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シリーズ PRIDE男祭り
開催年月日 2003年12月31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5時
試合数 全10試合
放送局 フジテレビ
入場者数 39,716人
シリーズ PRIDE男祭り
開催年月日 2003年12月31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5時
試合数 全10試合
放送局 フジテレビ
入場者数 39,716人
AS WE SETTLE IN BEFORE PRIDE SPECIAL 男祭り 2003（プライド スペシャル おとこまつり にせんさん）/ PURAIDO SUPESHARU OTOKO MATSURI NI SEN-SAN / PRIDE SPECIAL MEN'S FESTIVAL 2003 our initial thoughts cannot help but turn (initially) towards the regrettable pejoration that made so plain a hash of so exquisite a(n) mixed-fight event title, reducing it to the mere "Shockwave 2003" in its English-broadcast utterance—and that's setting aside, even, how genuinely unhelpful it is to revive the "Shockwave" title that has already been used in a starkly different context, that context, of course, being Ｄｙｎａｍｉｔｅ！ 史上最大の格闘技ワールド・カップ SUMMER NIGHT FEVER in 国立 (in which "史上最大の格闘技ワールド・カップ" or "shijō saidai no kakutōgi wārudo kappu" is, you will recall, "History's Greatest Kakutōgi World Cup," more or less) all of which was lessened to the regrettably straightforward "Pride/K1 Shockwave Dynamite!" in the English-language presentation that (and here's an even bigger problem) had Bill Goldberg on it. What a shame! A greater shame still, I suppose, that the seeds of PRIDE's scandalous demise (whether or not we feel or have felt personally scandalized by it, that is indisputably the kind of demise it ended up being) were very much sown over the weeks and months in which the three-network mixed-fight New Year's Eve <<spectacle>> (in whose strange economy our present show plays its humble part) came together in their various intrigues and weirdnesses (for more on these intrigues, and weirdnesses, too, why not consult the excerpted Observer bits in our previous post, or, for a broader overview [of the doom that barely abides] excerpted from several crucial sources, we could return to our overview of PRIDE.1（プライド・ワン) 1997年10月11日 presented here). That is arguably the bigger problem, the seeds-of-demise part. But hey why dwell on what's yet to come when the present (the past in this instance) is still pretty good! It's like how Jocasta says (in Francis Storr's translation), "Why should a mortal man, the sport of chance, with no assured foreknowledge, be afraid? Best live a careless life from hand to mouth." In this instance, of course, we do have assured foreknowledge, which complicates things (or perhaps simples them right up?), and also she was speaking in that moment to Oedipus, for whom things went south pretty quick also, HOWEVER, I remember this show as being pretty good in parts! Let's see if that's so! I would fain know all!
An unusually (though by no means unpleasantly) sedate Bas Rutten and Mauro Ranallo welcome us to the さいたまスーパーアリーナ Saitama Sūpā Arīna with an overall aspect and demeanour that seems "nearly normal for sports," which may or may not be to one's particular taste, but which is objectively a bold step in a radically new direction. Will this "take"? Is this a "one and done"? Will it "take two to make it true," as though we were trying to land pop shove-its (or even hop-ruins) in the driveway (of the human spirit)? Only. Time. Will tell.
Our opening bout, full of rad promise, sees Quinton Jackson take to fight against 美濃輪 育久, Minowa Ikuhisa, in time to be known as ミノワマン MINOWAMAN, an undersized but deeply charismatic holder of the rank of 二段 nidan in the exquisite art of 講道館柔道 Kōdōkan Jūdō (or so the legends say) who will, in time, despite many early struggles, come to good as the inaugural (and only) DREAM Openweight Grand Prix SUPER HULK Champion in 2009. But who was he on this final day of 2003? He stands before us now having already amassed a Pancrase-and-DEEP-heavy record of 23-17-8 (that's a lot of fights, granted, but eight really seems like a lot of draws, doesn't it?) after a dark 1-8-1 start to his career; his most notable match to this point was (to me at least [first watched at the recommendation of our old friend TOM]) his loss to 菊田 早苗 Kikuta Sanae (whom we have long celebrated amidst these electronic pages) for the vacant light-heavyweight title at PANCRASE: 2001 ANNIVERSARY SHOW (watch it here if you have ten minutes to spare for a thing that rules). "Also renowned for his durability," his Wikipedia page notes, "he is a veteran of 117 fights, and is known for his trademark red speedo and mullet." It's all true! We'll note, too, since we have a moment (what's the rush?), the extent to which this MINOWAMAN resembles—might it be said anticipates?—a later and no less crucial a figure of Japanese professional mixed fighting, CUP NOODLE MAN, whether seen <<tout seul>> or <<avec Barnett>> (two of the main modes of being):
And we're off! To martial arts fighting, I mean! And I've got to say, Minowa, who is oddly-yet-compellingly cornered by Brazilian Top Team's Murillo Bustamante (what's the story there, I wonder!), is holding his own in the early going, which is really quite a thing when you recall that Quinton Jackson recently finished runner-up to Wanderlei Silva in the PRIDE GRANDPRIX 2003 (perhaps you've read about it?), but maybe ever-so-lightly a thing when you recall just how recently it was that Jackson was very much stopped by Wanderlei Silva, as it was just fifty-two days previous, which honestly feels like too few. Minowa actually manages to take Jackson down with a rising 大内刈 ouchi-gari (it started so low!), although Jackson reverses, and comes up on top terrifyingly (he is a lot bigger than Minowa, yikes) before Minowa turtles, works up to his feet, seizes hold of a 逆腕緘 gyaku-ude-garami/reverse-arm-entanglement/double-wrist-lock/Kimura/ etc. and gets super duper slammed on his head on account of it. Jackson is again on top, and is very much "making with the knees," and yet I feel like Minowa is still kind of doing a good job? For instance, just now he has stood right up (always impressive with a great big guy on top of you who would prefer things to stay unstood), and has jumped his way to the 前裸絞 mae-hadaka-jime one might call the guillotine (the crowd really enjoyed this part), and even if the end result is again Jackson on top just laying in the knees (which it extremely is), it still feels like "hey, pretty