The Cum Doctor

Didn't Matt Bellamy make the last Muse album after spending ages reading into conspiracy theories?

He's always sounded fascinated by that sort of stuff, but not that long ago he stated that he doesn't actually believe it.

Pride 16 was held a few days after September 11th, hence the patriotism from Frye

Yeah, I got that. I just found the t-shirt to be incredible. I found it difficult to figure out if he was being serious for a second when I seen it.

PRIDE FC 16: Beast From the East

Gary Goodridge vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu

Hey guys, here it is! Old Guy Fucked Up II. Since I know it's the same outcome, might as well just enjoy the brutality. Yatsu asking for the towel was pretty smart stuff. He must have seen the fight going the same direction as the last fight and just decided to cut his losses. I actually thought Yatsu was doing a better job of avoiding being hit, but the big bombs were still getting through, so it was just a matter of time.

Norihisa Yamamoto vs. Assuerio Silva

Well, that didn't last long, did it? Silva just went batshit mental here. Completely rushed Yamamoto, who seemed to be throwing the most desperate kicks ever, and Silva just kept coming forward swinging like a mad man. I believe the term "man possessed" works here. Anyways, quick KO.

Daijiro Matsui vs. Murilo "Ninja" Rua

I get the impression that this fight is going to be pretty good. The first round is absolutely amazing. Matsui was brilliant defending on the ground. I lost count of the number of times when he seemed to just switch position with ease. The longer the round went on though, the more Ninja came into the fight and Matsui wound up eating some brutal kicks and stomps. The second round was total domination from Ninja, as he just laid on a beating yet again and Matsui had absolutely nothing to offer. Ninja wants the fight stopped after a brutal kick, but the ref wants more, so Ninja does the formality of stomping the face a couple of times to finish it. A good wee fight.

Guy Mezger vs. Ricardo Arona

I'm trying to figure out what happened here. Right, obviously they gave the first round to Arona along with the third, but did Arona really do enough? I thought the commentators got it right at the time when they said that Arona wasn't aggressive enough and Mezger had a right go. Neither man seemed to do much damage, so why was Arona given the round? He did well in the third round and easily won it though and Mezger easily took the second. It wasn't the most exciting of fights, but Mezger was great to watch most of the way.

Akira Shoji vs. Semmi Schilt

Schilt is one hell of a big man. Tall I mean. Not that he doesn't have quite a build on him of course. This could be a long night for Akira. So it proves to be. Akira seemed to have some joy with a takedown, but then Schilt turned around and ended up on top and from that point onwards, it was a beating. Back to the feet they went and Semmi landed mainly knees, but he added some brutal body kicks and left hands to that as well and wound up with the KO with the left hook. Semmi Schilt reminds me of Ivan Drago a bit, except not as cool. Anyways a fun if one sided battle.

Don Frye vs. Gilbert Yvel

DON FRYE~~~!!! I can't help but laugh at the "TERRORISTS SUCK" t-shirt he's using here even if the context lessens the humour a bit. If intensity is your thing then this fight might well be worth watching. The referee DQs Gilbert Yvel and I am happy enough with that as he was CONSTANTLY holding the ropes and generally being an utter cock. Credit to Don Frye for fighting injured and really showing some real heart in there. It's a fascinating fight because of the anger in there. Don Frye says "we'll do it again" and Yvel is happy enough, but then turns his attention to the referee, and Bas Rutten basically said "well, actually, that's a DQ". Yup.

Mark Coleman vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

Interesting fight here. Big Nog was just ridiculously impressive here. When they were on the feet to begin with, he hit some belting shots, so Coleman got him on the ground, and what happened? Well, what do you expect? Big Nog constantly looks dangerous, with the main focus being on the arms of Coleman. He then eventually gets the Triangle Choke to put Coleman out of the fight. Brilliant, brilliant showing.

Did they get any letters saying that it was actually a pretty good PPV, which is what it actually was?

PRIDE FC 15: Raging Rumble

Valentijn Overeem vs. Assuerio Silva

The fans are well excited at the start of this. Very odd ending to this one as Silva wins with the heel hook, but before he locked it in, both guys seemed to just lay there for a bit and I felt that Overeem could have gotten himself out of bother. He didn't though and that was that. As for Overeem, he laid in some ground and pound in the triangle and it looked like he was going to win via KO and it was almost an underdog win because of that. Good performance from both men in a short fight.

