PRIDE.21
イベント詳細
シリーズ PRIDE（ナンバーシリーズ）
主催 DSE
開催年月日 2002年6月23日
開催地日本
埼玉県さいたま市
会場 さいたまスーパーアリーナ
開始時刻 午後4時
試合数 全8試合
放送局 フジテレビ
入場者数 22,568人
イベント詳細
シリーズ PRIDE（ナンバーシリーズ）
主催 DSE
開催年月日 2002年6月23日
開催地日本
埼玉県さいたま市
会場 さいたまスーパーアリーナ
開始時刻 午後4時
試合数 全8試合
放送局 フジテレビ
入場者数 22,568人
In perhaps the most perplexing of Samuel Beckett's Three Dialogues (1949)—yet one that I invariably (and without hesitation) share each semester with my (non-judo) students (perhaps I should be bringing it up at judo, too?)—"D." and "B." (key Matisse commentator Georges Duthuit and Beckett himself) discuss art and feasibility, art and what they call "the plane of the feasible":
D. What other plane can their be for the maker?
B. Logically, none. Yet I speak of an art turning from it in disgust, weary of its puny exploits, weary of pretending to be able of doing a little better the same old thing, of going a little further along a dreary road.
D. And preferring what?
B. The expression that there is nothing to express, nothing with which to express, nothing from which to express, no power to express, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express.
D. But that is a violently extreme and personal point of view, of no help to us in the matter.
B. - - - - - - - - -.
D. Perhaps that is enough for today.
On a recent Filthy Four Daily (March 25, 2024), gymnastics-coach/neighbourhood-magician turned professional-wrestler/newsletter-writer turned Pedro-Sauer-black-belt/podcaster Bryan Alvarez and his co-host, DVDVR-message-board-poster turned ranked-UFC-light-heavyweight turned professional-wrestler "Filthy" Tom Lawlor echoed the spirit of that dialogue in an exchange that I will reproduce below:
FT. I watched all the MMA action that [took] place this weekend, but Bryan, you ever watch a UFC and you think to yourself, fuck, I could do better than that?
BA. You think you could take a bigger bite out of somebody? [One of the guys bit another of the guys—ed.]
FT. Not even. These heavyweights that are around nowadays? What happened? What happened to the days of . . . we used to have Fedor, Nogueira, Cro Cop, even give me a Heath Herring, for Christ's sake, you know what I mean? Something.
BA. What do you weigh right now?
FT. About two-oh-five, that's the problem.
BA. You can't put on a little weight? Take out these lumbering . . . crustaceans? Or is it cetaceans? I think it's cetaceans.
FT. Could be both.
BA. Yeah.
FT. I don't know man. There was a, yeah, there was a UFC but, like I said . . . we've spent too much time talking about it already.
Perhaps that is enough for today, he might well have concluded (and pretty much did). A week later, in response to Alvarez's suggestion that Tom, in his genial foolishness, was carrying on in a manner akin to Mike Judge's Beavis (to my shame, it is only at this very moment of composition that Beavis and Butthead/Vladimir and Estragon as analogous pairs occurs to me; where on earth have I been on that one [okay good: the cartoonist Robert Sikoryak got there in 2009, and could not have done a better job of it]), Filthy Tom responded thus(ly): "You know, honestly, that might be the best comparison we could have for this show, Beavis and Butthead [. . .]. I mean, how do we get that? Could we just sit together and watch old RINGS?" Bryan, for his part, sounded fairly into it. Imagine! They could become Fighting Network FRIENDS, of a sort! (Bryan and Tom's work/shoot/worked-shoot analysis is arguably peerless, as evidenced in their recent dissection of the much-discussed Jack Perry/Phil Brooks footage.)
All of the above would be relevant (more or less) to really any of the many (many) entries inscribed upon (within? [aboutst?]) these electronic pages, but especially so as we turn our attention towards PRIDE.21（プライド・トゥウェンティーワン）, as there are kind of a lot heavyweights on this one! Including one very special heavyweight! By which I mean Fedor! But we'll get there; he'll be along soon enough ("Mr. Fedor told me to tell you he won't come this evening but surely tomorrow" [haha not really; he didn't tell me to tell you that {we have not yet spoken, and honestly may never}]). And so "[o]ff we go again," as Vladimir says towards the end of Act 2! We have time to grow old! The air is full of our cries! But habit is a great deadener! Rarely does one experience the moment when the boredom of living is replaced with the suffering of being! (That last one wasn't from Godot but from Beckett's 1931 essay on Proust which, I must caution you, is not cheerful.)
Stephen Quadros and Bas Rutten welcome us to Tokyo (thank you both) and set the stage for an event that, we are assured, will live up to its fairly "cringe" (and yet not as bad as sometimes!) "Demolition" subtitle. We are informed that PRIDE FC has been licensed in the state of Nevada (I have not been to that state but my understanding is that it is battle born), and also that PRIDE/K-1 SHOCKWAVE is just around the corner! Sounds good! Meanwhile, "The Pride Girls" initiate a pagan rite.
OKAY OH MY GOODNESS BREAKING NEWS HAS BEEN VISITED UPON US in that we now have what appears to be a more-or-less complete card for the event, which quite pleasingly looks like this . . .
. . . and which, in a gesture almost comically aligned with our interests, presents essentially a TK Scissors (A Blog of Rings) singularity:
Could be good! To me! It is not inconceivable, I don't think, that Kiyoshi Tamura (who, you will recall, we are about to watch fight Bob Sapp) could himself be present for it, attired in the incomparable UWF tracksuit in which he mourned the passing of 斎藤 昌典 Saitō Masanori:
It would be great to see him there! It is less great to see him here, as he is clobbered to the mat and stopped in but eleven scant seconds. And if anything, it was late: Tamura is already on the mat at seven seconds, and referee 島田 裕二 Shimada Yūji (who else?) clearly has at least half a mind to end it, but does not do so until a pair of right hands go perfectly unanswered, prompting Tamura's corner to throw in the towel, Stephen Quadros tells us (though we are not ourselves shown the towel, I find Quadros entirely credible on this matter). "A very humane move there by the corner of Kiyoshi Tamura," Quadros notes. Tamura seems pretty sad about it until Bob Sapp gives him a big hug.
Our next bout sees Barrie, Ontario's Gary Goodridge take to fight against Achmed Labasanov, who some may remember from KING OF KINGS-era RINGS. It's okay if you don't! He is described here as a member of "Russian Top Team" which is to say RINGS Russia, right? A quick check suggests this to be the case, and I totally think it is, but if I am mistaken please let me know in the comments (hit that heart [you know I like it]). Labasanov wears tight, mid-length blue shorts that could easily be Volk Han's, so it all checks out so far. As does his neat 小外掛 kosoto-gake (minor outer hook), his attempt to drop back into some form of 足関節技 ashi-kansetsu-waza leglock (I'm sure he'd take whichever one turned up, but 片足挫 kata-ashi-hishigi seems top of mind), and a briefly credible 表三角絞 omote-sankaku-jime (front-facing triangle choke). He's doing quite well, Labasanov; let's have a look at his RINGS record to see whether or not this should surprise us: okay, against competitors whose names we might well recall (he has two wins in RINGS RUSSIA events against athletes unknown to me), we've got an 足関節技 ashi-kansetsu-waza win over Valentijn Overeem, an 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and "TKO (kick)" over Lee Hasdell. These are the credible results of a credible martial artist! He ended up on the bottom for much of the first round, it must be said, though Goodridge did not seem to do much damage from his top position (easy for me to say). Round two sees another tidy 小外掛 kosoto-gake, and this time Labasanov sticks and stays; he sticks, and he stays. I like him! Goodridge is unable to do anything off his back, other than to taunt his foe quite pointlessly while he gets lightly punched. Goodridge's corner (Tom Erikson . . . and friends) is not shy with the personal invective, either. None of it is charming. Between rounds, Goodridge makes quite a show about how fresh he is, and he fares well enough in the third to take a split decision win that I think I disagree with, but it was for sure a close fight, and nobody can really be upset either way. We'll see plenty more of Goodridge as we move along, but it would seem this is the last fight of the then-twenty-four-year-old Labasanov's career (I'm always curious as to what line of work people go into after).