good job, Ikuhisa Minowa." It isn't even that it's going that well, if you think about just how many knees it has been (another consideration: that several of those knees have been just awful), but that it is going at all seems like a triumph? Jackson is the better fighter by a fairly incredible margin, of course. Hey, there's another 逆腕緘 gyaku-ude-garami countered by a mighty scoop slam (consider 掬投 sukui-nage, the scooping throw [known too as 手車 te-guruma, the hand-wheel]), despite Minowa's efforts to forestall the slamming part with a rolling 隅返 sumi-gaeshi (it didn't work, but seemed to me the right idea). And that's the end of the ten-minute first round! An all-action one, you'd have to say! We don't get very far into round two, though, before Jackson throws with perhaps the clearest demonstration of the principle and mechanism of 後腰 ushiro-goshi ("rear hip"; think of it as 裏投 ura-nage's friendly little buddy) I have ever seen in the mixed-fight context:
From there, it is only a few more truly awful knees to the finish. Minowa pops up as though he might be angry at the stoppage, but that doesn't seem to be the case, exactly: he's shouting NEXT YEAR AGAIN OKAY? NEXT YEAR? at Jackson, who, after a tense couple of moments, correctly interprets this as a strange but sporting request for a rematch, and these two depart in understanding, and as pals.
Hey here's something: it is the mixed-fight début of Paulo César da Silva, known too as GIANT SILVA, whose fighting style is listed here as "pro-wrestling" (following stints in the WWF, the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, and NJPW), but whose "shoot" athletic background is basketball (you should try it, if you haven't, as it's really a lot of fun); indeed, da Silva was an Olympian in that fine sport, competing for Brazil in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the first Olympics I can remember clearly (this makes them special within the culture broadly). He stands 218 centimetres, or 7'2" tall, this "Giant" Silva does, or at least did, before he started shrinking a little (happens to everybody). His opponent here is Heath Herring, a once very fine heavyweight who has, over these last several fights, fallen on lightly hard times.
This one is mostly just sad, as da Silva is a fairly kindly-seeming forty-year-old-man who lumbers about the ring while Heath Herring picks him apart at kicking range for really a very long time. Silva doesn't know how to throw punches, in the conventional sense, so you might think this would all end fairly quickly, but Herring is understandably wary of getting squished, I think, by a man roughly twice his weight (I am reflecting upon the heaviest people with whom I have grappled in my long years of so doing, and none of them have quite doubled my weight, I don't think, which is almost certainly for the best). The crowd boos at the end of the second round, because of how this is bad and also probably wrong, but early in the third, Herring stumbles to the mat after Silva catches one of his low kicks in hand, and, Herring, though briefly squished, sneaks his way to the back and finishes with the naked strangle of 裸絞 hadaka-jime. Silva exceeded expectations by sticking around as long as he did, certainly, but I still don't feel great about any of it.
I'm a little surprised to find the bout between our old friend 高瀬 大樹 Takase Daiju (you will recall, I'm sure, his recent bouts against Anderson Silva and Rodrigo Gracie) and our exciting new friend 桜井 速人 Sakurai Hayato, known to as マッハ Mahha (Mach), set apart from the main line of our English-language broadcast and included amongst our files as a Japanese-language supplement. But I am of course very pleased to have it! I believe this is Sakurai's first appearance amongst these electronic pages, and I feel that there is almost too much to say; perhaps we should say simply that he fights beautifully? And that much of that beauty was revealed atop the white canvas of 修斗 SHOOTO (founded, of course, by 佐山 聡 Sayama Satoru, the original Tiger Mask, of NJPW and 1984 UWF fame)? Perhaps that is enough? Maybe a little more, from Sakurai's fairly robust Wikipedia entry: "Sakurai began training in judo during middle school, gaining several championships and then also began training in karate. During high school, he became friends with fellow combat sportsmen Michihiro Omigawa and Kazuyuki Miyata. He later became interested in shootboxing and joined Caesar Takeshi's dojo, competing for his promotion during years. In 1996, he wandered in mixed martial arts and entered Kiguchi Dojo, where he trained with Noriaki Kiguchi and Satoru Sayama's apprentice Noboru Asahi. At the end, he ended joining the Shooto organization along with a young Takanori Gomi.[3]" See, that's all good stuff. What else: "A professional competitor since 1996, he has formerly competed for the UFC, PRIDE, DREAM, Shooto, Vale Tudo Japan, DEEP, and participated in the Yarennoka!, Dynamite!! 2008, Dynamite!! 2009, Dynamite!! 2010, and Fight For Japan: Genki Desu Ka Omisoka 2011 events. Sakurai finished second (Silver) in the Absolute Class (no weight limit) ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship in 1999 at just under 77 kg. During the height of his career in 2000 and 2001 he was considered to be one of the top pound for pound fighters in MMA. He is the former Shooto Middleweight Champion." Man, that's all pretty good, too. Anything else we should definitely know for sure before we go any further, fairly robust Wikipedia entry? "His nickname, 'Mach', pronounced ma-ha in Japanese was taken as a tribute to his childhood professional wrestling hero, Higo Shigehisashi better known as Mach Hayato, the first Japanese professional wrestler to completely embrace the Mexican style of lucha libre and was also among the group of professional wrestlers who made the transition to shoot wrestling as part of the original UWF movement." Don't tell me there are ever-deepening resonances with The Long UWF over here! Haha it would be okay if you told me that, on account of how there totally are. Anyway, the excellent pre-fight video packages show Sakurai thrilling SHOOTO crowds, and reveal Takase to enjoy playing the piano (hey me too! it's an enormously pleasant activity and pursuit!).