Syungo Ohyama vs. Wallid Ismail

Ismail's stare isn't quite as intense as Wandy's but it's stone cold stuff. Actually more intimidating if you ask me. He's just as imposing when it comes to the fight. He has Ohyama in a bad position on numerous occaisions and really dominated proceedings. Not that Ohyama isn't showing that he has something in him. A good escape from the bottom and some good submission attempts which had Ismail in trouble in the first round. Ismail continues this work into the second round and winds up getting the side choke for the win. It was just a superb performance from him really.

Masaaki Satake vs. Igor Vovchanchyn

The action in the first round took a long time to get going, but once Igor got into the groove, things took a real turn for the good. Turned into an absolutely fascinating round with Satake being as determined as any fighter you are likely to see and taking everything that Igor had to throw, and he threw some bombs. Loved that round of action. The second round is just as good as Satake works hard with the leg kicks, but Igor manages to take control with a takedown, but Satake defended well with Igor in the full mount. Third round? Satake wasn't really doing enough I'm afraid. It was good to see him sticking with the leg kicks, because they seemed to be working, but Igor just wound up getting the chance to dominate again. Anyways, this is a damned fun fight.

Heath Herring vs. Mark Kerr

Not the most exciting of first rounds between these two. They do manage to keep things busy with Kerr in the guard of Herring, and Herring has a really close call with a kimura attempt, and both men go for some punches, but all in all, it's not the most exciting of rounds. Not much changes in the second round unfortunately. The normally patient PRIDE fans have enough of this one as well. Someone shouts, in their infinite wisdom, "REFEREE!!!" Get him telt man. Herring unloads at the end of the round and fucking MAULS Kerr. Shite fight admittedly, but what a fantastic end to it. The kick was just BRUTAL and then the knees were just the exclamation point.

Daijiro Matsui vs. Ebenezer Fontes Braga

There was some good action to be had here but it was all in little moments. The first round got off to a flier, but then died down in a big way in the second half. The second round was VERY busy, with Braga continuing to dominate the fight although Matsui made a real fight of it. The third round sees Matsui attempt the Dropkick again, which never gets old if you ask me, but it didn't help him any as Braga handed out yet more beatings. It was an action packed fight and it was busy, but it just felt a bit dull for me.

Gary Goodridge vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

BIG NOG~~~!!! He CONSTANTLY looked dangerous from the bottom. Highlight of the fight for me was when he was on the bottom, and almost in the blink of an eye, he was in the half guard of Goodridge. Incredible work. He winds up winning with the Triangle Choke after a very impressive showing.

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Kazushi Sakuraba

This is definately a baptism of fire for Rampage. He looks determined to impress though. Slamming Sakuraba out of the ring? It's not the Royal Rumble man. Love the referees at ringside going batshit mental trying to keep Sakuraba in the ring. While this fight was on, it was absolutely stunning. Fucking LOVED this. Powerbombs, slams knees from the bottom, Sakuraba's persistance for the submission at the end and Rampage's escapes initially. You can't blame the commentators for going mental over it and Rampage had a cracking showing too. Wow.

Ryan Gracie vs. Tokimitsu Ishizawa

Watching Kendo Kashin getting the ever loving shit punched out of him by Gracie remains one of my favourite moments in PRIDE so far. The audience made this seem like the biggest fight ever. Seems to be an unfortunate ending to the fight with an accidental injury stopping Gracie. To be fair to Ishizawa though, he did look good while the fight was on, and fought a smart one. Not allowing himself to be put in the guard of Gracie and just controlling things in general, so while it was an unfortunate ending, it was a good performance from Ishizawa.

PRIDE 14: Clash of the Titans

Wanderlei Silva vs. Shungo Ohyama

WANDERLEI CURTAIN JERKING!!! Okay, so maybe not. Ohyama matches the stare of Silva. So how long does this last? Erm... not long. 10 seconds apparently, but it felt longer than that. Weird. Silva punches the fuck out of Ohyama and he decides that he doesn't want anymore of that and the fans don't like that one bit. I'll be honest. Can you blame anyone for not wanting to have Wanderlei Silva punch the fuck out of them?

