Pride FC: 1997-2007. In 2017.

[Egg Shen]

i dont recall Master Onion beating Ruas, wild! Brazilians are notprious for their excuses though aren't they.

[jimufctna24]

1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said:

That's the one. He is though, isn't he? 

Certainly.

I never really knew what to make of Rickson. He was a bit before my time. By the time I got into MMA in 2005, he was very much yesterday's man. The general feeling was that he was protected to keep the Gracie clan's declining aura alive. He was the last line of defence against the notion that MMA had evolved since the mid-90's. Few were fooled though. When Rickson commented that he'd beat the likes of Cro Cop and Fedor - his comments were wildly met with howls of laughter. A bit like when Hulk Hogan claimed that Andre The Giant was 700lbs at Wrestlemania 3. 

There were a few people fooled though. Before UFC 60 in 2006, a small portion of the MMA fanbase predicted that Royce was going to tie Hughes into knots, which obviously didn't happen. After UFC 60, even the most ardent Gracie fan had to accept that the sport had evolved. Rickson was pretty much forgotten after that. Other than an appearance in the EA MMA video game, and the whole "Rickson by armbar" craze on forums - he doesn't get much of a mention that much these days. 

 

[Noah Southworth]

What made it funnier is that there was clearly no logical reason to think Royce was going to beat Matt Hughes. If you looked at the respective skills of Hughes and Royce, there was absolutely no rational reason to think Royce was going to win. Royce had nothing but a submission game that was, even before the Hughes fight, considered archaic. People were so caught up in the myth and the aura of the Gracie’s, that they, as you said, thought he would walk through Hughes and tap him out with ease. Even Hughes himself has admitted to being concerned about what Royce could do. At least until the fight started, when he then realized Royce had nothing.

Rickson was considered the greatest fighter of all time during that period, but that was based entirely on a well crafted and carefully manufactured reputation. Rickson talked a lot but he never faced the top or even mid-level fighters of the time. So you never really knew how good he actually was. You just knew how good his reputation was. And over time, that became more of a joke, as did the Gracie rep in general, because of how they constantly tried to manipulate the rules of their fights to make sure things were heavily weighted in their favour. We’ll see that a lot of that as we go through the history of PRIDE.

[Egg Shen]

What were the odds on Royce/Hughes then? i can't remember. It was silly to think it would be even remotely competitive though.

You make a great point about Rickson though Noah. He did always feel like the Gracie's last line of defence to protect the legend. The only issue with it was he never actually fought to defend it, instead it created a myth which still stands to a degree. Joe Rogan for example is still sold on the Rickson thing, whenever it's brought up Rogan still says that even though the Gracie's were exposed down the line (which isn't a knock), Rickson was supposedly on a whole other level which we never got to see the real power of. It's a crazy story

 

 

[jimufctna24]

Quote

 

UFC 60, May 27th
Staples Center, Los Angeles, California

MATT HUGHES -300
ROYCE GRACIE +250

 

Source: MMA Weekly

Very generous odds.
 

[wandshogun09]

Looking at the second Takada fight, I hadn't seen it in years and years and I was surprised how much trouble Rickson had with him. Granted, once he got it on the ground it was a matter of time but before that it was actually looking a bit of a struggle. He got his first takedown attempt stuffed then Takada was able to neutralise him in the clinch for ages before hurting him with 2 knees to the body, the second of which legitimately dropped him. Fucking Takada did that. If Takada was able to have even that much success can you imagine what a Bas Rutten, Frank Shamrock or Kazushi Sakuraba would've been able to do against him back then when they were all in or close to their primes? 

[jimufctna24]

Aye.

Sakuraba would have given him fits. Out of the 3 mentioned, Sakuraba was the most realistic match-up as well. Bas was nearing retirement. Franky Shams was about to take a lengthy sabbatical. It only made sense for Rickson to fight Sakurba - especially as Sakuraba was fast earning the nickname of the "Gracie killer". For that very reason, it only made sense for Rickson to call it a day. 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah by 1999, Sakuraba was 4-0 over 4 Gracies - Royce, Renzo, Royler and Ryan. It would've been great to see Sakuraba vs Rickson in 2000 but it wasn't going to happen. Rickson was 41/42 in 2000 though. 