Here comes Alex Stiebling, who has recently dubbed himself "The Brazilian Killer," but he's from Louisville, Kentucky, so it's like "The Brazillian Killer" (as opposed to "The Brazilian Killer"). Bas and Stiebling are friends, and, in a pre-taped interview, they make some fairly uncomfortable jokes about a lady they both seem to know. Only on pay-per-view! Things are about to go badly for young Stiebling, though, as, dancing his way to the ring to the beat of some totally plausible techno is, in his PRIDE début, no less of a guy than Anderson Silva.
Although Anderson Silva in 2002 was not yet Anderson Silva, he was already someone whose reputation preceded him: the most technical of the Chute Boxe fighters, and the first man to defeat 修斗 SHOOOTO legend 桜井 速人 Sakurai Hayato (of whom we will speak much more once PRIDE BUSHIDO does to SHOOTO more or less what PRIDE ACTUAL did to RINGS). Josh Barnett, of whose Bloodsport we spoke earlier, joins Stephen Quadros on commentary, presumably because Bas is cornering Stiebling for this one? (Yes; confirmed.) Scarcely a minute into the match, Silva connects with a left high kick that slices Stiebling to bits; Stiebling tackles Silva to that mat to end the exchange, but the cut is so severe that the action is quickly stopped and it is (understandably) determined that there is no way the bout can continue. I see big things ahead for this Anderson Silva fellow! Eventually! Give it like five years!
And now we have the infamous Gilbert Yvel, known to us for his many matches and his nearly-as-many transgressions (I feel the "Bad Conduct and Subsequent Rehabilitation" section of his Wikipedia page is too optimistic), and Jeremy Horn, who seemed to take a fight every couple weeks there for a good long while, didn't he? Of his zillion fights, I feel like by far the highest profile would have been his UFC 54 main event against Chuck Liddell, right? You may recall that, ahead of that one, Horn declared his bold intention to stand and trade with Liddell, and I was definitely like "woah" about that utterance until someone on the DVDVRMB—it could have been any one of like a dozen people, probably, but I feel inclined to credit our old friend Lee Casebolt—pointed out to me that this was really just Jeremy Horn admitting that he couldn't take Liddell down, and trying to make it sound like his game plan was not the result of how he couldn't wrestle well enough, but instead arose because he was far too bad a dude to even consider it. Horn certainly has better prospects, in this regard, against Yvel, for whom takedowns have long been a problem. And there you go: mere moments into the first round, Horn has Yvel with his back to the mat, and it takes less than a minute for both Quadros and Rutten to begin their campaign for a restart standing. It does not come, but the grappling gets much more competitive than you might have expected, as Yvel has become pretty good at just freaking out down there, and wriggling with great might (it's not not a strategy [I suppose a tactic]). This ten-minute first round, which the commentators had decided was a dud a minute in, turns out to be super exciting, honestly, with a good pace to the grappling exchanges, and, for those whose Thanatos inclines them towards an appreciation of face-kicking, the constant menace of just such a thing whenever Yvel gets back to his feet and Horn reluctantly follows.
I find that I am appreciating the lightly acid bassline of PRIDE's (iconic [to me {to you?}]) betwixt-round music more than ever before; I don't know what factors have led to this tune I have heard perhaps hundreds of times "hitting different" right now but it is very much my situation. Is it a TB-303? Or simply something operating in that mode? These are the questions that are foremost in my mind as this fine bout draws to a close. Jeremy Horn takes a unanimous decision in a match where he held a significant advantage positionally, but took some knees to the body that seemed genuinely awful.
"Oyama on his back, via a Renzo Gracie trip-slam," is how Stephen Quadros describes Gracie's 大外返 osoto-gaeshi, and what occurs to me about that is not so much that Quadros did not have the vocabulary to better articulate this particular technique (it's no big deal; we all have our blind spots [me more than most! {consider in my case, for example, "nearly all of hitting"}]), but that in the intervening decades, not all that much has changed in terms of mixed-fight commentary: I watched the recent Kayla Harrison/Holly Holm match (it was streaming on the same service that we subscribe to for Blue Jays games, and I am weak/a fool), and out of an 大内刈 ouchi-gari up against the side of the cage (I guess I just could have said "against the cage") and two fairly massive 払腰 harai-goshi (highlights here), all we got was the affable Daniel Cormier's "that's that judo, man." He wasn't wrong! But the contrast between the way throws are described in mixed fighting, and, for example, Joe Rogan's years-long quest to popularize distressingly whack 10th-Planet BJJ terminology, is really quite remarkable (an aside: is it fair to say that rubber guard isn't really a thing anymore in either sport BJJ [in that people do not like to hang out inside a closed guard on top and generally avoid it altogether] or mixed martial arts [in that people on bottom want to stand up so they do not get punched hardly]?). "The guard; this is not what we wanna see from two submission guys" Bas notes in a way that is timely, given the direction of our present discourse, but confusing, in that that seems like one of the man things we want to see from two submission guys, probably. Nevertheless! In time, they are restarted on their feet, these grapplers, and both offered the caution and guidance of 指導 shidо̄. Both fighters are fairly spirited when striking—oh hey Oyama threw with 支釣込足 sasae-tsurikomi-ashi a little, but it didn't really take—and Oyama seems to have the advantage there, in "pep" if nothing else (you know, "strike-pep" advantage?). Renzo, not thrilled about these spinning back kicks and such, attempts to shoot low for Oyama's legs, but he is sprawled atop like no problem. Pretty good first round! The highlights afterward demonstrate that one of Oyama's high kicks totally caught Renzo in the ear, like right in the ear.
"Renzo is definitely one of the cleaner fighters in the sport, a true gentleman in and out of the ring," is how Quadros minimizes an inside leg kick that drifted up into the groin, and I don't think he is wrong to suggest that this was, in this instance, entirely unintentional and incidental contact, but if this match later goes like I think I remember it going (and indeed, having gone), that line of argument will be tough to maintain! A little! The striking is lightly going Oyama's way, and Renzo's takedowns are really getting stuffed, so before long, this is what we're looking at, a good amount of this one:
足蹴り! 足蹴り! Ashigeri! Ashigeri! are the instructions that come from Oyama's corner, and he does, somewhat, before the referee summons Renzo to his feet. Clinched in the corner, Renzo jumps and wraps his legs around Oyama's waist as though to drag him down to guard, but Oyama, whose balance is unbroken (崩し kuzushi is everything!), chills for like five good breaths and then slams to the mat in the mode of 抱上 daki-age. Guess what happens next:
These guys are visibly irritated with each other at this point. When this match started, everybody seemed fine! But not now. "I'll tell you what, Shingo has really improved," Quadros offers a mere instant before a truly mighty 支釣込足 sasae-tsurikomi-ashi extremely confirms:
"That's judo right there! A beautiful step-back [inaudible] hip toss!" Hey man, Stephen Quadros is trying out there, and he is enthusiastic, and that counts for an awful lot. Before you know it, we're back to a good deal of Renzo-scooching (for which he is informally cautioned by the referee), to which Oyama responds with a cartwheel-guard-pass attempt (really more of a round-off, I guess):
"Well he's really getting under Renzo's skin here, isn't he? Renzo can't take him down, and he's getting angry, which is not a good thing." All true, Stephen Quadros! I think it is pretty rude to spit on a guy because you can't take him down, but they really don't dwell on it at all (keep it moving; I get it). It seems to have made an impression on the crowd, though, who are pretty tired of Renzo throughout the third round, and boo the scoochings that fall to either side of Oyama's 支釣込足 sasae-tsurikomi-ashi, and don't like it one bit when Renzo raises his arms at end of the round as though he were the victor. He is, on the contrary, the losing guy, by unanimous decision.
