Magnum Milano Posted September 7, 2011 Share Posted September 7, 2011 Watched King of the Cage 'Cage Wars' from September 2000 yesterday. Not much of a show if I'm honest, but an interesting spectacle with some old names from the UFC and some guys early into their careers. The most interesting thing from the prelims (and these are all fought over two five minute rounds as opposed to three) was the MMA debut of Dean Lister. They heavily push his grappling credentials, and there was some nice Jiu-Jitsu on display in the fight which Lister won with a kneebar submission. Yves Edwards fought Muay Thai practioner Danny 'Boy' Bennett. Bennett was clueless on on the ground and as soon as Edwards took him down he handled him fairly comfortably and geot the sub victory by rear naked choke. Marvin Eastman was outweighed as he faced 300lb 'Big Joe' Tauanuu, but Tauanuu is just one of those fat scrubs that you can often find in the early days of MMA. Eastman actually lifted 'Big Joe' up straight away and took him down, and 'Joe' then verbally quits due to strikes before the first round is out. Talking of fat scrubs, we get to witness the final fight in the career of John Matua. Matua at this point weighs 423lbs and is most probably known for being the guy that Tank Abbott made his name off by KO'ing him in 20 seconds in his UFC debut. He faced Mike Bourke, and Matua quit on his stool at the end of the first round, his career record finishing at a mightily impressive 1-4-0. Amir Rahnavardi decisioned Daijiro Matsui in a fight which had its moments. The one thing that I didn't like on this King of the Cage show was that the referees would stop the action to check cuts, but then not reposition them in the same place. Rahnarvardi threw some sick knees to the head of the grounded Matsui (legal back then) within the first minute which cut him up, the referee (think it was Larry Landless on this one) stopped the action to check the cut and clean Matsui up and the restarted the fight standing. Had he let the action continue Rahnarvardi would have almost surely finished the fight shortly. Fortunately he got the decision anyway. Another note is that Rahnarvardi once got KO'd by Lee Murray in 4 seconds in a fight in the UK. The fight of the night was an all action affair between Jerry Bohlander and Brian Foster. This was Bohlander's first fight in over two years since his loss in the UFC to Tito Ortiz, and he won his comeback by armbar submission. He would only go on to fight twice more, including a loss to Romie Aram who won a stinker on the undercard over Scott Goddard. The main event saw Joe Hurley of the Lions Den KO Chris Brennan with some short elbows to win the KOTC title. All in all, search out Bohlander/Foster and Dean Lister's debut. For perverse pleasure you could watch the Matua fight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted September 7, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted September 7, 2011 Keep meaning to get some old KOTC. Even if the fights are a bit ropey I always find it interesting to look at early fights of the current big names when they were nobodies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted September 10, 2011 Author Paid Members Share Posted September 10, 2011 just watched a little bit of Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Baroni. The Shamrock/Baroni fight is a great little scrap, intense crowd, both guys landing big shots, Shamrock playing to the crowd. Its a fun fight and its as good as a i remember it being. I genuinely thought Shamrock was one of the best 185'ers in the world at this point. Then i watched the Paul Daley/Bang Ludwig fight which they did after the main event...if there's ever a fight that points out how much i hate Mauro Ranallo at times its this one. Opening round is pretty good, two powerful strikers stalking each other, there's definately a lot of respect going on but it's by no means a bad round, but for the whole time Ranallo and Jay f'n Glazer talk about how it's 'not living up to expectations' ahhh it drives me fucking nuts, Ranallo has ruined so many fights by showing total disrespect for the fighters, he's a bit of a cunt. Ranallo can be good, when stuff is kicking off i love the dramatic feel he can give things, but he can also be a ficking cretin. oh, if anyone has the dvd or the full broadcast of this show you need to see Bill Goldberg's post fight interview backstage with Phil Baroni, it's one of the weirdest interviews you'll ever see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhettmoir Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 (edited) Vitor Belfort tweeting he is fighting Cung Le UFC 139 Good to see Cung having a UFC fight, if he wins and looks impressive can see him fighting winner of silva v sonnen/stann Edit-bollocks wrong thread Edited September 10, 2011 by rhettmoir Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted September 10, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted September 10, 2011 Yeah Shamrock vs Baroni was a cracking fight, the build up was insane. Baroni was awesome in all the interviews and Shamrock was winding him up at every opportunity. I couldn't wait for that fight by the time it came. Really enjoyable card all round that was from what i remember. Full of finishes and exciting fights. Like you said Daley/Ludwig was a good little fight and I really enjoyed Ninja vs Villasenor and Cung Le vs Tony Fryklund oh, if anyone has the dvd or the full broadcast of this show you need to see Bill Goldberg's post fight interview backstage with Phil Baroni, it's one of the weirdest interviews you'll ever see. yeah i remember that here it is for anyone that hasn't seen it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cum Doctor Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted September 12, 2011 Author Paid Members Share Posted September 12, 2011 ive never seen that show, it's one of the most famous early MMA shows, ive seen bits an piece of it but i definately need to see it all. Same with the Grand Prix finals, ive only seen bits of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted September 12, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted September 12, 2011 Guy Mezger is one of the most underrated MMA fighters in history for me. He fought most of the top guys of his era and despite losing most of them he fought well against all of them. He was unlucky in a couple of them fights aswell, he was giving Wanderlei one of his first really tough fights and doing really well but Wand nutted him and it went tits up and he was KO'd shortly after. He was also outstriking Chuck Liddell for the majority of their fight before getting KO'd in round 2. But all you ever see of that fight is the big KO as if Chuck breezed through him. Both really exciting fights they were against Chuck and Wand. Track 'em down if you've never seen them. And yeah like mentioned , the Saku fight was really close, wish they'd done a rematch. Shamrock was a tit in this case, and when he fought Saku himself, one of the strangest fights ever. I haven't watched this GP in ages, might give it another look. I've only watched the 90 min Saku/Royce fight once too so might give that a watch again soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted September 16, 2011 Author Paid Members Share Posted September 16, 2011 yeh Mezger's one of those guiys that just missed the boat in terms of MMA taking off. He was clearly one of the most talented fighters in the early days of MMA, definately not afraid to throw down either. It's a shame he never got to have one last hurrah at UFC 50 when he was meant to fight Tito again, if he'd won who knows what have happened? i hate his commentary though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cum Doctor Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted September 16, 2011 Author Paid Members Share Posted September 16, 2011 PRIDE 10 is one of the greatest MMA shows of all time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cum Doctor Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 (edited) 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. Edited September 16, 2011 by The Cum Doctor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted September 16, 2011 Author Paid Members Share Posted September 16, 2011 the Fujita fight was arguably the best performance of Ken's career...and he had a heart attack during it! oh and Mark Kerr around this time was scary, argubaly the most intimidating fighter ever to compete in MMA. People were terrified of him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members chokeout Posted September 16, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted September 16, 2011 (edited) PRIDE FC 10: Return of the Warriors 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. Was that the classic 'Petey MY HEART!' stoppage where he thought he was having a heart attack and Petey Williams threw in the towel, thus starting a great history of Shamrock complaining about EVERY loss he has Edit: Mark Kerr was a beast and was MMAs first real tradegy. He would have been a real star if his life wasn't so fucked up Edited September 16, 2011 by chokeout Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted September 16, 2011 Author Paid Members Share Posted September 16, 2011 yeh Kerr's a sad case. If anyone here hasn't seen the Smashing Machine, do so now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.