I think of the 3 I mentioned - Sakuraba, Frank Shamrock and Bas Rutten - I think Bas would've been the worst matchup for Rickson. He was the biggest of 3, I think his takedown defence was better than Rickson's takedown offence, and his striking would've been a nightmare for Rickson. If Takada was hurting him to the body then Bas' liver shots would've folded him like a deck chair. I think Bas would've royally fucked Rickson up. Bas actually mentioned during Pride 3 that he was looking to come to Pride after fulfilling his UFC contract and that he wanted to fight Rickson. 

[jimufctna24]

I think you're a year out Wand. It was by the close of 2000 that Sakuraba was 4-0 over the Gracie's. I only remember that because I recall Royce vs Sakuraba happening in the 2000 Grand Prix. It would have been 2001 where it would - and probably - should have happened. It would have been like the final boss in a video game. Rickson's last fight was in May 2000, so he wouldn't have had a massive lay-off had he agreed to fight Sakuraba in early 2001.

I agree about Bas being a the worst match-up for Rickson. That was why people howled when Rickson would talk about Cro Cop. He'd have little chance of getting Cro Cop to the mat, and he wouldn't last 5 minutes with him on the feet. At least with Fedor there was an outside chance of it reaching the floor, if Fedor fancied sitting in Rickson's guard as he did with Nog. With Cro Cop? No fecking chance. 

 

[wandshogun09]

I haven't forgotten about this. And I will finish it eventually. One day.

PRIDE 5

April 29th 1999

Nagoya, Japan

Rainbow Hall 

We enter the Dream Stage era of Pride now, as they took over from KRS after Pride 4. 

I don't know if it was a change Dream Stage made but for the first time in these reviews, we see some of that Pride show opening pageantry that became such a big part of Pride in the following years. Maybe KRS did it too but it certainly wasn't included on the DVDs.

Wasn't anything amazing but you could see them starting to add to the overall production of their shows. 
 

EGAN INOUE VS MINORU TOYONAGA 

Pride debut for both. Egan is the older brother of the more famous Enson Inoue who also makes his first Pride appearance later on this show. 

Round 1: Egan looks like a beast here. Like a slightly less jacked version of Hector Lombard. Quadros says that Toyonaga is a grappler and right enough, he immediately goes for a takedown. Mightn't be a wise move though given Egan's grappling skills. Yep, Egan's having his way and quickly establishes the mount and back mount positions. Toyonaga survives but not for long as Egan lands a punch during a scramble and the ref steps in and stops the fight. 

Winner - Egan Inoue by TKO. Rd 1 - 5:53. 

Maybe a bit of an early stoppage that. But Toyonaga was clearly out of his depth and wasn't offering much back so I don't have a problem with it really. Strong debut for Egan regardless. 
 

SATOSHI HONMA VS FRANCISCO BUENO 

Second Pride outing for Honma after dishing out a vicious beatdown to Naoki Sano at Pride 4. Bueno is debuting and is the bigger man. 

Round 1: Slow start and both look very cautious. The odd jab or leg kick is the most that's happening here. After a few minutes something seems to suddenly wake Bueno up and he starts unloading with sloppy punches with his chin straight up in the air. He's just asking to be caught on the counter here but his gamble pays off this time as he stuns Honma in the flurry, puts him down and the ref calls it off. 

Winner - Francisco Bueno by TKO. Rd 1 - 4:59. 

Honma was the way more experienced and seasoned striker but I think the element of surprise did him here. 

Looking forward to this next fight. I know I've seen it before but I can't remember any of it. 