I see that, in addition to the two long video files that comprise the PRIDE.21 English-language broadcast that comes to us by means of the truly mighty torrent (of information) with which we were blessed kind of a long time ago now, there is another short file tucked away here, too, presumably of a bout that did not air but was perhaps included as a "DVD Extra" (remember them?), let's see . . . yes, it is Daniel Gracie (a nom-de-guerre or sobriquet-rouge, as Daniel Simões is but a Gracie cousin [Quadros explains this thoroughly, which totally and somewhat comically defeats the point of taking the name)], and 杉浦 貴 Sugiura Takashi, whom we are told is formerly a Greco-Roman wrestler making his mixed-fight début; we are not told that he is also very much of プロレスリング・ノア / Puroresuringu Noa / Pro Wrestling NOAH, or that he would continue to be a compelling professional wrestler for decades to come, and indeed, that amongst his many distinctions in that field of endeavour, would be named Tokyo Sports Tag Team of the Year as recently as 2020 for his pairing with no less important a guy to our study than 桜庭 和志, Sakuraba Kazushi (much of this information is, alas, unavailable to our commentators, mired, as they are, in the past [their present {kind of ours, too, at the moment}]). It's a pretty good match! Spirited! And with all kinds of things! Daniel Gracie (né Simões) takes the split decision, which seems fair. Look how stoked Tsuyoshi Kohsaka got when Sugiura knocked Gracie down early, though (he is slightly to the right, and stoked):
"It looked like a street fight, almost" Quadros says, and Bas agrees, about a match that had 十字固 juji-gatame and 三角絞 sankaku-jime attempts and stuff. Depends on which streets, I guess!
Let us return, now, to the mainline of PRIDE.21 files and what they would offer, which at the moment appears to be the always-tall (212cm! 6'11"!) 芦原 会館 / Ashihara Kaikan Karate 6th-Dan Semmy Schilt (who we have seen best Shoji, Satake, and Takayama in recent PRIDES, all by way of super-tall technical striking) as he encounters the débuting Фёдор Владимирович Емельяненко / Fedor Vladimirovich Emelianenko. Oh boy! How well we have known Fedor's early ways, revealed to us in what we may reasonably call the KING OF KINGS era of Fighting Network RINGS; he has won all there was to be won there, aside from an opening-moments loss via cut to Tsuyoshi Kohsaka at RINGS 12/22/00: WORLD MEGA-BATTLE OPEN TOURNAMENT KING OF KINGS 2000 BLOCK B (which we addressed here). As this is the first we have spoken of Fedor in really quite some time, perhaps it would be useful to go all the way back, and see what we said about him then? I honestly think it might! Here we go, then, excerptingly:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey, look who's here:
It's our friend Фёдор Влади́мирович Емелья́ненко/Fyodor Vladimirovich Yemelyanenko/Fedor Vladimirovich Emelianenko! Isn't it nice to see him! We are all well aware of who Fedor would become—the greatest heavyweight mixed fighter in the world, and also a deputy of the Belgorod Regional Duma who publicly expressed his support for the annexation of Crimea (the Russian Federation is touchy about calling it an "annexation," so I guess we should teach the controversy?)—but who was he then, by which I mean now, if we are speaking of 9/5/00 in Korakuen Hall for this the sixth volume of BATTLE GENESIS? For starters let us note that this is not Fedor's first RINGS bout but in fact his third, as he had previously faced (and defeated) first Martin Lazarov and then Levon Lagvilava on RINGS Russia shows dated 5/21/00 and 8/16/00 that did not find their way into the RINGSbox and of which tape may or may not exist, who can say (I am not checking). But it was only a few short months before that that twenty-three-year-old Fedor was still a member of the Russian National Judo Team! In April, he had done well in the Dutch Open Grand Prix Rotterdam:
That's a good showing! He got by Daniel Rusitovic (AUS) and Keith Davis (GBR) before a loss to Ivan Vega (ESP) sent him to the repêchage, where he bested Alexander Liethof (NED) before losing finally to Radu Ivan (ROU). Pawel Nastula, the winner that day, a great Olympic and world champion whom you may also know of (because of kakutogi), was no longer on the 312-match win-streak (near-Rickson levels of verifiable international success!) that he enjoyed as a -95kg player but which proved unsustainable when the division was changed to -100kg (also he was just getting older) but he was still really very good at judo. (I just checked and as best I can tell, Teddy Riner is at 99 consecutive wins right now, and he keeps a very minimal competition schedule, so I don't see how he'll ever get to Yamashita's 203, let alone Nastula's 312.) At this point Fedor had medaled at two World Cup/A-Level tournaments (bronze at Moscow 1/24/99 and Sofia 2/7/99) and two Russian national championships (bronze in both the -100kg in 1998 and in the open in 1999), and it seems like there was every indication that that was going to pretty much be his level: good enough to have a place in the Russian national program (this is not nothing), and good enough to medal at solid international tournaments (also not nothing), but there was no reason to think he would go beyond that. His head-to-heads at judoinside.com, though maybe not complete (they are often not), give you a sense of things (the names themselves don't even especially matter):
(For a second I thought that the provincial technical director here finished seventh in his division at Sofia the same year Fedor took bronze in his but no, it's off by a year, that's too bad.)
So yeah he had hit his ceiling at -100kg, there wasn't any room for him to move up to +100kg because that spot belonged to the great Tamerlan Tmenov (a photo of Fedor and Tmenov training together used to be on the internet but is now 404ing because the future [present] is not as good as we had hoped), and he was out of the army and, by his own accounts, really very broke. "What about sambo?" you ask, well, sambo, sikk though it may be (and plainly is), is functionally a Russian judo "B" league in the sense that there is really one big pool of judo/sambo athletes except the sambists can't expect even judo-levels of funding (consider the differences in potential international glory), like it is barren, and combat sambo, the pretty-much-MMA sambo-variant that Fedor is a champion of (and nearly all of those titles come after the moment we are now discussing), is like the four ludicrously hard guys who stay late after sambo practice to wail on each other, and that's about it.
AND SO HERE WE FIND HIM IN FIGHTING NETWORK RINGS punching Hiroya Takada maybe three times in twelve seconds.
WELCOME FEDOR I DON'T KNOW IF YOU'RE RIGHT ABOUT CRIMEA. In their discussions of him, Kenichi Takayanagi and Hideyuki Kumakubo say both "judo" and "sambo" which are definitely two words I would use in any such discussion.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
THAT'S THE WAY WE SAW IT IN JUNE 2017 and I am actually super pleased to have had cause to revisit it (I hope you feel not entirely dissimilarly but I appreciate that tastes in this respect may well differ). A little surprisingly, we are given the whole walk-out and everything for this, Fedor's very first PRIDE bout; Quadros notes that Fedor is accompanied by "one of his alumni from the RINGS organization, one of the great leg-lockers, Kopylov." Can confirm! All of it! Indeed, who could forget RINGS 12/22/99: RISE 7th: WORLD MEGA-BATTLE OPEN TOURNAMENT KING OF KINGS (addressed here). Why not excerpt again?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
WE GOT SIDETRACKED (but nobly so) and should be attending with all due rigour to our opening bout between Andrei Kopilov, a sambist long-admired in these pages, and Leonardo Castello Branco, a 1999 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion (of some kind or another; it's a very complicated scene [I'm sure there are excellent reasons for its cacophony {capitalism}]) who is new to us. AAAAAAHAHAHA Andrei Kopilov who is like a thousand years old has won in sixteen seconds with a rolling hiza-juji knee-bar straight out of the pages of Iatskevitch's Russian Judo Masterclass book that I really should return to my friend this week LOOK I MADE A GIF OF THE WHOLE MATCH:
"[A]fter failed plans to move to Canada," Kopilov's wikipedia page notes, "he was contacted by Japanese pro wrestling promotion Fighting Network RINGS, and after he accepted, he was sent to the team RINGS Russia, where he met Volk Han, his future partner in the Russian Top Team." It would have been neat had he come here (he would not have been the first Soviet-era sambist to do so; they have tremendously [judo-]illegal ways of throwing from arm-locks that delight and horrify and turn quickly to legend), but the way things worked out are probably also good! While we are delighting in Kopilov's great triumph let us not be without sympathy for the plight of Leonardo Castello Branco, who must have felt an awful fool. If it is any consolation to him he should know that I have definitely lost one and maybe two (I would have to check the tape) judo matches in less time than that so it can totally happen to anybody! (Don't tell him I was and remain terrible, it won't help.) You can see him hold his head and begin to curl up in a little ball at the end of the gif and I would ask that we all try to imagine what is happening in his heart. The crowd, as you might expect, love this to death, as Kopilov has been performing before them with workmanlinke steadiness since I guess 1992? They chant his name while Kenichi Takayanagi rightly exclaims sambo! and jiu-jitsu! on commentary. What a start!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Quadros recapitulates Fedor's many successes in RINGS and it is honestly very nice to hear about them all again. "He does come from a judo and sambo background," Quadros tells us. "So, because he has mastered those disciplines early on, he's been working a lot on his punches." That seems to me to be really very true. If you were wondering about the height difference, it would appear to be every bit of the the eleven inches that the commentators have suggested, and, if you look at the screen off in the distance, the height difference would also appear to be recursive (oh no!).