This could be pretty great! And I am pleased to report that I have literally no memory of this ever happening, though it plainly did, and on a show I absolutely for sure watched, although it occurs to me that the grey-market copy of this show that first came into my possession may have been the English-language one, and so maybe this really is the first time I have seen this particular match? Pretty exciting! If you're me! A final note before we properly get into this one: you'll see how it says 野生のカリスマ / yasei no karisuma / "wild charisma" on that second Sakurai image, which is important, in that this really did seem to be how all of us felt about Hayato Sakurai at the time (and those were the guys). Okay let's see about it! Come on, let's go!
Daiju Takase, an interesting fellow upon whom two undeniably sikk noms-de-guerre or sobriquets-rouge have been bestowed (both 寝技アーティスト / Newaza Ātisuto / "Newaza Artist" and 影のグラップリング・キング / kage no gurappuringu kingu / "Grappling King of the Shadows"), enters to "When You Were Young," by which I do not mean arguably the strongest song by The Killers (that one's still three years away), but instead a lovely little composition by John Wetton, he of King Crimson, Roxy Music, Uriah Heep, U.K., Wishbone Ash, and Asia (so basically all of the bands, then). It's really quite a choice! Sakurai enters to an up-tempo Japanese rock and roll song that I do not know (no great surprise there) and whose lyrics I cannot discern well enough to properly search for, and so all sense of symmetry in our presentation of these two entrances is lost. Hey, look who's in Sakurai's corner: it's Sanae Kikuta! He really is one of our favourite guys!
Round two! Takase jumps guard again (not a practice I admire, frankly), and the thoughts he forms from the high guard he establishes soon thereafter remain, quite plainly, triangular. Sakurai stands up out of the whole situation, and for the most part proceeds kickboxingly. When they clinch, Takase jumps guard again, and this time gets fairly wacky:
I like the creativity! There's no choke here, certainly, but as potentially discombobulating control, hey why not. Takase, here as elsewhere, seems fond of the "rubber guard" approach that felt like it was everywhere for a little bit, and then nowhere. Without checking, I bet we totally talked about this the last time we watched a Takase match, but just in case: although I remain convinced of the chess maxim that "everything is playable at the club level," it is notable, I think, that rubber guard seems to be greatly diminished even in that context (perhaps it is time for several or us old guys who remember the algorithmic rudiments of that lightly esoteric system to bewilder and delight our young charges? until they learn to stack us unrelentingly? could this have pedagogical value? or would it just be weird?). I should note that Takase is not always attacking with a strict, according-to-Hoyle rubber guard—far from it!—but he is plainly enamoured with the approach broadly. You can't watch him work and not think of it, I don't think.
Early in round three, Sakurai throws with a neat little 腰技 koshi-waza (hip technique); let's call it the floating hip of 浮腰 uki-goshi in this instance. He chooses not to engage in Takase's guard, though, stands up, and takes him right back down with a pretty aggro 小外刈 kosoto-gari (minor-outer-reap) that puts him outside Takase's legs, but even then, we're back to standing pretty quickly. It's not a great third round, honestly, and this whole match has come in a little below my (admittedly pretty high) expectations. So it goes! Sakurai takes the unanimous decision win in this hard-fought but lightly underwhelming affair. I look forward to his further adventures for sure, though.
I wonder what 小路晃 Akira Shōji and Murilo Rua will get up to? The last time Shoji was with us, he was knocked out in the first round by Murilo's brother Maurico, and, after a promising start in this bout (a tidy 大内刈 ouchi-gari! good job, Akira Shoji!), he (our old friend Akira Shoji, I mean) is knocked out in the first round of this one, too, this time from a ghastly knee right up the middle. Yiiiiiiiiikes.
