Japanese MMA Legend Sakuraba to Fight American Boxer Rubin Williams

If I told you that the UFC was bringing Royce Gracie out of retirement and putting him in the Octagon with some washed-up boxer you'd never heard of, would you think that was a good idea? Probably not. But the folks at the Japanese MMA promotion Dream are doing something awfully similar, matching up the legendary Kazushi Sakuraba with American boxer Rubin Williams in an utterly ridiculous Dream 11 bout.

The 40-year-old Sakuraba is well past his prime, but there was a time when he was among the best MMA fighters in the world. With wins over fighters like Ken Shamrock, Rampage Jackson and Vitor Belfort -- not to mention four members of the Gracie family -- it's bizarre to see him in the above video hyping a silly fight with a boxer who has never fought MMA before.

And Williams isn't even a good boxer: He's on a six-fight losing streak and hasn't won in the ring in more than three years. Why Sakuraba and Dream think this is a good idea I can't quite fathom.

Here are a couple videos of Williams acknowledging that he doesn't know much about MMA and doesn't really know who Sakuraba is:



Part 2:


Dream.11 will air on tape delay at 7 AM ET on Tuesday on HDNet.