That Fedor clinches immediately at the cost of a knee to the body, attacks first with 小外掛 kosoto-gake before spinning Schilt to the mat in a manner akin to 支釣込足 sasae-tsurikomi-ashi, and assumes a strong 横四方固 yoko-shiho-gatame pinning position is self-evident; why are we even talking about it when it is something already known equally to each of us? I am pleased to be reminded of how Fedor used to wear tight black three-stripe Adidas shorts, which is a strong look always:
Late last year, I began wearing a black Adidas tracksuit of the most fundamental kind (I hesitate to call it "basic") as my exclusive <<en route vers le dojo>> attire and there is quite simply no going back (in younger days I admired it as An Old Dojo Guy Look and I feel that I am An Old Enough Dojo Guy that, like, if not now, when?). Schilt does a fine job of trapping a leg and tying up Fedor's arms to limit the damage amidst this early peril, but what really stands out, just seconds in, is the remarkable quickness with which Fedor moves between top positions; it's honestly wonderful. It might almost be said that peak Fedor moved with a quickness in top position that recalls in a shoot context the preternatural quickness Kiyohshi Tamura would exhibit in those same positions in a worked context, but which he was unable to replicate when fighting for realsies? I'm telling you: it is really something! Fedor passes to 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame (right up on top!), attacks with what must become, on account of Schilt's good hips, an 横転 о̄ten or rolling 十字固 juji-gatame, but Schilt really does a fine job defending, aided by some light rope-entanglement. As Fedor settles back into tate-shiho, and lands some pretty meaty blows, Quadros notes that there were some who felt that fighters coming from RINGS, with its limited striking in 寝技 newaza, would be hindered by that lack of experience when competing under the more permissive PRIDE rules, but he suggests that the success of first Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and now, seemingly, of Fedor Emelianenko, have revealed these to be, like, insanely unfounded (paraphrase). Schilt, a skilled striker from I guess anywhere (not just anywhere: he's Dutch!), slices Fedor up from the bottom (Fedor has always cut easily), but is unable to improve his position significantly; standing up must feel a million miles away. Remarkably, Fedor keeps the match on the ground for the full ten-minute first round, despite Schilt extremely not wanting to be there, which is one thing, but also he is able to fight at such a pace throughout the round that there was never any real threat of a referee-restart standing. The second and third rounds are (understandably) less energetic versions of more or less everything we saw in round one; both Quadros and Rutten lament what they perceive as a lack of action here, but there has been a lot of intense effort in and around positions, and also if "how messed up people's faces are" were asked to serve as a measure of action, it must be said that these are some fairly messed up faces, too, so I think our commentatros are perhaps being unduly harsh. But both guys love stand-up striking, and that's fine I guess (it probably isn't [let's end hitting]). The unanimous decision is Fedor's.
I am all-out-proportion pleased with that gif.
TO THE OBSERVERZ!
July 1, 2002:
"It was the heat generated by the pro wrestlers that once again saved the Pride “Demolition” show, both in the ring and at the box office.
After a disappointing advance, the late announcement that Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Yoshihiro Takayama would replace the injured Mark Coleman in the main event against Don Frye, led to late interest in the show by wrestling fans. This resulted in a nearly packed house of 22,586 fans on 6/23 at the Saitama Super Arena for a show that airs on PPV in the United States and Canada on 6/30.
Frye defeated Takayama in what was reported to be one of the best fights in the history of the promotion, with both men slugging it out until the larger Takayama couldn’t take it any longer. While Takayama has never won a match in Pride, he also stole the show with exciting matches in his prior losses to Semmy Schiltt and Kazuyuki Fujita, and increased his streak to three straight show stealing matches, which, unfortunately for purists, means more to the general public than a won-loss record. Takayama ended up with a broken bone underneath his right eye, but doesn’t need surgery, and will only be out of action for a few weeks, so he will be able to return for the G-1 Climax tournament. After the fight, Frye talked about going back full-time to New Japan Pro Wrestling. Frye alluded to retiring in one interview after the show, which picked up a lot of news. Frye is known to change his mind on subjects like that, put he took some legit punishment from Takayama, and that may have his confidence wavering. He’s still talking about fighting Cyril Abidi under K-1 rules, saying that Abidi fought him under Pride rules so he owes the guy a return favor, but that would be a bad idea because it’s a match he could take a lot of punishment in.
I’ve got many different accounts, most saying it was a good show and some saying great show. Some reports said the only disappointment being the other match with a high profile Japanese pro wrestler, Kiyoshi Tamura, even though five of the eight matches ended up going the distance. Others said the show was lackluster in spots, but the matches with the pro wrestlers had the most heat and the main event made it a good show.
Tamura, who weighed in at 192.3 pounds, faced former WCW wrestler and NFL reject Bob Sapp, at 6-6 3/4 and 387.2 pounds in what was more of a freak show than anything else. Because Tamura is legitimately a highly skilled fighter, although clearly past his peak due to injuries, there were many in the MMA world who thought he’d be able to beat his powerful, monstrous but unskilled opponent. No such luck, as the thing was over in 11 seconds when Tamura’s corner threw in the towel. It was a stupid match to make, because it destroys Tamura for future money fights. Clearly, both K-1 and Pride are trying to make Sapp into a modern day shootfighting version of Bruiser Brody, the ultimate unbeatable American monster beast and this is a reputation making match, beating a big name in quick fashion, but it’s a size mismatch that the sport should have long evolved past.
Takashi Suguira, a full-time pro wrestler from Pro Wrestling NOAH, known as the Japanese Kurt Angle because, like Angle, he was a national champion amateur (1995 in Greco-roman wrestling at 187 pounds), lost a split decision going the time limit against Daniel Gracie (real name Daniel Simoes), a legitimate cousin of Renzo Gracie, who was upset earlier in the show. The match had a lot of heat with many of the top names from NOAH including Jun Akiyama, Takeshi Rikio, Takao Omori, Daisuke Ikeda, Satoru Asako, Kentaro Shiga, Kishin Kawabata and Makoto Hashi all at ringside cheering him on.
Antonio Inoki did his catch phrase at intermission, but didn’t say much of note. It was announced the next Pride show wouldn’t be until 9/29 in Nagoya at Rainbow Hall. The planned joint show with Pride vs. K-1 at the 100,000-seat Tokyo National Stadium has been moved from 8/11 to 8/29, with 8/30 also being reserved as a back-up date in case of rain because that’s typhoon season in Japan. Because of holding it outdoors and the reservations about the weather, this show, originally not scheduled as a North American PPV, is now scheduled as Pride’s next PPV, called “Shockwave” that would air on 9/1, even though it may or may not be billed as a Pride show. Besides matches we’ve written about with Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Mirko Cro Cop and Vanderlei Silva vs. Ray Sefo, perhaps Frye vs. Abidi and a probable Sapp vs. Tom Erikson match under K-1 rules (in MMA, Erikson, with his wrestling background, would probably end the Sapp push, but Sapp may have the edge under K-1 rules).