Johil De Oliviera vs. Nino "Elvis" Scembri

Elvis looked very good here. He was persistant with the takedowns. He missed the first few but he just kept going and wound up getting it, and when he got him down there, he kept busy and was constantly looking for position, and once again, the persistance paid off and he got the arm bar for the win. Apparently his first MMA fight and when you consider that, it's a hell of a win.

Gary Goodridge vs. Valentijn Overeem

Why did Goodridge keep going on Overeem when the referee was clearly stepping in? Anyways that was some top drawer brutality from Goodridge as you will normally see from him. Overeem nearly had him beat in the fight though when he had the arm, but Overeem managed to escape and then land the knees and get the win from that. A brutal ending to what was looking like it might be a bit of a disappointing fight.

Daijiro Matsui vs. Pele

Mentioned by wandy earlier in the thread as being a hidden gem. I'll be the judge of that sonny. Matsui going for a proper Dropkick is probably one of the most bizzare things I have seen in an MMA fight. It was one of many highlights of a terrific first round. The slams on the head, the wrestling-like running someone into the corner to try and escape a Rear Naked Choke. So much to love and I didn't even bother trying to decide who won the round. I was too into it. The second round wasn't as action packed but it was every bit as interesting and intriguing, with the jostling for position. The third round finally sees a dying down in the excitement. They keep busy, especially Matsui, but they don't throw as much out there. It's still a fascinating fight and definately one of the best in the PRIDE collection thus far.

Guy Mezger vs. Chuck Liddell

Good Luck Chuck! FUCKING HELL!!! That'll be the knockout then. The fight was very cautious in the first round. Both guys seemingly respecting the other and keeping their distance, although that didn't mean that some big shots didn't get through, and Mezger seemed to be getting the better of those exchanges, in particular a cracker of a right hand then head kick combo. It's all about the knockout here though, as Chuck seems to put his fist THROUGH the face of Mezger. I don't know if I'm a bigger fan of that one, or the one that Evans landed on Chuck in the UFC, but it's close.

Akira Shoji vs. Dan Henderson

The first round was a fun slugfest for the most part and it went to show that Akira really didn't want to be standing and slugging it out with Henderson as he ate a LOT of hard shots from all over the place. He did take Henderson down towards the end, and had a GREAT start by rushing Henderson, taking him down and then just going mental with the ground and pound. Second round seen Hendo dominate in the guard and on the feet and just generally make Akira wish he wasn't there. The referee stops it in the third when Hendo just knees, kicks and punches the living fuck out of the head of Akira. I can see why the referee waited so long to stop that there as Akira wasn't really out of it. Fun fight.

Heath Herring vs. Vitor Belfort

Not the most exciting first round. I don't know why. There was a LOT of work on the ground and mainly for Herring, who was looking for all sorts of stuff, but Belfort did a good job of keeping Herring at bay and making sure not too much damage was taken. The second round wasn't much better. Again, it's not that there's nothing going on. There's plenty going on. I think I've described wrestling matches in the past as having "a whole not of nothing" and that might well be the best way to describe the first two rounds of this fight. Third round was much of the same. Really didn't like this fight.

Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Gilbert Yvel

Igor gets the win via choke pretty early. He really worked hard on that fucker there. He got Yvel down and persisted on passing to the mount and when he got it, Yvel gives away the back. Robert's yer father's brother. Yvel is poor on the ground and we've seen that on the previous shows and Igor knew that too.

Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Yoshihiro Takayama

Wowzers. I'm a big fan of Takayama as a wrestler. Can't wait to see what he does here. It's a fascinating fight actually. Takayama didn't do any harm to himself here. He took a bit of a beating from Fujita on the ground when he was eventually taken down there. He actually did well to survive the load of knees. The second round sees him going for the knees on the ground as well and those bad boys are just horrible to watch. Takayama winds up taking the head/arm choke and passing out. He impressed me here though purely based on the heart. A brutal fight.

Not his biggest fan admittedly, but it's clear he has a lot of passion for the sport and it's very sad to hear this news.

