MMA: Past Fight Discussion

[The Cum Doctor]

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.

[The Cum Doctor]

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.

[The Cum Doctor]

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.

[wandshogun09]

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

 

I echo the praise for Almeida/Shoji on Pride 12. Cracking fight that is, its a not much talked about gem that I always recommend. Think I've probably recommended it a few times in this very thread.

 

Pride 12 is a sentimental favourite of mine mainly for the Wand/Hendo fight which got me into MMA and made me a huge Wanderlei fan.

 

Few fights to look out for the next few Prides (I assume you'll be working your way through em)

 

Pride 14 - Chuck Liddell vs Guy Mezger. I posted about this on the last page, really exciting back and forth fight.

 

Jose Pele Landi-Jons vs Daijiro Matsui (Another hidden gem along the lines of Almeida/Shoji)

 

Can't recall much of 15 and 16 apart from Saku vs Rampage and Nog vs Coleman

 

Pride 17 is the next awesome one you'll see top to bottom. Wand vs Saku 2 and the excellent Big Nog/Herring 1 to crown the first Pride HW champ. Hendo vs Ninja is really fun aswell.

[The Cum Doctor]

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.

[wandshogun09]

haha that reminds me of when Survivor Series 96 was on and I had to go to bed just as Hart vs Austin was starting. This was in the days when they stopped showing WWF PPV's live for some reason and SS96 was on like a Wednesday night or something and I had to get up for school. I was pissed off.

[Gladstones Bitch]

I'm loving these Pride reviews, I've never actually watched a full event just certain fights from shows over the years. I think I'll download a few now starting with Pride 13 as that sounds a ton of fun

[wandshogun09]

Yeah if you're after the best Pride's for top to bottom quality you can't go wrong with these

 

10 and 13 - Haraga's covered these. Cracking shows.

 

17 - (Wanderlei vs Sakuraba 2 and Nog vs Herring 1 to crown the first MW and HW champs. Hendo vs Ninja is all kinds of fun and there's Rampage KOing Japanese folk, Mario Sperry vs Igor Vovchanchyn and a rare MMA appearance from boxer Matt Skelton)

 

25 - (Fedor vs Nog 1 and the start of Fedor's reign as Pride champ. Rampage vs Randleman and the aftermath which was the start of the Rampage/Wanderlei rivalry. Plus Anderson Silva vs Carlos Newton, Hendo KOing Japanese folk and a huge upset with Nino Schembri vs Sakuraba. Little Nog vs Nakamura is good aswell)

 

28 - (Wand vs Rampage 2 which was the best of their 3 fights. Aleks Emelianenko vs James Thompson which is as hilarious as it sounds and some fun undercard stuff with Overeem/Kanehara, Herring/Yokoi, Hunt/Bobish and a really surprisingly enjoyable bonus fight with Soa Palelei vs Mu Bae Choi)

 

33 - (The last great card Pride put on. Wand vs Hendo 2 which was the end of Wand's reign of terror. The Nick Diaz/Gomi fight which was a legit FOTY candidate in 2007, which is saying something in what was a stacked year for great fights. Aside from that you've got Shogun vs Overeem 2, Sakurai vs Mac Danzig and Little Nog vs Sokoudjou. One of my favourite MMA shows of all time)

 

Bushido 9 - (I thought all the Bushido's were good but this is the best by far. IMO this is hands down the best card Pride ever put out. There's 2 GP's running here one for LW and one for WW and the first couple of rounds of those tournaments are featured on this show. The LW GP in particular is fucking brilliant and produces one great fight after another. Gomi, Sakurai, Kawajiri, Yves Edwards, Joachim Hansen, Pulver, Azeredo. Fucking stacked. I'd recommend getting Shockwave 2005 if you're getting this cos the finals of these GP's are on there)

 

Shockwave 2004 - (Thought this was the best of the Shockwaves. Fedor/Nog 3 main event and a 3 round war between Wanderlei and Mark Hunt. Aswell as that there's a cracking little Gomi vs Pulver fight, Rulon Gardner's lone MMA fight and Cro Cop's revenge on Randleman. Anderson Silva's last legit loss is on here aswell, the famous Chonan flying leg scissors fight)

 

Get all of them.

 

And try and get the co-promoted Pride/K-1 Dynamite 2002 show aswell. Cro Cop vs Sakuraba and the legendary Nogueira vs Sapp fight.

 

Well that was a longer post than I planned. Anyway, they're the best complete Pride shows imo.

Edited September 20, 2011 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Just looked on FightDVD and they've got the 2003 MWGP on there for

[The Cum Doctor]

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.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah I love that fight. It's rarely ever brought up though in any great fights discussions or whatever, hence me calling it a hidden gem. I watched that fight for the first time about a year ago and I'd never heard a thing about it. I wasn't expecting much and it took me by surprise how much I enjoyed it. I was left wondering why I'd never heard of it.

 

There's a slightly more well known fight on Pride 19 involving Pele vs Carlos Newton that's another belter. If you've not seen it you'll know what I mean when you get to that one.

 

This thread's making me wanna watch some Pride, think I'll fire up the DVD player later.

[Egg Shen]

yeh nice little write up from the Cum Doctor. I've seen most of the stuff but it's sparking some memories, i need to back and view some of that stuff.

[The Cum Doctor]

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.

[The Cum Doctor]

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.

[Egg Shen]

ill add little nuggest of infomation on these review...just in case you don't know this shit.

 

The Rampage/Sakuraba fight is great, Rampage was asked to genuinely throw the fight beforehand though. Don't know if Sakuraba had anything to do with it but Rampage has gone on record as saying that he was told he'd get paid extra if he lost on purpose. Judging by the performance it's obvious that he didn't take the wager.

 

Sakuraba was amazing to watch at this point.