1. Sapp defeated Tamura in :11. There was a lot more hype for this than any match on the show. Because of the size difference, they announced several rule changes, including no knees or kicking a downed opponent, as well as some funny rules, such as banning the big splash and the flying senton, as if those moves have ever been used in real competition. They also decreased the time limit from 20:00 to 15:00, as if that made a difference. Tamura caught Sapp with a leg kick and the right to the face, but Sapp wasn’t fazed, powered him into a corner and dropped him with a punch. Sapp threw several more punches, that all landed solidly, before Tamura’s corner threw in the towel. Said to be the only bad match on the show. Maurice Smith and Josh Barnett were in Sapp’s corner while Tsuyoshi Kosaka was in Tamura’s corner, which is interesting with Kosaka, Barnett and Smith all regular training partners in Seattle [I thought that was pretty interesting too!—ed.].
2. Gary Goodridge beat Armed Labazanov by a split decision after three rounds (20:00). Labazanov nearly got a submission with an achilles tendon submission. He held his own striking with Goodridge even though Goodridge looks more fearsome. Labazanov started bleeding late in the fight from knees.
3. Anderson Silva of the Chute Box Academy defeated Alex Steibling, the self-professed Brazilian Killa, which should end that nickname, in 1:23. Silva had Vanderlei Silva in his corner. Silva connected early with a high kick above the eye, opening up a deep gash. Steibling caught the kick and managed to take Silva down, and was on top being aggressive when the ref saw all the blood on Steibling and stopped the fight.
4. Jeremy Horn defeated Gilbert Yvel via unanimous decision after three rounds (20:00). Yvel came out to the ring holding a giant yellow card, to signify his rep as a dirty fighter and his disqualification in his last Pride match against Frye. Horn continually took Yvel down and dominated him most of the way. Yvel showed improvement on the ground, as he was able to avoid submissions and even reversed Horn twice. But Yvel still hasn’t been able to avoid being taken down, which is his undoing under these rules.
5. Shungo Oyama upset Renzo Gracie via unanimous decision after three rounds (20:00). Oyama dominated the match, and even did some playing to the crowd, as he had a size advantage and was never in trouble. The days of Renzo Gracie beating able to beat guys who have 20 pounds on him at this level are over. Oyama had more stamina and won all three rounds, with Gracie bleeding from being punched from the mount by the end of the fight. Each was given a yellow card for stalling late, and once time when Oyama was playing to the crowd and mocking Gracie, Gracie spit on him.
6. Daniel Gracie (Daniel Simoes) defeated Takashi Suguira via split decision after three rounds (20:00). Suguira, from all accounts, did well in his debut and even came close to winning against a highly touted opponent. He just didn’t have punch defense [I, too, lack it—ed.], which figured going in to be his problem against a guy with good hands and great ground technique. Suguira spent far too much time trading punches, as opposed to using his wrestling ability to take Gracie down. Suguira showed he had power in his punch, as he nearly knocked Gracie out early. He also got a big pop doing what was described as a combination german suplex and Karelin lift, but the move didn’t really damage Gracie and Suguira tired himself pulling off the showy move. Suguira was in trouble late in the first round and was getting pounded on and the bout appeared to be on the verge of being stopped. Crowd gave Suguira a huge ovation even in losing for his performance in hanging in his first match. From all accounts, he did nothing to hurt himself in pro wrestling with the loss.
7. Fedor Emilianenko defeated Semmy Schiltt via unanimous decision after three rounds (20:00) in the battle between the final world heavyweight champion of the now defunct RINGS (Emilianenko) promotion and the current superheavyweight champion from Pancrase [the Pancrase aspect of this did not even occur to me, to my discredit—ed.]. Emilianenko dominated the entire fight with his superior wrestling skill [judo wrestling, specifically, yes—ed.], taking the 6-11 1/2 giant down and keeping him there. He held the mount most of the match and tried several submissions. After the match, Emilianenko issued a challenge to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the Pride world heavyweight title, which would be the theoretical final unification of the heavyweight belt if and when Josh Barnett is brought into the picture.
8. Frye defeated Takayama in 6:10. The description was you have to see this fight to believe it, as it looked more like something out of Dragonball Z or a comic book than a real fight [LOVE the Dragon Ball reference here—I am reading through the manga for the first time and I am being delighted by it!—but this is demonstrably not how they fight in Dragon Ball, guys—ed.]. The first 25 seconds saw the two guys just stand and trade something like 25 punches to the face back and forth and a rate never seen before. The crowd was going nuts. They continued to pound on each other in a total frenzy with Takayama’s face ending up a total mess, since Frye connected far more often. Frye’s head was cut almost immediately. Takayama threw a lot of knees, like he does in pro wrestling, and connected with most of them. Takayama then managed to surprisingly take Frye down and nail him with a knee to the head. For that moment, it appeared Takayama was going to pull off what would be one of the biggest upsets in MMA history. They ended up trading again in the corner before the ref stops it so the doctor could check on Takayama. His face was a total mess with his eye swollen grotesquely. They asked Takayama if he wanted to continue and you know what he said. The two ended up in the corner and Takayama tried for a second takedown, but Frye blocked him and landed on top, in a mount position. Sensing his chance, Frye unloaded with punch after punch from the mount before the referee finally stopped the fight. From all accounts, Takayama’s stature as both a pro wrestler and a fighter took an amazing lift even with the loss. The immediately thought was that Takayama would come out of this with superstar status because most feel this is a fight people will be taking about for a long time."
from the NJPW report:
"With Frye headed back, there seem to be two ideas for him. One would put him in Sasaki’s new group, since Sasaki last year trained with Frye before his one and only Vale Tudo match. The other is to form a new shooters group where Frye and Takayama, having mutual respect coming off their classic match, would become tag team partners and also join with Kazuyuki Fujita, who had a famous match with Takayama in Pride and has wrestled Frye a few times in New Japan including a Tokyo Dome IWGP title match."
and:
"Dream Stage Entertainment (Pride) has been officially licensed by a unanimous note for Nevada. There has been no announcement of a debut show yet, but it should be noted that the U.S. Pride shows would be contested under the same rules as UFC. One of the common misconceptions is that there are UFC rules and Pride rules. There are Pride rules, in that Pride shows are not regulated in Japan. UFC rules are whatever the rules adopted by the state athletic commission they are in are, which, in general are the New Jersey rules that everyone is patterning after. On a Pride show in the U.S., they would not be allowed to do a Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Bob Sapp match, and at least some of the fighters on the show are going to be steroid tested, which has to be a concern. I think this also pretty much guarantees no more worked matches in Pride, although it has been more than a year since the last one anyway. There are no plans for 2002 to run in the U.S. because the company realizes at this point it’s not a money making proposition. Because the event would also be steroid tested (not all fighters, but some would be randomly tested), Pride is talking about trying to have an international harmonized guidelines as it regards medical testing at all of its shows at some point in the future. As anyone who has seen Pride would recognize, this will totally change the game."
and:
"Barnett’s originally scheduled hearing on his steroid positive that was scheduled for 6/21, was cancelled since he had made a commitment to be at the Pride show in Bob Sapp’s corner and also announced some of the show. The new date should be announced this week."
and:
"The K-1 vs. Pride minor event, which is just being billed now as a K-1 event but with some Pride wrestlers involved, all matches under K-1 rules, for 7/14 in Fukuoka will have Mirko Cro Cop vs. Remy Bonjarsky (don’t know him other than from Holland), Peter Aerts vs. Cyril Abidi (both K-1 guys), Musashi vs. Josh Dempsey (American pro wrestler who works for Zero-One but has boxed professionally and was a good heavyweight), Graube Feitosa vs. Tra Telligman (who once beat Igor Vovchanchyn in Pride), Ray Sefo vs. Gilbert Yvel (Pride) and Tsuyoshi Nakasako vs. Quinton Jackson. This is interesting, because the original plan was Nakasako vs. Bob Sapp in a rematch after they shot that big angle, but I guess they are keeping Sapp off this show to use him for the 8/29 Stadium show instead."
and
"Fedor Emilianenko and Armed Labazanov were on Samurai TV after the Pride show and claimed Volk Han would be coming to Pride. I find it hard to believe, though not impossible, that Han, in his 40s, would go into Pride. Both All Japan and Zero-One have interest in him as well. Han lost a very competitive decision to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in his last real match as part of the RINGS tournament more than a year ago, and stayed with Nogueira actually better than people like Mark Coleman, Enson Inoue or Heath Herring."