I'll post the full thing tomorrow when I've watched it, but I've finished watching Pele/Matsui, and rather than being a hidden gem, it's actually my favourite fight in the PRIDE collection thus far. The first round is just ridiculous. I had to watch the Dropkick attempt again as I thought to myself "did he just try a Dropkick?" and then went back and watched it. My eyes didn't decieve me. I was also a big fan of the head dropping and the using a run into the corner to try and escape a Rear Naked Choke, also reminding me of wrestling. Then you had the second round with both guys seemingly switching position for shits and giggles. Didn't enjoy the third round as much, but still, fuck me it's good.

The idea of a third fall being "to settle it" once you've established both are fairly evenly-matched by tying the first two - then having said fall be an Iron Man - creating the possibility of MORE "evenness" and necessitating overtime - just over egging the pudding from the outset, and if the concept of the match promised masturbatory booking, it delivered it in spades.

To be fair, I thought the first two falls worked brilliantly outside of the fucking dreadful ending of the second fall.

Loving the Pride reviews Haraga. Not to be a pedantic cunt but how come you're putting Dan Mezger instead of Guy Mezger?

I'll be honest. I have no fucking idea. I always make stupid wee mistakes and wind up sticking with them. I can bet that, even after this, it will continue.

And aye, I'm going all of the way to the end.

I had to stop watching PRIDE 13 last night before the main event and I was like "lets see what I'm coming back to" and then seen what the fight was and was like "NO!!!". I couldn't fight the sleep anymore though and gave in. That's the last time I decide to see who's fighting next if I'm heading for bed.

PRIDE FC 13: Collision Course

Bobby Southworth vs. Vitor Belfort

Belfort looked impressive in every way here. Started off with some quick punching, got a couple of takedowns and dominated on the ground and then switched to the Rear Naked Choke for the tapout. Southworth didn't really have the chance to show much here against someone who was clearly superior to him.

Dan Mezger vs. Egan Inoue

Another impressive switching of strikes from Mezger in this fight. Low kicks, knees, rights and lefts, he really did land some big shots here. Inoue tried to keep Mezger close but it was more of a containing tactic than anything else and Mezger was just waiting to get free and unleash and he did just that. Terrific showing.

Sobolev Denis vs. Heath Herring

Heath shoots and gets the side mount and then unleashes elbows and knees and then the arm bar and that ends it. I just described the whole fight. As you can tell, that was a brilliant fight from Herring, and it took 22 seconds to end that.

Dan Henderson vs. Renzo Gracie

I thought that it was a big right hand that knocked out Gracie there, as you could hear the connection in it. Renzo was determined to take Hendo down but it was his downfall as everytime he shot, he took some vicious punishment with the knees and the right hands and it was a shoot that wound up seeing the end as the uppercut caught him coming in. These fights aren't taking very long.

Mark Coleman vs. Allan Goes

Why did it take so long for the referee to stop the fight? I could tell right away that Goes was KOed and the referee was right over him. The corner had to shout at the referee for him to do something about it. Christ. Another finish quickly though.

Masaaki Satake vs. Tadao Yasuda

I can't say I'm a big fan of Yasuda. I can't blame him for using the tactic that he did, but it just made me want to skip the fight. I don't really get why Satake didn't do more to get out of his way. It was almost as if Satake was waiting there and accepting his fate of being rushed against the corner. The second round seen Satake make a better fist of moving about, and also managed to land some cracking combos in the process. Not happy that Yasuda won, but mainly just because I didn't like the way he fought. He probably deserved it though.

Tracy Telligman vs. Igor Vovchanchyn

"I expect somebody to get punched in this fight."

A bold prediction there. Okay, so it wasn't really, but it turned out to be right anyways. Igor was getting the better off the first round for the most part, but when Telligman got into the round, boy did he get into the round, and when Igor got back up after having Telligman in the guard, he didn't seem the same fighter for the rest of the round. Telligman wound up dominating the rest of the fight really and the decision was well earned. The second and third weren't as good as the first, but it was a good fight anyways.

Wanderlei Silva vs. Kazushi Sakuraba

SWEET FUCK!!! This could be the end of a great run of fights for Sakuraba. Sure enough, Silva hands out a hell of a beating to Sakuraba for a short time. Sakuraba looked like he might have some luck when he rocked Silva a couple of times, but what followed that was actually pretty close to being hard to watch as the beating that Silva gave Sakuraba was just violent.

