Ryuta Sakurai

Ryuta Sakurai 桜井隆多(born September 8, 1971) is a Japanese mixed martial artist who currently competes in the middleweight division. A veteran who fought for many companies such as Shooto, Pancrase and PRIDE. Nicknamed Mr. DEEP, he is best known for spending most of his fighting career in DEEP, where he is a former DEEP Middleweight champion.

DEEP
Sakurai defeated Ryuki Ueyama at Deep: 17 Impact on December 18, 2004, by technical knockout in the first round to win the championship. Sakurai would lose the title in February 2006 to Ryo Chonan at Deep: 23rd Impact in the first round due to a cut. He would challenge for the championship in a rematch against rival Riki Fukuda at Deep: 40 Impact, where he lost via unanimous decision.

His last fight in DEEP to date was at Deep: 87 Impact on December 21, 2018, to a second round submission loss to Tatsuya Mizuno.

Championship and accomplishments

 * DEEP
 * DEEP Middleweight Championship (1 time)


 * GRACHAN
 * GRAND Welterweight Championship (1 time)


 * Shooto
 * 5th All Japan Amateur Shooto Light Heavyweight Championship tournament winner (1998)