July 8, 2002:
DAVE GETS TAPE:
"The 6/30 Pride Demolition PPV, taped a week earlier at the Saitama Super Arena, was on the verge of being the first bad show from the promotion in a long time.
Non-descript matches with lengthy groundwork. A ridiculous opener that never should have taken place. Four out of the next five matches went the time limit, three of which were dull fights. To make things worse, on the PPV, the decision was made, because the show went so long with five bouts going the time limit, that a fight needed to be axed. So they eliminated Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Takashi Suguira vs. Daniel “Gracie” Simoes, which was a perplexing decision seeing that it was an exciting match on a show that until the main event was short on excitement and generally considered the second best match. They also had to eliminate ten minutes of the Renzo Gracie vs. Shungo Oyama match, but judging from the rest of the match that did air, nobody missed anything special. I’m not sure why they showed all 20 minutes of dull matches involving Gary Goodridge and Semmy Schiltt, likely because Goodridge has a great personality on interviews and Schiltt is really tall. It got so bad that Stephan Quadros and Bas Rutten sounded exhausted, and not in a good way, by the time the battle of world champions, with Pancrase’s Semmy Schiltt vs. the last RINGS world heavyweight champ, Fedor Emelianenko, came up.
The two were openly talking about the fight in negative terms, saying it wasn’t exciting, as Rutten, in particular, was getting irate at the booth as the referees were never standing fighters up after lengthy periods of little action on the ground. When it was over, Quadros talked in terms that made it clear he was bored out of his skull by the semifinal.
It was looking like UFC 33. Then came Don Frye vs. Yoshihiro Takayama. Keep in mind the original reports on this battle of two of Japanese pro wrestling’s biggest names, was that it was one of the great fights in history. That usually sets one up for disappointment watching the tape a week later. Well, you could have said the first two minutes of the match were the greatest two minutes in the history of MMA, boxing, kickboxing, pro wrestling and just about anything short of sex, and not have been disappointed, because it was [fairly weird sentence, Dave!—ed.]. I’ve seen tapes of the greatest boxing matches in history, what was purported to be the most exciting round in the history of Muay Thai, every great pro wrestling match ever filmed boxing, and those two minutes beats any of them. Rutten was stunned, saying that never in his life had he ever seen anything like it. Reality then struck. The two combatants, after throws a zillon rights to each others’ faces until exhaustion, were done. It was closer to a hockey fight, except these men were better fighters, and not on skates, so the punches were delivered with more authority. It was a video game come to life. Takayama’s face was puffy, almost beyond recognition. Frye was bleeding from a forehead cut. Both were just hanging on each other, unable to do anything, as Takayama’s eyes started shutting and his facial swelling got worse, and he was getting rocked. The fight was temporarily stopped so the doctor could examine Takayama. He agreed to let it continue, giving both men the respite they needed, and they exchanged another flurry with Takayama finally being the first to want out as he buried his head and tried to do a belly-to-belly suplex. It was a bad idea, since Frye blocked it, landed on top in the mount, and threw punch after punch until finally the ref stopped the fight.
We have our match of the year.
And hopefully, we’ve seen the last of these two in Pride.
The punishment Takayama took may be what his career will always be remembered for and will make him a cult favorite in pro wrestling for years. But it’s beyond cruel to allow him to go back again. His style, or lack thereof, of being a huge man who looks way out of shape, is balls out, all offense and no defense, with his ability to take a punch being a benefit in making an entertaining fight, but in the long run causes more damage. He’s never won a real competitive fight in his career, but nobody has had any more exciting matches. Except perhaps Frye.
When the fight was over, Frye, 36, a martial arts legend, whose resume includes main eventing the biggest pro wrestling show ever in Japan and the most popular American fighter of any kind in Japan, also appeared to face reality. Trimmed down to 215 pounds after being close to 230 for the Ken Shamrock match, he literally had to fight for his life against a much larger man whose skills and ability are not held in high regard. Unlike some of his previous wins where his guts was more important than his actual athletic gifts, Frye won this fight on his athletic gifts, when facing a man who could equal him for guts. After the damage his knees and ankles took in his last fight with Shamrock, his torn adductor suffered late last year as a pro wrestler and still going on to fight Gilbert Yvel a week later and putting his eyesight in danger, his remarks after the match that it was time to raise his two daughters were apropos. Nobody can ever question Frye’s mental toughness or his record as a winner, and in snatching wins in matches most people of the same skill level would have lost. Gary Goodridge was his equal standing, and far stronger, but couldn’t come close to him in guts, losing to him twice. Brian Johnston was a better stand-up fighter, but not in his league in guts, even though Johnston proved to be among the most courageous ever later in life. Ken Shamrock put him in moves that destroyed his lower body, but he still won what was a battle of wills and pride. Tank Abbott was pounding parts of his head all over the octagon in the greatest one minute fight in UFC history, but an exhausted and outsized Frye, after a grueling match with Goodridge earlier in the next and fighting with a broken right hand, still beat him on guts, and spent all night in the hospital as part of his reward. Frye was a one-legged man, unable to use his wrestling skill, against a far faster striker in Yvel, and Frye still managed to take him down and win a fight, while taking a lot of shots in the process.
But timing is everything. As a heavyweight, he doesn’t have the speed, the skill, the strength or the stamina, to face the calibre of opponent that his win-loss record and drawing power should indicate should be on his agenda. And because of his intangibles of the guys who make the Pro Bowl team even though their size, speed and bench press strength say they shouldn’t be in the league, you can never count him out. But guys like that take so much punishment in their wins, that eventually, their will that made their careers end up being their wills that get them hurt badly at the end. There is no greater time to walk away than a match that won’t likely be topped for some time to come. Because in the long run, there’s nothing worse, win or lose, than being in a second one.
In the Suguira-Gracie match, it was a close decision. Suguira nearly put Gracie away early, but probably let him off the hook due to inexperience. He decked Gracie early and had the advantage for several minutes. Gracie came back, and the fight went back-and-forth with each having an advantage, although toward the latter stages of the first round, Gracie came closest to finishing as Suguira had no defense while on his back and took a lot of hard full power shots to the head. Suguira proved to have power in his punches, and natural power as he showed by doing a suplex in the second round. But Gracie had the superior striking submission skills, but was never able to catch Suguira, who stayed in the game with his edge in power.
1. Bob Sapp beat Kiyoshi Tamura in 11 seconds. They edited out Sapp’s Ric Flair ring entrance again. Tamura didn’t seem happy at all before the match started. He punched Sapp right in the jaw, which Sapp didn’t feel. He then gave him a leg kick, which Sapp also didn’t feel. The problem with Sapp, as inexperienced as he is, is he can move, unlike most 387-pound men. Tamura was dancing away, got Sapp ran at him in the corner and he was trapped. Sapp threw right behind the ear, and it knocked the man half his size down. Sapp threw four hard punches from the top before Tamura’s corner threw in the towel This was such a bad idea because there was still money in a Tamura vs. Sakuraba match.
2. Gary Goodridge beat Ahmed Labazanov via split decision. First round was on the ground. Goodridge won the round with some knees to the head from the North/South position and a few knees to the body. It was slow a lot and this was the first time on the show the announcers were begging the ref to call for a stand-up. Labazanov won the second round by taking him down and throwing some punches from the top, but it was very dull. Labazanov took him down in the third. Third round was the same. Labazanov was mostly on top, and trying nothing by the end. It was a close fight, but Goodridge did the most damage in the first round which made the difference in the decision.
Bas Rutten interviewed Alex Steibling. Very weird interview. What I could make of it is that Rutten has a kid whose kindergarten teacher is a babe, and Steibling wants to shag her. By the way, he used the word shag, not me. They mentioned her name on television, which, if for some reason she’s watching the PPV, may have killed Steibling’s chances. I suppose we may find out more if Steibling returns.
3. Anderson Silva dispatched Steibling in 1:23. Rutten was in Steibling’s corner, which brought in Josh Barnett to work with Quadros on this match. Quadros managed to avoid asking Barnett every single question people want to know. Barnett did say he thought Pride would be his next stop, put over how smart the fans were, and said he was ranked No. 2 in the world and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was ranked No. 1, so he wanted the match. Silva threw a high kick with his shin catching Steibling’s right eye. Steibling managed to grab the leg and land on top, but was bleeding. It wasn’t a ton of blood, but the cut was right on the eye, and the bout was stopped.