IGOR VOVCHANCHYN VS AKIRA SHOJI 

Round 1: Similar stocky builds here but Igor is clearly the heavier man. 40lbs heavier according to Quadros. Shoji is very weary of Igor's power, and rightly fucking so! And sure enough, it's not long before Igor knocks him on his arse with an overhand right. It doesn't even connect clean, just clips Shoji, but it's still got enough power to floor him. Unfortunately that seems to make Shoji even more timid and the fight slows to a crawl from there. Shoji got nothing done that round. 

Round 2: More of the same here and I'm starting to realise why I didn't remember any of this fight. It's a frustrating one to watch because Shoji is having zero success with his takedown attempts and Igor is winning the standup but not exactly going for the kill. Right at the end of the round though, Shoji throws caution to the wind and wings haymakers at Igor. The balls on him! But Igor drops him again for his efforts and the bell rings to signify the end of the round and fight. 

Winner - Igor Vovchanchyn by unanimous decision. 

At least we've got judges now. Quadros talks a bit about it after the fight and it's definitely a move in the right direction for sure. I'm guessing it was a DSE idea because on the KRS shows if a fight went the distance it was an automatic draw. Hopefully the addition of judges will limit those Sanae Kikuta snoozefests to a minimum from here on in.

 

As I said earlier, this show had a notable debut. It marked the arrival of Enson Inoue in the Pride ring.

Enson is Japanese-American and lives in Hawaii. But the Japanese fans really loved him as if he was a full blooded Japanese fighter. Which isn't always the case over there with guys of mixed heritage. They took to Enson big time though. Even his nickname 'Yamato-Damashii' translates to 'Japanese Spirit'. 

He entered Pride with a 9-3 record with most of his fights coming in the Vale Tudo Japan and Shooto promotions. He also beat Royce Alger at UFC 13, which ended up being his only UFC fight. In his previous two fights before coming to Pride he fought two of the biggest names in the sport at the time. He lost to Frank Shamrock in a tremendous fight in November 1997. Then in October 1998, he scored what wound up being the biggest win of his career when he armbarred Randy Couture in under 2 minutes.

So to say Enson was coming in with some hype and momentum would be an understatement. Big things were expected. 

ENSON INOUE VS SOICHI NISHIDA 

Here we go then. Enson looks a lot different here than in the photo I've used above. He looks younger, leaner and has only a couple of tattoos on his back at this point. Nishida looks...

Well, like a fat Japanese bloke in his pyjamas. 

Round 1: It's started. And it's over! Enson came charging forward, lit Nishida up with punches, knocked him down, punched him some more then slapped on a rear naked choke for the tap. 

Winner - Enson Inoue by submission. Rd 1 - 0:24. 

24 seconds. Now that's a debut. I felt sorry for the fat lad here. He was nothing more than a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter. Didn't stand a chance. 

RICKSON GRACIE VS ROYLER GRACIE - Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Exhibition 

Brother vs Brother! I don't really know what the point of this was, to be honest. Other than maybe they had nothing for Rickson to do but wanted him on the show in some capacity. It's not like the Japanese didn't know what BJJ was at this point. So yeah, just Rickson and Royler half heartedly arsing about in their gis for a bit. I mean, it's alright for what it is but it's really piss break stuff. 

OK, now this one I remember well. 

KAZUSHI SAKURABA VS VITOR BELFORT 

This is Belfort's first venture into Pride and he's straight in with the promotion's hottest new star. Belfort had a 6-1 record at this stage and was fresh off destroying Wanderlei Silva at UFC's Ultimate Brazil show. His only loss was to Randy Couture at UFC 15. 

Round 1: This was the first time that Sakuraba was put in with a really dangerous striker. There certainly wouldn't be any 'gentleman's agreement' to grapple this one out. Sakuraba does look surprisingly comfortable early on though in the standup. 

But wait...

The old Belfort Blitz rears its head as Vitor tees off with a big flurry. Saku weathers it, covers up and manages to drag Vitor to the mat. Bullet dodged. From there he keeps Belfort on his back and just blasts him with kicks to the legs.