I think that was my favourite PRIDE show so far. Just madness from top to bottom. Not even the infuriating Satake vs. Yasuda fight could make me enjoy it less.

Thoughts on the show.

That same thing came up with me and I didn't change anything. Personally, I liked the only one quote thing, because I hate when people bring out these massive chain quotes. It's not QUITE as annoying as people who quote massive posts to say one line or something, but it's close.

PRIDE FC 12: Cold Fury

Alexander Otsuka vs. Guy Mezger

Mezger always looked the more impressive fighter on the feet. Otsuka wasn't doing much of anything and he seemed frustrated after the loss. He must have known he was partly to blame for his own demise. Very impressive show of striking. Well mixed from Mezger, with shots to the body and the head and everywhere in between and he wound up getting the KO. Nicely done.

Akira Shoji vs. Ricardo Almeida

This looks pretty good on paper. Almeida was very impressive on the ground to a point. He seemed to pass the full guard of Shoji as if it was nothing. It's an absolutely brilliant first round though. Both guys were explosive and the timing of both guys when they were working out of the guard and the ground positions was very good. The second round didn't have the same explosions as the first round, but it did contain a brilliant display of striking from Almeida who was VERY impressive. Shoji seems determined to stay in the fight, but Almeida was brilliant. That was a brilliant fight which Almeida takes a decision.

Enson Inoue vs. Heath Herring

Herring wins the fight with knees on the ground. Inoue seemed to know early that he'd have to do something special and flew at Herring but he wound up in danger from that point onwards. Herring dominated from there and landed knees on a defenceless Inoue. He wasn't happy because he was still in the fight but the referee stopped it because it could have been pretty bad and he wasn't changing things.

John De Oliviera vs. Carlos Newton

Decent first round. Both guys really fighting for position on the ground. I'd say Newton got the better of things there thanks to some domination towards the end and he got the better of the striking as well. The scrambling on the ground was very good though. The second round was much of the same, but John did a lot of decent work from the bottom which might have gained him some favour. It didn't and Newton won.

Wanderlei Silva vs. Dan Henderson

Henderson is undefeated going into this fight, but he has a hell of a fight on his hands against someone who has been making waves in PRIDE. The crowd loves the stare from Silva. A good first round from Silva. Henderson didn't look too bad and landed some big rights, but Silva really overwhelmed him with the superior striking and then just pounded him on the ground. In the second round Henderson just continued to fade away in the fight while Silva looked fresh and ready to fight pretty much the entire time, but Silva also fought a very conservative fight, not doing lots, KNOWING he was dominating and probably getting the decision. It just seemed to be stand them up, Henderson walks into a right hand, and then back to the ground.

Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Gilbert Yvel

Well... this will be fun. I thought it would be anyways, Fujita takes down Yvel and really dominates things. Yvel just didn't have an answer to get off of his back. Fujita went for the arm a number of times and that just didn't work for him. The second round was much of the same for a lot of it, except that this round had a great takedown from Fujita in order to really seal the fate of Yvel. Not even the big knees of Yvel managed to take Fujita out of his game plan. Decision win for Fujita.

Ricco Rodriguez vs. John Marsh

Marsh showed quite a bit of determination here, but there's only so much you can do with someone of the experience of Ricco Rodriguez. Marsh looked decent on the feet and had Ricco rocked on one occaision, but Ricco hit some cracking knees and leg kicks himself to show that it wasn't all about the ground from him. It WAS his premier game plan though and he worked it pretty well. It's a decision win for Ricco Rodriguez and a well earned one.

Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Mark Kerr

Interesting fight! The first round of this fight was much like the first round of the last one. Much of the fight spent in the guard, this time of Igor, but Kerr stayed active, trying to pass the guard and going for the neck cranks but Igor did a good job of defending. The second time they went down they did NOTHING, and even the patient Japanese fans had enough and started booing. The second round isn't MUCH better, but there's excitement in Igor knocking down Kerr and putting him in trouble, but then finally in the bottom position again. In the overtime, Igor gets the advantage with two BIG right hands and even though he winds up with Kerr on top, it turns out to be enough to win the fight. Not good at all.

