By Gene Lesser
Augusto Sakai
Born: Curitiba, Parana, Brazil
Age: 30
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 261.5 lbs
Reach: 77.0”
Pro MMA Record: 15-2-1
Weight Class: Heavyweight
Camp: Gile Ribeiro Team
Last Fight: Loss to Alistair Overeem on September 5th, 2020
Offensively, Augusto Sakai is a talented and varied orthodox striker on the feet. He has a Muay Thai background that is evident in his fight style. He moves forward and uses his pressure to keep his opponent on their back foot. He also does a good job of feinting to setup his offense. When moving forward, he throws combinations, but leans heavily on crosses and uppercuts that are punctuated by his knockout power. Something unique is his use of hammer fist on the feet. Those type of punches are normally reserved for ground and pound situations. He also has no problem switching stances in exchanges between orthodox and southpaw, but prefers orthodox. In the clinch, he has a pretty good Muay Thai clinch that uses to control his opponent and allows him to land vicious knees to the body. He will also land precise, slicing elbows in the clinch. He does not look to wrestle or take his opponents down even though he is a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. If the fight happens to end up on the ground, he looks to transition and find advantageous positions to attack.
Defensively, Augusto Sakai is sound on the feet. He does a good job using head movement to avoid damage by slipping and rolling with punches. When his opponent begins to pressure, he is good at moving and getting out of trouble. He’s deceptively fleet of foot for his size. In the grappling and wrestling department, he is hard to control. He does a solid of job keeping his back off the cage for prolonged periods and is good at reversing positions. Many of his fights are not contested on the ground, but in his first loss, Overeem was able to control him for periods of time on the ground. It will be interesting to see if future opponents do the same. As for his durability and cardio, there are no issues there. He’s only been stopped once in his career, his last fight and his cardio is amongst the best in the heavyweight division.