Next we have 吉田 秀彦 Yoshida Hidehiko—fifty-two days after his extraordinary (that's good!) yet injurious (that's bad!) tournament bout against Pride Middleweight Champion and Middleweight Grand Prix Champion Wanderlei Silva—against Royce Gracie, who remains "big mad" about how the referee stopped his special-rules match against Yoshida at Ｄｙｎａｍｉｔｅ！ 史上最大の格闘技ワールド・カップ SUMMER NIGHT FEVER in 国立 (addressed at considerable length here). As that first bout's referee, in his ignorance, did not recognize Gracie's cunning tactic(s) of getting taken down, passed, pinned, and remaining motionless while being attacked with the sleeve-wheel strangle of 袖車絞 sode-guruma-jime as the high-concept approach that it was, the referee this time around will be no less a figure than PRIDE rules-director Matt Hume, and further on the subject of rules, this contest will of course not at all be governed by the same rules that literally every other fighter on the card has agreed to abide to. Instead, we have two ten-minute rounds, with a two-minute interval between them; no possibility of referee stoppage (what would that even mean); and no judging, which is to say if the match goes the distance it will be ruled a draw. There are couple of other little things, too, as regards how much inactivity there can be on the ground before a restart, and suchlike. As all of this is read aloud to the さいたまスーパーアリーナ Saitama Sūpā Arīna crowd, they honestly don't seem thrilled about it? In fact it sounds like they lightly hate it? Here's 高阪 剛 Kōsaka Tsuyoshi, Yoshida's second, taking it all in:
My memory of this match, though I grant you it has been years and years, is that a gi-topless and newly hench Gracie (hey don't get it twisted though: he's still nearly four years away from the section of his Wikipedia page headed "Steroids scandal [edit]") kicks Yoshida pretty squarely in the groin, goes the distance in a fairly listless bout, and then more or less claims victory in a match that by his own insistence and demand literally cannot have a victor if not by a finish signalled by either a fighter himself or by that fighter's corner. I'll let you know how much of this I got wrong! It is probably several things! Before we go any further, though, I will state as explicitly as I am able what I am sure you have already discerned (in your learnèd sensitivity, gentle reader), and that is that I am entirely out of patience with these guys (you know which guys). And although it has been clear that our approach within these hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of words throughout our now many years together upon this RINGSblog (and thank you once again, most sincerely, for both your historical and ongoing attention to these matters) has never been one of a supposed objectivity but instead the expression of a particularly (perhaps peculiarly) informed subjectivity, I must say that I am feeling especially and indeed radically subjective about some of these jokers right now. But away we go!
Well, the groin kicks started earlier than I had recalled, certainly. Gracie clearly, unambiguously tries to kick Yoshida in the groin three times in the opening seconds, and fully succeeds on the third attempt. Gracie looks incredulous, and would have us believe Yoshida is faking, which both Mauro Ranallo and Bas Rutten initially suggest is the case ("Are we seeing some histrionics here?") until the replay shows that this kick was undeniably and extremely to the groin to like a ludicrous extent, and then they concede that oh whoops I guess it was in there, okay yeah:
There is no foul I guess though (perhaps each fighter is allowed a certain number of blasts to the groin under these special rules? [EDITED TO ADD: though it was not announced on-air, nor shown on-screen, I have read in other recapitulations of the event that a yellow card was indeed issued at this time of groinkicking), and when Gracie plainly tries to do it again immediately upon the restart, Bas suggests that those kicks really are coming in very high, and that Gracie needs to keep them a little lower "just to be sure," which would certainly be the case if what Gracie wanted to be sure about was not blasting Yoshida in the groin, which I think it is pretty clearly the opposite of what he's going for. Yoshida puts Gracie on the mat with a couple of his big looping punches, and, once on top, seems largely unbothered by Gracie's 足関節技 ashi-kansetsu-waza (leg-lock) attacks. I am reflecting on Gracie's choice not to wear the full 道着 dōgi. My initial thought is don't be scared, homie; believe in yourself! You'll probably do great! But then next it occurs to me that maybe he just wanted to show the world how he had recently discovered push-ups (or whatever) at age thirty-six. There are any number of explanations that could obtain. While we have been lost in these considerations, Yoshida has stacked, passed, taken the back, and attacked with an 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame that does not come to fruition. Gracie slips out, is contained in the half-guard of 二重絡み niju-garami for a time, before himself taking Yoshida's back. There are little punches, certainly, but no submissions are threatened. So ends the round. Round two, I'm afraid, is not entirely dissimilar. "Fight, Yoshida, fight like a man!" someone (Royler? Ryan? is Renzo there?) yells as Yoshida, standing, is untroubled by the seated Royce's unconvincing 足関節技 ashi-kansetsu-waza. After a few moments in the grounded "50/50" position that follows, Gracie moves to 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame, just as Yoshida did in their first match. Maybe we'll see a turnabout 袖車絞 sode-guruma-jime! Oh wait no we won't because somebody forgot to wear sleeves. Yoshida turns to the turtle. There are many punches (arguably less of a problem than Wanderlei Silva ones Yoshida weathered a few weeks ago, but they are punches nonetheless [well maybe a little the less]), though nothing that comes close to a finish, and there are no submission attempts of note. Yoshida, plainly super tired, turtles and just rides it all out on the way to the inevitable conclusion that follows if neither athlete literally dies in the ring, or whatever. Throughout, Gracie's corner are jerks. As stipulated, the match ends in a draw, though the judge's decision almost certainly would have gone Gracie's way had he lowered himself to competing under the same rules everyone else does. I am okay with this being the last we will see of this guy on this blog probably ever. Yoshida, on the other hand, is welcome back any time.
