Why this card matters
The earliest Sakuraba card documented, and the only one any source calls a rookie. BBM released the set on 4 January 1996, in his third year as a U.W.F. International wrestler and months before his first recorded MMA bout — this is a pro-wrestling card of a shoot-style undercard man working under Billy Robinson and Yoji Anjo, years before the Gracie fights and PRIDE. It sits in a 362-card Japanese set alongside Ken Shamrock (#181) and Minoru Suzuki (#169), which is the company his early cardboard keeps.
Identification
Missing a back scan. Contribute one.
- Card #103, in the set's U.W.F. International section, within a 362-card BBM base run covering all Japanese promotions
- Set is Japanese-language; BBM is Baseball Magazine Sha, the licensed Japanese pro-wrestling card publisher
- Pro-wrestling issue, not MMA — he is pictured as a UWFi wrestler, not a PRIDE fighter
- COMC catalogues it as '1996 BBM Pro Wrestling - [Base] #103 - Kazushi Sakuraba'
Disputed
Only the word 'rookie' is in doubt. The number and the set are confirmed by WrestlingTradingCards.com's checklist, which places him at #103 in the U.W.F. International section, and by COMC's catalogue entry for the same base card. Cardbase is the only source that applies a rookie flag to it, and Japanese sets of this period carried no printed rookie designation, so the claim is that it is his earliest card and the only one anyone calls a rookie, not that a manufacturer said so.
Parallels
No parallels recorded for this card.
Population & market
Population figures will be taken directly from the grading companies and dated when they are. None are shown yet.
FightCardboard doesn't republish other sites' price data, and won't label an asking price as a value. What appears here instead: sales we made or watched happen, and public auction results — each tagged with its source.
Cardbase — Kazushi Sakuraba card list (33 cards, 1 rookie, 24 variations)
Cardbase — 1996 BBM Pro Wrestling set page (361 cards; names #103 Kazushi Sakuraba)
No FightCardboard verified sales recorded yet.
A verified sale is a transaction we completed or watched happen. Until there is one, there is nothing here to cite.
Available copies
Nothing from the archive is currently available.
This card record stands on its own whether or not a copy is in the vault.
More Kazushi Sakuraba
Sources & research Probable×1Uncertain×1
Every factual claim on this page, the evidence behind it, and an honest confidence level. Where sources disagree the disagreement is kept, not quietly resolved.
1996 BBM Pro Wrestling #103 — Kazushi Sakuraba.
Only Cardbase was reachable for this card. The number (#103), the set size (361) and the rookie flag all come from that one site; no second database confirmed them.