Over and over and over again. It's fucking brutal. Vitor's leg is getting all kinds of fucked up. And that's the story of the whole first round. 

Round 2: Belfort doesn't look like the same fighter coming out for this round. It appears Sakuraba has mentally broken him. He looks gun-shy and hesitant.

SAKURABA DROPS BELFORT WITH A SPINNING BACK KICK TO THE BODY!!

Completely forgot about that. That'd be like Maia decking Woodley with a flying knee or something today. Totally unexpected. The crowd is going berserk now. Sakuraba continues to just ruin Belfort's legs. They stand back up and Saku lands two more spinning back kicks to the ribs. Sakuraba is shutting down Belfort with striking. Who'd have thunk it? You can see Sakuraba's confidence growing and Belfort's shrinking as the fight goes on. 

Belfort's head is gone. He's now dropping to his back for no reason. Bas speculates that it might be because of the damage to his legs. And that really is the only logical explanation. Either way, the Japanese crowd are shitting all over him. 

As the final minute dwindles down, Saku tries to end the fight in style...

But they go the distance. 

Winner - Kazushi Sakuraba by unanimous decision. 

Fantastic performance from Sakuraba there. One of the best of his career. He dominated Belfort almost from bell to bell. 

Main event time. And it's one that's been the subject of a lot of discussion over the years...

NOBUHIKO TAKADA VS MARK COLEMAN 

Probably the most famous worked fight in MMA history. Haven't seen this in donkeys years and I'll admit that in a warped way I'm kind of looking forward to it. 

Round 1: Right away they're working a pure pro wrestling style match as Coleman goes for a takedown, Takada grabs the ropes and Coleman refuses to let go. He's building heel heat! I was half expecting the ref to say 'you have 'til 5!' Fuck, maybe he did. My Japanese isn't the best. Takada gets yellow carded for grabbing the ropes. More sympathy for the babyface as he looks at the ref with a sad puppy dog look in his eyes. 

The action resumes and a BIG TAKEDOWN by 'The Hammer'. Now business is about to pick up. Right? But it doesn't really. Coleman, uncharacteristically isn't punching to the head. For some reason. He's only hitting the body. Then he goes for a neck crank, one of his signature moves, but oddly lets go much to the confusion of Quadros and Rutten. 

"I don't understand. It seemed like he was in a good position to get the neck crank" - Stephen Quadros 

Coleman into side control now. Now Takada's getting fucked up. But he just doesn't. Coleman is just content to lay there. They cut to Mark Kerr at ringside who looks like he barely managed to stuff himself into his suit. This is all probably just 20/20 hindsight shit because I already know the fix was in but this just reeks of pro wrestling. Even this 2 second shot of Kerr at ringside made me think of him as Coleman's dastardly heel manager just waiting to interfere.

A slobberknocker this ain't though. Coleman just peppers Takada from side control with little baby strikes. They scramble back to their feet but Coleman takes him back down with a fucking spinebuster of all things. Come on, fellas. Seriously? Coleman throwing some obviously pulled punches from the guard now. He then goes for that headlock thingy he beat Dan Severn with in the UFC but Takada HEROICALLY escapes that as well. What a man. 

The commentators don't seem overly suspicious as the first round comes to a close. At various points Quadros commends Takada for his improvement as a fighter and even says "Good fight!" towards the end of the round. 

Round 2: Coleman once again with a big takedown early in the round...and puts himself in Takada's guard. 

"What is he doing?" - Bas Rutten 

Now Coleman is pissing about standing over Takada while a Takada just holds onto his arm. Somehow Coleman can't break free from this vice-like grip and opts to just punch at Takada's leg. Yeah, that'll show him. 

Coleman fannys about too long standing over Takada and finds himself in the ankle lock...

Sorry, heel hook. Coleman rolls around in it for a bit, proper milking it like he’s Shawn Michaels in the Kurt Angle match at WrestleMania. He’s actually selling and teasing the tap. He valiantly fights the urge to give up, even signalling to the ref not to stop it. Heart of a lion. But it's too much to bear and he finally taps! 

