(NOAH) Notes from Kazushi Sakuraba & Wataru Miki's "39 Channel" talk

22nd May 2020

MIKI: I prefer Kongoh over Sugiura-Gun
SAKURABA: Don't fuck with me! They're my enemy!
(Mock chop battle breaks out)

Kazushi Sakuraba and Wataru Miki (retired featherweight and lightweight MMA fighter) have a YouTube channel where they mainly discuss PRIDE, MMA etc. On the show of the 21st May, they briefly discussed Sakuraba's Noah participation. The rest of the show is them calling up their MMA friends.

Sakuraba says that Noah has a fun atmosphere, and that Cyberagent have bought a breath of fresh air to the promotion. When asked about what he enjoys most about competing in Noah, Sakuraba says its a mixture of the guys he has known for a long time, and those that he has met for the first time. He learns from them both, but its the interactions with the younger and newer that he finds the most interesting. Sakuraba says its different from the martial arts he normally does, the audience is different too and there is more interaction.

They discuss the chop war he had with Naomichi Marufuji, whose chops "hurt really bad", Sakuraba's own chops had no effect on him. Marufuji had chopped him so hard that you could see the handprint.

Sakuraba laughs when Miki teases him about being the GHC Heavyweight champion, and says he has no interest in it.

Link to video