Next, in what is presented as his retirement match (oops!), Gary Goodridge faces Don Frye for the third time, the previous two bouts having both ended in Frye's favour. HOLY MOLY this one lasts just twenty-seven seconds, as Goodridge connects with the cleanest head kick you'll ever see, just a shin entirely upside the back of Don Frye's bean. Frye is up and about quicker than you might expect after so mighty a wallop, but man that was no good (for his bean). 高田 延彦 Takada Nobuhiko presents Gary Goodridge with a fair-sized bouquet to end the PRIDE portion of his career, certainly, though it will continue elsewhere, and arguably go on a little too long (for his wellbeing, I mean; one cannot help but worry). A grateful Goodridge tearfully addresses the crowd, and offers in closing a mighty 明けましておめでとう akemashite omedetou! (happy new year!) that is very well received. They also really liked it when he began his remarks with 皆さん minasan! (everybody!).
Daniel Gracie, who feels his recent decision loss to 中村和裕 Nakamura Kazuhiro at PRIDE 武士道 -其の壱- （プライド ぶしどう そのいち）(which we address here) was in some sense unjust (I dare you to figure that one out!), here faces 坂田 亘 Sakata Wataru, known well to us from his many days of Fighting Network RINGS (his Fighting Network DAYS), in his PRIDE début. Sakata will, a few years beyond this, wed 小池 栄子 Koike Eiko, a mainstay of the Japanese-language commentary team, an actress who continues to work steadily into our present moment, most recently in Netflix's 地面師たち / Jimenshitachi / Tokyo Swindlers (I oppose swindling and so refuse to have any part of this [haha j/k I do think swindling is bad but I also think shows about it could be good {art is complex}]). What I am wondering here is whether or not Sakata and Koike have a PRIDE SPECIAL 男祭り 2003（プライド スペシャル おとこまつり にせんさん）"meet-cute" they would like to share with the group? I guess it's really just like a lot of people, in that they met at work. Anyway, so far as I can tell, they have now been married for eighteen years and have together welcomed one little person into the world so let us wish all the best to them and to their little family. Sakata, as we find him here, is very much on the home stretch of a career that he ended at a very sensible time, right around age thirty, before quite unsensibly coming back thirteen years later to match with our new friend 桜井 速人 Sakurai Hayato at RIZIN WORLD GRAND PRIX-PRIX 2016: FINAL ROUND (I understand though that theirs was a non-tournament bout). Bas Rutten welcomes Bill Goldberg to the English-language commentary table, which is all we hope to say about that. In reference to Daniel Gracie's non-mixed-fight ventures, Mauro Ranallo has uttered the term プロレス puroresu for the first time on a PRIDE FC broadcast, which I found just tremendous in its "guy who has read that word on a message board and just savours it" pronunciation. Glory to you in this regard, Mauro Ranallo. A little confused about Sakata's background, Bas says that he really is doing extremely well for his mixed martial arts début; Mauro corrects him, saying that while this is Sakata's PRIDE début, he actually has competed extensively in RINGS. "Wait, how long is it ago when it was for RINGS?" Bas asks, for, as as a man of パンクラス PANKURASU / PANCRASE, he is lore-wise and very much alive to The Long UWFness of the shoot-style 90s. Mauro answers that, to the best of his knowledge, Sakata competed in RINGS up-to-and-including about two or three years ago, and Bas, doing the math required to situate at least a portion of these bouts well into the shootmost (though not shoot exclusive [or shootxclusive] KING OF KINGS era of RINGS, concedes the point: "Then it's okay, because in the beginning, um, it was something different from me." Fair enough, Bas Rutten, fair enough! Sakata really does do pretty well here, but Daniel Gracie ably finishes an 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame that Sakata would not yield to, and tries to stomp his way out of, but that referee 島田 裕二 Shimada Yūji rightly says must stop because Sakata's plainly broken arm is gross. Here I go again reiterating once more that it is unfriendly and rude to put your opponent in a position where they have to decide whether or not to actually go ahead and break your arm when you have clearly been caught in a hold that can do that! Refusing to acknowledge that you have been bested does not in some weird way redeem your loss or mitigate the plain fact that you have been caught! It is rank foolishness to suppose otherwise! I say this every time it comes up and if you weary of these statements I understand but I have strong feelings on this point! Do better, Wataru Sakata! If this is part of trying to look cool in front of Eiko Koike, I get it, but I still think it's misguided (she likes you for you, Wataru Sakata).