Ryan Gracie vs. Kazushi Sakuraba

Gracie is taped up all over the place here. That doesn't look good for him, it has to be said. This is an exciting fight from the word go. Gracie is constantly worried about the having his arm taken from Sakuraba, to the point that he doesn't even want to take his back. Sakuraba has Gracie in a number of awkward positions, with chokes and grabbing the arm and then once again back to the neck. Gracie to his credit looked dangerous. Sakuraba has a bit of fun by spanking Gracie near the end of the fight. We get one round because Gracie came in injured and considering that, he had a good showing, but this was a Sakuraba win all of the way.

There's going to be better shows than this in the future. Hopefully.

I didn't really catch the reason for the towel coming in. Wow. I did think it was weird that he was having what seemed like a very good showing and then all of a sudden it was done.

I'll see if I can track down that HBO special as I've been getting some of their stuff anyways.

PRIDE FC 11: The Battle of the Rising Sun

Tom Erikson vs. Heath Herring

I've got to admit, I'm loving this PRIDE stuff. Erikson got into the guard of Herring and did a great job for the most part and did some good ground and pound and then he made what turned out to be a horrible mistake. He stopped. The referee stood them up and Herring landed two HUGE kicks, took the back and then choked him out. It was a damn fun fight while it lasted and Erikson did a good job too.

Gilbert Yvel vs. Wanderlei Silva

On this paper, this looks like an absolute beauty of a fight. Low blow ends the fight and Yvel wants to fight Silva next time out. Silva is quite happy to settle for that. Silva gives an apologetic wave to the crowd. As soon as that kick landed I knew it was over.

Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Gary Goodridge

A fascinating battle here between these two. I didn't ever really buy that Yatsu was going to win the fight. He looked well out of his depth and his takedowns and striking defence were ridiculous. Yatsu got cheered for not going down, and quite rightly as well. Goodridge was absolutely punching and kicking the ever loving shit out of Yatsu and he didn't go down once. Kudos to the guy for being as hard as nails.

Alexander Otsuka vs. Maike Bourke

Bourke is very dominant in the guard thanks to his strength, but Otsuka persisted with the arm and it wound up paying off as he ended up getting BOTH arms and making him tap out. VERY cool finish.

Akira Shoji vs. Herman Renting

Shoji is one of those guys who I have grown to love from watching old PRIDE shows. Shoji always seems to go for them chin strikes. I don't mean him striking the chin. I mean him using his own chin to strike someone. Weird. Anyways, he sees the oppertunity to go for the arm and gets it. He misses first time out, but he smells blood and goes after Renting on a mission and gets the Arm Bar on the second attempt. Good showing from Akira Shoji here.

Nobuhiko Takada vs. Igor Vovchanchyn

This is definately a very interesting fight. Takada took some big shots from Igor and managed to survive. Some of the real big men of PRIDE didn't manage to do that before this point. First round was close and Takada took a BIT of a beating, but considering the positions that Igor got into, he did well to keep him at bay. Takada winds up tapping out in the second round because he couldn't defend the punches anymore. Pretty smart. Good showing from both guys there and Takada had a lot of heart.

Naoya Ogawa vs. Masaaki Satake

The fans love the staredown at the start, as both guys look extremely pissed at each other. Both guys seem to want to stand and trade, but at the same time, they seem a bit cautious about doing so, so the action comes in flurries. Satake got quite a bit of success landing the leg kicks and those landed hard. Ogawa finally sees sense and takes down the karate expert and chokes him out pretty much instantly. Satake walks away in a rager.

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Shannon Ritch

I'm looking at the time left on the video. 3 minutes. This isn't going to last very long. Sure enough Sakuraba with the knee bar and that, as they say, is that. I fucking love Sakuraba.

That was another pure belter of a PRIDE show right there.

PRIDE FC 10: Return of the Warriors

Vitor Belfort vs. Daijiro Matsui

I THINK I've got that second name right. Fucked if I know to be honest. To open neither man seems to want to do anything for a very long time. Things finally turn when Matsui shoots for the takedown and that doesn't end well for him as he winds up eating a LOT of punches on the floor. I love Matsui's wee kicks to the back when he has Belfort in the guard, but he just got a doing in the first round. The second round sees more of the same, except credit has to be given to Matsui for at least managing to keep Belfort at bay, but he took a hell of a beating here. Easy decision win for Vitor Belfort.

