Sakuraba v. Akebono at Dynamite?

There's a new possible fight being discussed for Dynamite and this one is a doozy.  NightmareofBattle is reporting that the show could feature Gracie Hunter Kazushi Sakuraba v. Sumo legend Akebono.  Apparently, this is a fight TBS (the TV station) is pushing for because they feel it would draw strong ratings.

At first, this sounds totally bizarre, but it's actually not so far off from plenty of other fights we've seen at Dynamite.  Akebono was in featured fights at Dynamite from 2003-2006.  The highlight was his massively popular 2003 match with fellow sideshow fighter Bob Sapp, but he's also faced Giant Silva, Royce Gracie, and TV comedian Bobby Ologun (and, notably, he's lost to all of them).  Sakuraba doesn't really seem so far off looking at that list. 

For his part, Sakuraba has been one of the marquee fighters at 3 of the last 4 Dynamite shows, with notable fights against UFC Middleweight Yoshihiro Akiyama, Masa Funaki, and Kiyoshi Tamura. 

While I don't have huge problems with the idea of this fight, I do question what kind of draw it will be.  Akebono has been horribly exposed as a fighter who can not make it in the combat sports world outside of sumo.  He's been a pro wrestler for awhile now, so has lost a bit of that unique vibe that propelled his earlier Dynamite showings.  Saku meanwhile has been trotted out on sub-par Dream shows a bit too much in the past two years, and as a result, his drawing power has faded as well.  Surely they will draw some eyes with this, but it won't be the kind of huge numbers it would have been a few years ago, and won't be the kind of blockbuster fight that the show can hang its ratings hopes on.

So far, only Bibiano Fernandes v. Hiroyuki Takaya is confirmed for the show.  Other rumored fights run all over the place and include Gegard Mousasi v. Jerome Le Banner, plus some sort of involvement from Melvin Manhoef, Shinya Aoki, Alistair Overeem, and Tatsuya Kawajiri among others.

In other Dynamite news, our friends at BloodyElbow have a good article up breaking down the show's woes.  It's a good read - check it out here.