Hey you may have noticed that PANCRASE has come up a few times already today—and why wouldn't it, as it is pretty neat?—and if you have enjoyed that part of things then you continue to be very much in luck as we welcome 近藤 有己 Kondō Yūki! Hooray! It's Yuki Kondo! This is not actually his TK SCISSORS: A Blog of RINGS début, as he made a brief but I think memorable (to me at least!) appearance in RINGS BLOG SUPPLEMENTAL: 5/26/00: COLOSSEUM 2000 (C2K) (RINGSblog date: 6/12/17). I wonder what we had to say at that time, specifically? Let's see:
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"AND WE ARE LIVE except this can't have been the live airing, it must be an edit for commercial release because the picture is very clear, so this probably isn't even the TV Tokyo tape-delayed broadcast and I say this because you can really see the blood splattered on the camera after Yuki Kondo, an utterly essential man of Pancrase, knees and then further batters Saulo Ribeiro, defending ADCC champion and Jiu-Jitsu World Champion many times over, to a grisly end only twenty-two seconds into this opening bout before an unreal crowd.
I have said before in these pages but will gladly say again how much I admire Saulo Ribeiro as a græppler and as an author and teacher: Jiu-Jitsu University really is one of the best martial arts instructional books I have ever seen, and old (and current!) martial arts instructional books (chiefly judo as you would expect) are a real enthusiasm of mine so I have seen a lot of them, I think. Watching Saulo just sliced up here puts me in mind of Marcelo Garcia's lone mixed fight, in which he was stopped on a cut twenty seconds into the second round against Kim Dae-Won, a Korean judo player of no real repute, after Garcia had spent much of the first (as I remember it; it is likely I am mistaken; please forgive me) on Dae-Won's back, unable, for whatever reason, to do any of the amazing things he is obviously and demonstrably capable of doing when he is on someone's back. I don't point these both out to be puerile about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (although, I mean, obviously, train judo [R.I.P. Quincy Rice, July 25, 1975 – October 11, 2016]) but instead to say how mixed fighting is probably dumb and wrong and these beautiful græpplers should have just kept on græppling beautifully instead of doing whatever it is they're doing here, whatever it is we're doing here; I mean, my God.
I just checked and Yuki Kondo last fought in March of this year, like as in 2017. He is a second-dan in Shorinji Kempo, a truly esoteric martial art I encourage you to read about at the place we all go to to read about things in a preliminary way. I will not be drawn into writing about all the Pancrase shows I simply will not be but I should probably do some key shows or matches of note at some point, maybe just all kinds of Sanae Kikuta, who we were (I was) incredibly surprised to find on a handful of these RINGS shows, and who would, less than a year from the time of this Kondo/Ribeiro 東京ドーム Tōkyō Dōmu match, best Saulo Ribeiro and indeed everyone else in the -88 kg division at ADCC as he won the world's biggest no-gi submission græppling tournament as a Koga-trained judoist, no big deal to me or anything. These Pancrase guys are making it rough on Saulo, though, and I feel bad for him; I like Saulo.
This is the first time we have been in the Tokyo Dome in all of this RINGSblogging (and of course RINGS itself never made it there, did it, though Maeda and Dolman did have their match on that huge Bridge Of Dreams ~ Dome Spring Full Bloom thirteen-promotion show in 1995) and it's pretty great! The ring announcer's voice echoes around like crazy, and the crowd reaction to Yuki Kondo's win was wild, and the ramp is absurd, and the ring looks great, and oh also here comes Genki Sudo dressed as a dragon billowing smoke as he is carried in on a littler by monks.
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That all sounds about right! I would add to this only the somewhat troubling information that Yuki Kondo has taken like a dozen further fights since we last spoke of him in 2017, the most recent being a decision win over Akihiro Mori at DEEP: 122 Impact last November; he last fought in PANCRASE in late 2023. Yuki Kondo, absolute mad-lad, is forty-nine. This is insane.
He's only twenty-eight, though, as he stands before us to face the venerable and rightly esteemed Mario Sperry, which seems much more reasonable. Oh neat, the classic PANCRASE HYBRID WRESTLING logo is superimposed, rotatingly, on the televised image just above the ring in a way that would feel much nearer to commonplace now, certainly, but which, I assure you, was almost distressingly sikk in late 2003. PRIDE's television production values for their biggest events felt so far ahead of everything else in ways that would probably be difficult for younger people to fully appreciate in this our era of the late dharma (which is obviously fine, and there really isn't any reason why any younger person would even be in a position to be asked to appreciate it, unless you were being kind of weird to them), and even though there have of course been all kinds of further developments in televised-sports production-fanciness, there remains to this high-days-of-PRIDE æsthetic a distinct appeal, I think (an analogue may be found in the contemporaneous æsthetics of the PlayStation 2, perhaps [not sure; much to consider here]).
Kondo makes short work of the great Mario Sperry, sprawling atop his several takedown attempts and slicing him up so thoroughly with knees and punches that the match is stopped on a cut in just three minutes. Yuki Kondo, everybody! Renzo Gracie, who has joined Bas and Mauro on commentary for this one, is I think right to note that Sperry was probably knocked out on one of those knees, but was jolted back by subsequent blows.