Wanderlei Silva vs. Dan Mezger

It was good to see Dan Mezger come out and say "my last fights were a bit boring, so I want to give more excitement" and he seemed to want to trade with Silva for the most part. What a fucking war it turned into for the most part. Even when Silva was dominating, Mezger was coming out and going for the bombs. It didn't come off for Mezger though and the Axe Murderer really laid in. A brilliant four minutes of fighting here.

Giant Ochiai vs. Ricco Rodriguez

Another cracking wee fight in the first few minutes between these two guys. It was all a little cautious untill Giant appeared to be telling Ricco to kiss his ass and that woke him up a fair bit and we got a lively fight from that point onwards. Even in the clinch and in the guard, Ricco did some very good work and maybe those head games weren't the best idea for Giant, and Ricco wound up submitting Giant with some sort of smother. Very interesting.

Gilbert Yvel vs. Gary Goodridge

I THINK this is a rematch from PRIDE 9. I think I might have to check that later. Whatever it is, Yvel finishes quickly with the head kick and that is a CRAZY finish to the fight right there. Both men were just circling and the big kick came out of nowhere.

Borisov Igor vs. Mark Kerr

Mark Kerr was brilliant here, unleashing the leg kicks as a cover for the takedown and then finishing with the Neck Crank pretty quickly. That was one BRUTAL Can Opener btw. Another good finish.

Enson Inoue vs. Igor Vovchanchyn

Come on Igor. Don't let me down here. This has been a cracking show so far and I expect there to be some brutality here. The wild swinging at the start looked ridiculous but Igor has a pretty bad cut at the end of it. I assume SOMETHING landed. It's a CRAZY beating for Inoue the rest of round one and the referee stops it at the end of the round. Igor gives credit to Inoue for being a hardass. Anyways, another belting round of action here.

Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Ken Shamrock

Shamrock's big return to MMA after his WWE stint and he made it in PRIDE. That tells you the big deal that they were at the time as he still had some serious name power in the MMA game. Shamrock gets a yellow card for constantly holding the ropes early. This is a hell of a war in the first round. How Fujita managed to survive the beating that Shamrock laid in, I'll never know and he smashed in some BELTING shots himself. Shamrock's corner throws in the towel and Fujita wins?! What? No real bad reason either. Just had enough I guess. Shamrock was doing well too. A great fight while it lasted.

Tokimitsu Ishizawa vs. Ryan Gracie

Wouldn't be a PRIDE show without a Gracie on it! Ryan Gracie unleashes one of the most incredible flurries of strikes you are likely to see. Jesus christ, another electric ending to a fight. True to form on this show, a fight isn't given the chance to get shit. Brilliant.

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Renzo Gracie

This should be finger lickin' good. Round one was close to call. MOST of it was intriguing with Sakuraba trying to throw the fancy stuff as always. Gracie did a lot more work but the Hollywood striking from Sakuraba might well have pleased the judges in that round. The second round doesn't have the same level of intrigue, but it does throw up some amusement. Both guys throw some big bombs in order to try and end the fight in this round. Sakuraba winds up ending it with a VICIOUS Kimura and broke the arm. Renzo looked so relaxed too, and his arm was sitting there broken. Wow. Good fight.

Probably my favourite PRIDE show so far. Good main event capped off some crazy action and crazy finishes.

I was gonna recap the rest of the GP, but then came up against Sakuraba vs. Royce and wound up just having to sit back and enjoy it which scuppered my plans somewhat. So I'm gonna cover PRIDE 10 onwards. I was wondering when the fuck it was going to end, but was never bored by it. It wasn't pure exciting either. I guess fascinating is probably the best way to describe it.

PRIDE FC GP 2000 Opening Round

Realised that I haven't watched PRIDE for a good while so I've decided to have a go at this.

Bob Schrijver vs. Wanderlei Silva

The commentator said early "you don't want to stand and trade with Bob" but Silva was pretty much holding his own and punching and kneeing him into oblivion. Bob comes out with the odd punch but Silva just dominated the fight on the feet and then finished it on the ground. Come to think of it, Schrijver didn't offer much at all here, did he? It was a fun wee dismantling from Silva though.