4. Jeremy Horn beat Gilbert Yvel via unanimous decision. Yvel did an unintentionally hilarious interview. He mentioned the only guy ever to beat him by submission was Igor Vovchansky (he really said that). Even though Yvel has lost his last five or six fights, he said everyone is afraid of him. He acted like it was an honor to have the reputation for being given the most yellow cards, calling himself the yellow card champion. He actually came to the ring carrying a yellow card. He claimed his rep as a dirty fighter was unfair, and that his finger accidentally slipped in Don Frye’s eye. That was as convincing as a Bobby Heenan interview. He said Don Frye looked like a guy out of the Village People. Then, when asked what he’d do with horn, he said, he’d put his finger in his eye or something. This was a very competitive good fight. Yvel has improved, because several times he was able to escape from the ground and reverse Horn. Yvel dominated the stand-up with his knees of death. Yvel, with Horn on his back, did a flying stomp to the head, which cut Horn open. Good twists and turns in the first round, with Yvel surviving Horn’s submission attempts and getting a good blow in before Horn would take hili down. Yvel hit two good knees in the third round before being taken down. With two minutes left, Yvel clocked him with another knee, but Horn tom him down again and held on. Horn won unanimously, but it was a close, competitive good match.
5. Shungo Oyama beat Renzo Gracie via unanimous decision. Renzo doesn’t have the stand-up skills to compete at the top level, and he’s always fighting bigger guys, so he can’t take them down. Oyama has improved a lot, and mainly controlled the pace and the ring with stand-ups. Gracie, usually a good sport, lost his cool. He flipped Oyamna off once. Oyama was playing to the crowd a lot because he was handling the guy, and then did some Sakuraba sequences which the crowd loved and chanted his name for. Gracie was cut over the left eye, and spit on Oyama. Oyama took Gracie down in the second and third rounds with nice judo throws. Oyama broke town and cried, and I mean fell on the mat bawling, when it was announced that he won.
6. Fedor Emelianenko beat Semmy Schiltt via unanimous decision. This was a boring fight that never came close to living up to what a battle of champs should be. Fedor, who is from the Ukraine, came out to the Soviet national anthem that Nikolai Volkoff made famous to pro wrestling fans. Rutten started singing like Volkoff, but admitted that he didn’t know the words. Fedor is a hell of a wrestler, and had no intention of doing anything but wrestling against a 6-11 1/2 man. Whole fight was Fedor on top, keeping Schiltt there, while Rutten begged for a stand-up that would never come. Fedor was bleeding above the left eye. In the second round, Fedor took him down and Schiltt was bleeding from punches while Fedor’s eye was swelling shut. In the third round, well, you know. Rutten screamed, “Action, please.” Ref never called for a stand-up. Fedor’s face actually looked worse, but there was no denying he’d easily won.
7. Frye beat Takayama. Not much else to say other than get the DVD when it comes out."
and:
"OTHER JAPAN NOTES [a reliably excellent Observer section, historically—ed.]: UFO held a press conference on 6/27 to announce tickets are on sale for the 8/8 show at the Tokyo Dome. NTV, which also broadcasts New Japan, will be airing the show that night in prime time. No matches were announced at the press conference, only names of Naoya Ogawa, Kazuyuki Fujita, Kazunari Murakami, Tadao Yasuda, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Mario Sperry and Jens Pulver. The next day they announced hinted at an Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Sanae Kikuta. The reason so many Pride contracted fighters are on this show, which makes many believe the companies are actually working together, is a contract fluke. Actually UFO and Pride are competitors, particularly since each is running a huge show in August and bidding for the same core of big stars for their shows. When Pride signed most of their fighters’ contracts like the Nogueiras, management gave them clauses which would have allowed them to work for pro wrestling promotions, UFO being one of them. It is believed some office people from Pride are involved with UFO, and obviously Antonio Inoki is playing both sides and he’s working with the Brazilian Top Team, so they understood the loophole. Doing pro wrestling on a high level makes the fighters more marketable in Pride. However, UFO, then a pro wrestling group specified in the contract, is doing shoot fights, so it’s sort of considered a double-cross contract loophole. Ogawa has made it clear to other promoters that he’d only do a shoot for huge money and if he could hand-pick his opponent. Ogawa was scheduled at the press conference, but didn’t appear, with the story being given that he was suddenly taken ill. They are actually teasing in Japan the idea of Shinya Hashimoto vs. Rodrigo Nogueira, which could never happen, as well as a Jens Pulver vs. Caol Uno rematch from a very good close match they had in UFC. They announced all matches would be with three five minute rounds and judges would decide if they went the time limit. Antonio Inoki and Tatsuo Kawamura (the new member of the New Japan Board of Directors) ran the press conference with no fighters to kick off ticket sales. The feeling was at this point that nobody is going to buy tickets for a show from a new company without knowing at least a main event. Tokyo Sports in their speculation, noted there could be a Zero-One involvement because they’ve got two foreigners who can really fight, in Predator (who placed second to Kurt Angle, losing 3-2 in the finals, in the 1992 NCAA heavyweight tournament, and then won the tournament in 1993) and Josh Dempsey (who was once ranked No. 4 in the heavyweight division in boxing by the IBF)
There has been a lot of rumor mill talk of a Nobuhiko Takada retirement show promoted by Pride at the Tokyo Dome in November. Originally they wanted the Takada retirement to be on the 8/29 show since they need every angle they can muster up to make a 70,000 seat stadium show a success, but Takada and his wife are going to be the U.S. this summer attempting to adopt a child. Takada said that since he turned 40 this year, it is time to retire because he can’t get into the condition he used to be in. He also said he’s like his last match to be against Rickson Gracie."
and:
"Pride will be doing a small show on 7/20 at Differ Ariake in Tokyo using indie pro wrestlers Giant Ochiai vs. Tomohiko Hashimoto (DDT) in the main event."
July 15, 2002:
"What is the attempt to produce the biggest MMA show in history was officially announced, as well as the main event, in a joint press conference on 7/9 at Tokyo National Soccer Stadium.
Dream Stage Entertainment (Pride) President Naoto Morishita was joined by K-1 President Kazuyoshi Ishii to officially announce a show billed as the MMA World Cup (taking advantage of the popularity of the soccer World Cup matches held in the same stadium in June) and the show is named “Dynamite: Summer Night Fever in National Stadium” for 8/28, a day earlier than originally scheduled. The date was moved to avoid a conflict of going head-to-head with New Japan’s Budokan Hall show the next day. However, because it is monsoon season and it’s an outdoor show, they have the stadium booked through 8/31 for potential rain delays for the show that will air on PPV on 9/1 in the U.S. The claim is that they are setting the stadium up for 100,000 people and will break the all-time paid attendance record for a sports entertainment event. That 100,000 number is likely as legitimate as the 93,173 number that WWE uses for its record, since the stadium only held 60,000 for recent World Cup soccer games. Those within the promotion are saying they will be able to add enough seats to get it up to 80,000 and the building is scaled for a near $10 million live gate. The largest confirmed paid crowd for a sports entertainment event would be 78,927 for the Bret Hart vs. British Bulldog match in 1992 at London’s Wembley Stadium. The largest live gate was $7 million at the Tokyo Dome in 1998 for Antonio Inoki’s retirement match against Don Frye.
The show will not be Pride vs. K-1 matches, but eight or nine dream matches, all featuring big name fighters, with different rules for every match. The show will air both on television in prime time that night on TBS in Japan as well as live on PPV in that country.
