Masakatsu Funaki

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Born
1969 (56 years old)
Shiny National flag

Aomori Prefecture, Japan

Position
Wrestler

Status

Ethnicity
Asian

Team Number

Height
6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)

Weight
209 lb (95 kg; 14 st 13 lb)

Outfitter

Kit
Wage Year

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No Cutout thumb

Archive

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Sport

Fighting

Team
_Retired WWE

2nd Team

League
_Defunct Fighting Teams

Creative Commons Artwork
No

Description

Masaharu Funaki (船木優治 Funaki Masaharu, born March 13, 1969) is a Japanese actor, mixed martial artist and professional wrestler known professionally as Masakatsu Funaki (船木誠勝 Funaki Masakatsu), who has previously wrestled in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi (PWFG), Newborn UWF (UWF), and Wrestle-1 (W-1). He is also the co-founder of Pancrase, one of the first mixed martial arts organizations and non-rehearsed shoot wrestling promotions (following five years after the inception of Shooto but predating America's Ultimate Fighting Championship). Funaki was also Pancrase's biggest star; Josh Barnett described him as the "symbol of Japan", Frank Shamrock labeled Funaki "the golden boy" of Pancrase, and Guy Mezger called Funaki "hands down the smartest and most skilled fighter in Pancrase next to Ken Shamrock".

Not only the organization's co-founder and most popular fighter, Funaki was also one of Pancrase's most successful fighters to date, scoring submission victories over numerous MMA champions such as Ken Shamrock, Frank Shamrock, Semmy Schilt, Guy Mezger, Yuki Kondo, Minoru Suzuki, and Bas Rutten through the course of his Pancrase career. He is the only fighter in mixed martial arts to hold wins over both Shamrock brothers and Bas Rutten, and was the first man to win the King of Pancrase title twice.

Funaki is widely considered to be one of the greatest Japanese fighters in mixed martial arts history. Sherdog.com ranked him as the #1 mixed martial artist in the world for the years 1996 and 1997, and also had him ranked as a top 4 pound for pound fighter from 1993 to 1998.

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