Tachihikari vs. Gary Goodridge

Tachihikari did the smart thing early and tried to close the distance early to eliminate the punches of Goodridge, but Big Daddy managed to create the space and then start striking the guy down and to his credit, he took the shots well. Goodridge had too much though and choked out Tachihikari with the choke after 51 seconds. Bas Rutten: "This is what they call easy money!" Aye, quite.

Ebenezer Fontes Braga vs. Akira Shoji

Not the most exciting fight in the world but I did find it intriguing. Much of it was Shoji in the guard of Braga, but both guys stayed pretty active. They really turned it on at the end of the first round with Braga trying to smash Shoji's face in with an axe kick. I think Shoji winning was the right decision as he got the takedown and was on top pretty much the entire round, and I think Braga knew that which is why he suddenly burst into life.

Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Hanse Nyman

Fujita's takedown to put Nyman in trouble was absolutely terrific timing, as was the switch to side control when Nyman tried to push him away, and this wound up allowing him to get the submission win. It was a good performance from Fujita and obviously the audience loved that.

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Guy Mezger

These PRIDE shows have made me quite the fan of Sakuraba. Really enjoyable 10 minutes between the two guys. Sakuraba couldn't get much joy for most of it, but then got a takedown and looked close to maybe getting the arm of Mezger. Shamrock was PISSED that the first round was called a draw. I felt it was the right decision. Shamrock sends Mezger to the dressing room? Aye, eliminate your fighter from getting the chance to fight in the finals. Well done. Disgusting behaviour.

Masaaki Satake vs. Mark Coleman

Pretty easy night in the ring for Coleman as he just takes down Satake and then locking in the Neck Crank for the win in short order. Not much else to be said about that really.

Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Alexander Otsuka

Fascinating stuff. Igor really did give Otsuka a hell of a beating for much of the fight. I think that Otsuka showing that he can be dangerous helped that because it really was mostly Igor punching the life out of him. I don't think that there was any doubt as to who won the round as a result.

Enson Inoue vs. Mark Kerr

Almost the entire fight was Kerr in the guard of Inoue and basically doing not much of anything which meant that the fight was pretty atrocious. Again, no real dispute as the winner turns out to be for Kerr.

Royce Gracie vs. Nobuhiko Takada

Gracie pulled Takada into the guard and that was really that for Takada. You could tell that Takada knew when the bell sounded that he had never won that round as he got nothing from Gracie who looked quite good even if the fight wasn't the most exciting.

I enjoyed most of that. Only the last two fights left me feeling cold.

Rick, did the likes of NBWSOUTHSIDE and fye get banned even though their contributions to the APB thread were solid and helpful advice? Just wondering. I have my reasons for thinking they should be banned.

I enjoyed that show greatly. I enjoyed the Strong/Generico on the USA show a bit more than you did mind. LOVED that scramble. I'm a sucker for a good spotfest and that one was done well and of course the main event was a belter.

I like the idea of Haas vs. Elgin, but yeah, Benjamin vs. Bennett should be the drizzlers, because Bennett is just shite.

Without a world title match and matches like this, it's gonna be a chore. Thank god they have ladder war to make me feel a bit better about watching it. I'm not looking forward to the Edwards/Strong match. The stipulation seems ridiculous to me.

Edge was seen in Season One of 24 as Alexis Drazen, a bad guy hitman...

So, ESPN and BBC to share Lakeside. Apparently BBC are only taking the Semis and the Final, While the money is good for the BDO, what does this mean to grassroots, and most importantly the county and superleague game?

I think that the deal is going to do some good to be honest. The BDO has always been seen as a sort of diddy league. If ESPN can give them some sort of professional presentation, it can go a long way to rectifying people's views of what the BDO is.

I'm not sure what difference things will have at grassroots level, unless the new guys in charge are going to consider a future deal made by the PDC. I can see Barry Hearn seeing Croft's departure as a step forward in any plans he might have had. Barry Hearn was willing to put a LOT of money into the counties with the last offer, was he not?

I think the new logo looks fantastic on that ring. I hope the lighting can do it justice as well. It's a good card that they have for the show so it should be good.