The main event was announced as Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Mirko Cro Cop (Mirko Filipovic). Sakuraba will be returning to action early than he would have liked to after suffering a serious shoulder injury in his 11/3 match with Vanderlei Silva, which he lost before 53,246 fans at the Tokyo Dome, and with the high ticket prices, it may have been very close to the all-time live gate record as Sakuraba, who over the past year solidified his reputation as the biggest drawing junior heavyweight pro wrestler in history, went for revenge after a loss earlier than year to Silva. Cro Cop is known as the “pro wrestler hunter,” and is unbeaten in mixed matches. As perhaps the biggest current star in the K-1 promotion, more due to his mixed matches, although he earlier this year bested 2001 K-1 Grand Prix champ Mark Hunt, he scored a blood stoppage victory over previously unbeaten Kazuyuki Fujita last August, followed it up with a deadly draw with Nobuhiko Takada in a match where nothing happened, a win within seconds over Yuji Nagata, a K-1 win over former pro wrestler Ryushi Yanagisawa, and another draw with Silva on the Pride show which set the all-time attendance record at the Yokohama Arena. Sakuraba would likely be giving up about 35 pounds to Cro Cop, which is a lot at this stage of the game. There is little doubt Sakuraba is the better wrestler and the best submission fighter Cro Cop has been in with. But just as assuredly, Sakuraba would not be able to survive if he can’t take Cro Cop down. The belief is that Sakuraba has a better chance due to how they match up stylistically, in beating Cro Cop because Cro Cop has less experience on the ground, than in beating Silva, which a win would no doubt set up a third meeting with.
No other matches were officially announced at the press conference. According to Pride sources, the rumored match with Hidehiko Yoshida, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist in judo at 172 pounds, against Royce Gracie, is finalized and will be the second biggest pushed match on the show. Yoshida, 32, destroyed all opposition at the Olympics in Barcelona, winning six matches in a total time of 16:21, becoming a national hero in the process. In his prime, Yoshida was such a dominant performer that he gave up more than 100 pounds of bodyweight once in a tournament and defeated Naoya Ogawa, the 1992 Olympic silver medalist in the unlimited weight division and now a pro wrestling superstar, in an open weight division tournament. He came back in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta to place fifth in the 190 pound weight class. Gracie, 35, won three of the first four UFC tournaments in 1993 and 1994, becoming the first true legend of MMA. However, his most notable matches were his only loss in MMA competition, a 90:00 match with Sakuraba in a non-title match on May 1, 2000 at the Tokyo Dome before 38,400 fans, which still is the best selling PPV event in the history of Japan, and his April 7, 1995 time limit draw with Ken Shamrock in Charlotte which went 36:06, which is the most purchased non-boxing pure sporting event in the history of U.S. PPV. The Sakuraba match ended when Royce’s father, Helio Gracie, ordered Royce’s older brother Rorion to throw in the towel when an exhausted Royce was being destroyed with leg kicks and no longer able to defend himself.
Yoshida, who retired from judo earlier this year and received huge money offers from both pro wrestling and MMA groups in Japan, has never fought in this style of fighting and would have to be considered a heavy underdog. Gracie family members have beaten Olympic judo stars in the past by submission. Yoshida is expected to confirm signing a four-match contract with Pride worth a reported $800,000 at a press conference next week.
They are trying to promote this match as the 50th anniversary of what is now considered the first legendary MMA match in history, a 1951 match in Rio de Janeiro between Royce’s father Helio, then a 140-pound master of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and Japan’s 210-pound Masahiko Kimura [Masahiko Kimura was 84kg/185lbs during his prime by all credible {this is to say non-Gracie} accounts—ed.] (who later was one of Rikidozan’s most famous opponents in pro wrestling), then considered the best in judo in the world. Kimura won in about 12:00. Symbolically, like in that match, both Yoshida and Gracie will fight wearing gis.
Other matches they are attempting to put together are Vanderlei Silva vs. Ray Sefo (K-1 star), Cyril Abidi (K-1 star) vs. Don Frye (this may be under K-1 rules, since Frye beat Abidi under MMA rules on New Years Eve), Frank Shamrock vs. Shungo Oyama, Jerome LeBanner vs. Tadao Yasuda (rematch of a huge New Years Eve match that Yasuda won), Musashi vs. Masaaki Satake, Bob Sapp vs. Hiromi Amada or Tom Erikson, and Mark Hunt vs. Kazuyuki Fujita."
and (from the Pro Wrestling NOAH report):
"Yoshihiro Takayama did a TV interview on 7/3 talking about his match with Don Frye, and said that despite the beating he took, he wasn’t feeling any pain and the doctor said his bone underneath his eye would fully heal and he’s fine to return to wrestling. He also said he’d like to fight in Pride whenever they would have him. Takayama was back for the start of the tour, and after seeing his face in that fight, that in itself is amazing. Takayama, since the Frye loss, has been more popular than ever before. Takashi Suguira, who also worked the 6/23 Pride show, doesn’t appear too have helped his positioning even though he had an impressive Pride debut, even losing."
and:
"The Pancrase-Pride relationship is officially history after all of one match, the Sanae Kikuta vs. Alexander Otsuka bout."
July 22, 2002:
"There seems to be a general feeling that the 8/8 UFO show is going to be a colossal bomb while the 8/28 Pride/K-1 show will surpass its goal of being the best drawing MMA show in history. Current rumors for 8/8 are Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Mario Sperry, Takehiro Murahama vs. Jens Pulver, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Sanae Kikuta plus a match with Dos Caras Jr. They are trying to get Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras as Dos Jr’s seconds for his match. His father has seconded him in previous shoot matches but Mascaras has never appeared at a shoot show in Japan. This is not exactly Tokyo Dome marquee value stuff [it does sound pretty awesome though!—ed.]"
July 29, 2002:
"Even though he was pounded badly in the Don Frye match, the bout was so good that Yoshihiro Takayama is getting serious offers for both the 8/8 UFO show at the Tokyo Dome and the 8/28 Pride show at the Stadium."
and:
"Pride heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira has been threatened with being stripped of the title after an ultimatum delivered by promoter Naoto Morishita to not appear on the 8/8 UFO Tokyo Dome show, where he’s scheduled to face Sanae Kikuta of Pancrase. As mentioned previously, even though Nogueira had a contract with Pride, there was a loophole in it that allowed him to work for certain organizations that were doing pro wrestling like New Japan or UFO. UFO was in the deal because it was a pro wrestling company, but when it put on a shoot show, that was the loophole. Morishita has said that if Nogueira fights on the show, he’ll may never use him again and strip him. Naoya Ogawa’s opponent on the 8/8 Tokyo Dome UFO show will be Matt Ghaffari, the 1996 Olympic silver medalist in Greco-roman wrestling at 286 pounds. Ghaffari, 40, lost to Alexander Karelin in the finals that year, and received offers from both WCW and WWF afterwards, but turned them down. He did once appear on Nitro. An interesting note is that UFO President Tatsuo Kawamura said that Ogawa has not agreed to this match, but they were announcing it anyway, and Ogawa was not at the press conference. He also officially the aforementioned Nogueira bout and former UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver vs. Osaka Pro Wrestling’s Takehiro Murahama and said five more matches are to be decided. It is strongly rumored that Kazuyuki Fujita will face a Russian, plus Mario Sperry vs. Wataru Sakata (should be an easy win for Sperry) and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Vladimir Matyushenko. Show is on pace to be a tremendous bomb with a very poor advance. NTV, which is NOAH’s network, is broadcasting this show in prime time from 7-9:24 p.m. that night and hoping for a 15.0 rating. That is going to be very difficult, as with the exception of Ogawa, there are no mainstream names involved and there is so much fighting and wrestling on TV in Japan that it takes something really special to draw the masses. Actually the biggest thing on the show is the symbolism of Inoki appearing on NTV, which for the past three decades was Baba’s network. Marco Ruas is off the show. He was scheduled against Kazunari Murakami, and he’ll be replaced by Pride vet Wallid Ismail. Ruas suffered a hand injury in training. Ruas planned this to be his retirement fight, and he’s talked since the injury of wanting to come back and do one last night."
And I think we'll end it there, as Dave did not seem to have much at all to say in advance of the relatively minor matter of MMA THE BEST Vol.2（エムエムエー・ザ・ベスト・ボリュームツー）, which is where we will direct our attention when next we meet. One more brief stop in ディファ有明 / Differ Ariake/ before Ｄｙｎａｍｉｔｅ！ 史上最大の格闘技ワールド・カップ SUMMER NIGHT FEVER in 国立競技場. Excitement is building! For it! I will see you then. Thank you for reading.