And now 田村潔司 Tamura Kiyoshi, about whom we have said so much, will address himself to Rony Sefo, younger and less-accomplished brother of New Zealand kickboxing great Ray Sefo (this is no slight, only the barest recitation of available information). This is the first of Sefo's two mixed-fights (ever), and, predictably, it ends in Kiyoshi Tamura's favour with an 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame from 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame in about two minutes. An attempt to rehabilitate Kiyoshi Tamura's standing after his tournament loss to Hidehiko Yoshida? I have just checked, though, and this will be Tamura's only match in PRIDE for like a year and a half; he is definitely a guy who, in his post-RINGS era, really picked his spots (quite rightly and understandably, as they [by which we can only mean 前田 日明 Maeda Akira] rode him way, way too hard in RINGS, obviously).
Once Tamura has addressed the crowd to their considerable delight (and very much to mine, especially once "Flame of Mind" gets going), all that remains is our slightly odd-seeming but by no means unpleasant main event pairing of 桜庭 和志 Sakuraba Kazushi and Antônio Rogério Nogueira (actual Wikipedia disambiguation note [as noted here previously, surely]: "Not to be confused with Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira or Nog [Star Trek]). Sakuraba, you may recall, is coming off a win over Kevin Randleman (hey good job!); Nogueira, for his part, has recently bested 中村和裕 Nakamura Kazuhiro (hey good job also!). Our problematic fav Don Frye joins Mauro and Bas for guest commentary, and he is full of warm praise for all involved, and why not? Everybody seems nice.
Nogueira starts with a flying knee that comes so immediately off the opening bell that it is almost as though he had "buffered" the input ahead of the referee's signal (haha I have been playing a reasonable amount of バーチャファイター4 エボリューション / Bācha Faitā 4: Eborūshōn / Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution of late! It's going great, thanks! I think it might be my favourite video game ever if I had to pick just one! [nobody has to, though; that's unrealistic]. Perhaps he buffered the inputs in his brain? A question beyond our scope, surely, but the opening moments, an indeed all of the opening ten-minute round are really quite compelling: Nogueira is the better striker for sure, and he does get the best of the striking (in time he will medal in boxing at the Pan American games! Rio de Janeiro 2007! Super heavyweight division!), but he is also pretty badly cut above the eye fairly early on, which is perhaps giving him trouble, and helping Sakuraba stick around here? There is no extended (or really even preliminary) 寝技 newaza, alas, just a few moments where Nogueira, from his back, kicks away stompingly at Sakuraba's poor old knees in a way that Don Frye argues should probably be banned (I can't say that I disagree, as it is plainly a form of hitting). Round two largely unfolds along similar lines, until its final moments, in which Nogueira, having jumped to the mat in hopes of finishing a 前裸絞 mae-hadaka-jime front choke, comes about as close as you can to finishing not just the front-facing triangle choke of 表三角絞 omote-sankaku-jime but the triangle armbar of 腕挫三角固 ude-hishigi-sankaku-gatame without sealing the deal on either, and I am so pleased to report (as Sakuraba pops his head out like *boop* [or *slorp*, as you like it]) that Bas agrees with me that Nogueira's long legs (relative to Sakuraba's size, but also just in absolute terms too [he's a leggy guy!]) are actually working against him here; I could not even guess how many times over many years I have encouraged a lightly frustrated short-leggèd would-be sankaku-jime-ist by assuring them that while long legs help with the "catch," short stocky legs are ideal for the actual finish (in decades past we would sometimes refer to a "ThighMaster motion" as one approach to the finish [there are several! consider, too, the angled curl-and-stomp!], but few contemporary youths know the light of Suzanne Somers and her many works, and so we must seek new ways, new methods of connection [連絡 renraku]).
Round three sees Sakuraba boxed up pretty thoroughly, and, after a slip in the final moments, kicked very much in the face as well. The unanimous decision rightly favours Nogueira, but both guys did a good job in this enjoyable match. Is this maybe the last time Kazushi Sakuraba makes a genuinely strong showing against a high-level fighter? I fear, a little, that it might be. To end a largely pleasant evening, Nobuhiko Takada leads fans and fighters in a New Year's countdown, and those are always fun.
Well that was all fairly interesting, I think! Let's turn our attention, if only briefly (haha it never is!) to WHAT DAVE MELTZER HAD TO SAY:
January 5, 2004:
As the varied and various happenings of New Year's Eve are largely inseparable for our purposes, I present them to you hear unseparated:
"NEW YEAR’S EVE FLASH REPORT
K-1 DYNAMITE AT THE NAGOYA DOME
Despite K-1 claiming in the New York Times that all tickets sold out in 10 minutes after they were put on sale, there were about 30,000 fans at the Dome and it was about 85% full.
1. Kristof Midoux (France Jiu Jitsu) beat Tom Howard (UPW/Zero-One Pro Wrestling) in MMA rules late in the first round via ref stoppage due to blood. Midoux attempted both a guillotine and triangle early. Howard got the mount and was punching, but a stand-up was ordered. In the exchange, Midoux busted Howard’s eye open good and the ref stopped it.
2. Genki Sudo (MMA fighting) beat Butterbean (boxing) in MMA rules. Sudo was giving up probably about 220 pounds. Crowd went wild for this one. Sudo basically ran away, which is actually a tactic he does to perfection in K-1. He dances and runs, and then throws spinning kicks or backfists and often lands them. While confusing Butterbean, he got an ankle pick and took the big man down. Butterbean actually got a guard from the bottom. Believe it or not, Butterbean went for a heel hook, and he was playing the wrong game as Sudo went for the same move and knew how to do it for the submission.