Winner - Nobuhiko Takada by fuckery. Rd 2 - 1:44. 

Straight away the commentators start speculating in suspicious, sceptical and frankly sarcastic tones. 

"I don't believe this. How the hell did that happen? Oh my god! This absolutely defies reality" - Stephen Quadros 

Here's a quote from Bas Rutten years later, confirming (as if he needed to) that the fight was a work; 

“Coleman was fighting Takada and they told me he was going to get finished in 6 minutes by way of heel hook. So now the press comes to me and they ask me ‘What do you think is going to happen in this fight?’ And I say ‘Oh, it’s easy. Takada is gonna win. 6 minutes. Heel hook.’ And everybody froze because it was before the fight and they had to change their whole gimmick.” - Bas Rutten 

 

You know what? I enjoyed that whole show pretty much. Even the hokey main event. The addition of judging, the fact that there were no fortnight long 'unlimited rounds' fights and the marvellous lack of Sanae Kikuta...it just made for a much better viewing experience.

 

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Kazushi Sakuraba vs Vitor Belfort 

SHITE OF THE NIGHT: Nobuhiko Takada vs Mark Coleman

KNOCKOUT OF THE NIGHT: Francisco Bueno 

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Enson Inoue 

[jimufctna24]

Good read. These write-ups are helping me plug gaps in my knowledge. 

For example, Enson Inoue is a fighter who passed me by a bit. He is someone who I am well aware of, but not someone I know a lot about. He competed in a timeframe that I am not overly-familiar with (late 90's/very early 00's). He wasn't a massive feature in the SEG era. He also didn't feature in the Zuffa expansion, or significantly in Pride's later years. 

[Egg Shen]

yeh good stuff, lots of old school chatter in here the past few days, great stuff.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah Jim, I got curious about Enson a few years back because he was a name you'd always hear spoken highly of but I didn't know much about him. I think part of the reason for that is like you say, he wasn't around the big shows all that much. He had that one fight in the UFC and by the time Pride got really popular was at its peak (say around 2002/03ish) he wasn't part of those big events. Most of his good stuff happened in promotions we didn't get to see. I remember having to really dig around for footage of him but I remember loving the Frank Shamrock fight in particular (don't know how it'd hold up now, haven't seen it in years). 

His appearance on Rogan's podcast is well worth a listen as well. Interesting guy to listen to. 

Here's a quote from Enson on Rogan's podcast that always stuck with me...

"I write letters to everyone that's close to me before a fight. And every time I come back alive from a fight I burn them. So literally, the 3 months I'm training for a fight, I'm training not to die. I go into fights, like if the fight's on the 19th, and someone asks me 'I've got a party on the 21st, can you come?'... If I am at that party I'm happy because I'm alive. I'm really preparing for death."

 

Fucking hell!

[Egg Shen]

yeh thats a pretty heavy mindset to have. Enson's always a great listen, he's been on MMAJunkie radio a bunch of times too, always worth listening too.

[jimufctna24]

21 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

He had that one fight in the UFC and by the time Pride got really popular was at its peak (say around 2002/03ish) he wasn't part of those big events.

The DVD situation in the UK also helped. When MMA first started to gain a bit of a following in 2005/2006, FightDVD/Clear Vision released Pride events from 2003/2004. I remember picking up the 2003 Middleweight GP upon release sometime in 2006. I think the 2004 GP was released in early 2007. I specifically remember ordering the "Fully Loaded" event, as I had to sign for it with the postie, and we had a laugh about the title. 

I have a vague memory of early Pride events being available in HMV for a while. This was before I really got into MMA, so they didn't interest me. I had to wade through them while looking for WWE stuff. But during MMA's initial rise in the UK; it wasn't easy to get your mitts on Pride's early days. Pride's later years, and UFC events from the SEG era, were far more accessible, and probably more appealing on face value.