides with a mustachioed brawler, look no additional than the notorious Taro Akebono vs. Don Frye matchup, a spectacle that made even probably the most jaded struggle followers do a double-take. This was not only a struggle; it was a physics experiment gone rogue.
Don Frye vs. Taro Akebono
Let’s set the stage: Taro Akebono was sumo’s first non-Japanese yokozuna, a title so uncommon there have solely been 67 in sumo’s multi-millennial historical past. At his peak, Akebono stood 6’8″ (some say 6’11” should you ask Frye, who needed to hold craning his neck to search out the person’s face) and weighed in at a scale-busting 500-plus kilos. He was an 11-time sumo match champion, a cultural bridge between Japan and the West, and a human wall who might push grown males out of a hoop with a single shove.
After retiring from sumo in 2001, Akebono dabbled in all the things from professional wrestling, kickboxing, to MMA, the place his report – let’s say – didn’t fairly match his sumo pedigree.
Throughout the ring: Don Frye, a real MMA pioneer and all-American powerful man, contemporary off a profession that noticed him win early UFC tournaments and throw fingers with anybody, anyplace. Frye was by no means the largest heavyweight, however he was constructed like a hearth hydrant and twice as cussed. By the point he met Akebono in 2006, Frye had already cemented his legacy as a brawler with a granite chin, a wrestling base, and a mustache that might reduce glass.
Now, about that dimension distinction: Don Frye, a sturdy 6’1” and round 220 kilos in his prime, appeared like a regular-sized dad at a sumo household reunion. Akebono, at practically 7 inches taller and greater than double Frye’s weight, made the ring seem like a baby’s playpen. Frye himself, in a latest interview with Submission Radio, summed up the scenario with attribute bluntness:
“What a dumbass I’m for signing this contract. Ought to have saved my mouth shut. He was the grand nationwide sumo champion… He was so sturdy. Arms had been gigantic. He’s like 6’11 and a half. You search for, you retain trying up.”
The struggle itself was much less a technical showcase and extra a take a look at of gravity and willpower. Akebono, true to his sumo roots, tried to squash Frye in opposition to the ropes, leaning all 500 kilos into the clinch. Don Frye, gasping for air and house, did what he does finest: threw punches, kicks, dirty-boxed, and ultimately managed to drop the enormous and slap on a guillotine choke for the win. It was a victory for the underdog, or at the least for anybody below 400 kilos.