3. Masayuki Naruse (New Japan Pro Wrestling [previously and crucially of Fighting Network RINGS!—ed.]) beat Jan Nortje (K-1) in MMA rules. Naruse was giving up probably 130 pounds to the 6-9 ½ and 335 pound sloppy K-1 Giant. Naruse took the big guy down and choked him out. A sloppy fight as Naruse didn’t look great on the ground, but Nortje was lost once they got there.
4. Predator (UPW/Zero-One Pro Wrestling), real name Sylvester Terkay, destroyed Mauricio Da Silva of Brazil in :13 by hitting him with four hard shots to the face. Predator decided against doing the Bruiser Brody ring entrance because he didn’t want to use up too much energy and adrenaline swinging the chain and barking running around the crowd. Since the fight was so quick, and with the devastation of the result, he was given the chain after the match and did the Brody act, and the crowd loved it.
5. Yusuke Fujimoto (K-1 kickboxing) beat Francois Botha (boxing) via decision in kickboxing rules. This was a reality check about boxers switching to kickboxing, since Botha was a heavyweight champion in boxing and was being given a huge push by K-1, and Fujimoto is just one of their prelim kickboxers. Both guys were aggressive here and Botha even busted Fujimoto open early in the fight. Ultimately, Botha couldn’t contend with the leg kicks which made the difference.
6. Francisco Filho (K-1 and former Seido Kaikan karate world champion) beat Toa the Samoan Beast (real name Paul Kingi, K-1/New Japan Pro Wrestling) via split decision in kickboxing rules in a fight that stunned everyone backstage. That has to be considered a moral victory since Filho was once a top K-1 fighter, while Toa is a 295-pound strong guy who was a pro wrestler trained a few years ago in UPW who is a kickboxing novice. Both guys were aggressive and it was great fight. Toa was competitive with Filho all three rounds, and he took the fight on 17 days notice. Said to be a good match.
7. Ernesto Hoost (four-time K-1 World Grand Prix champion) defeated Montanha Silva, the other Brazilian Giant Silva, via unanimous decision in what was said to have been a crappy fight. Silva didn’t do much and kept getting warned for stalling and was finally red carded. This Silva is a pro wrestler from Brazil who they found and tried to turn into a fighter. He’s more along the lines of Kevin Nash with a body not quite as impressive as Karl Malone, like 6-10 to 7-0 and 300 pounds, rather than an Andre or Big Show 450-pound type like the other Silva. Silva couldn’t contend with the leg kicks and was limping badly after the match.
8. Yoshihiro Nakao (Japanese national freestyle wrestling champion at 213 pounds) beat David Khakhaleichivili (1992 (Olympic gold medalist in judo as a superheavyweight) in 2:13. David is a member of the Diet in Gruziya, but Diet wasn’t quite the word as he was well over 350 pounds and blew up in 90 seconds [okay, easy Dave—ed.]. Nakao took him down a few times and David tapped more from being blown up than anything else.
9. Alexey Ignashov (K-1) knocked out Shinsuke Nakamura (New Japan IWGP world heavyweight champion) in the third round. This was the most important match for New Japan, and it was one they really couldn’t afford to lose. Said to be a good match. Nakamura continually took Ignashov down and dominated the match. He wasn’t able to submit Ignashov which proved to be his undoing. He was able to bloody him up from ground and pound, but Ignashov was very composed on the ground taking punches, probably realizing that Nakamura’s punches couldn’t hurt him seriously. After takedown after takedown, Ignashov timed the shot and kneed Nakamura in the left eye and Nakamura went down. He wasn’t cut and got right up, but the ref stopped the match. Nakamura was furious. Backstage, Butterbean and Botha, who have boxing experience, were saying the stoppage was premature, but our correspondents were mixed on whether that was the case. Nakamura had dominated the entire fight and would have won an easy decision. With New Japan’s highest profile Japanese guys being knocked out quick and as world champion, there was a feeling that the loss here would really hurt the public perception of New Japan.
10. Bob Sapp knocked out Akebono (Chad Rowan) at 2:58 of the first round. Said to be an entertaining fight. Akebono manhandled Sapp, throwing him around early with his sumo power and threw a lot of slow punches at Sapp. Sapp was using strategy and laying back for about 90 seconds waiting for the bigger guy to tire. Sapp then started going and they traded for a while, until Sapp knocked Akebono down with a right. Akebono got up at nine, but was knocked down a second time. Sapp finished him with a right to the face. Sapp then challenged Mike Tyson once again.
PRIDE SP AT THE SAITAMA SUPER ARENA
1. Quinton Jackson beat Ikuhisa Minowa (formerly of Pancrase) in 1:02 of round two (6:02) when the ref stopped the match pounding on him from the mount. Jackson did a big slam in the first round. Jackson had a substantial (as in more than 20 pounds) weight advantage in this match.
2. Heath Herring defeated Giant Silva (CMLL pro wrestling) via choke at 3:05 of the third round (18:05). Herring was giving away about 220 pounds to the largest man in the history of MMA at 7-3 ½ legit and 460 pounds. The photos from this match were amazing as Herring is a big dude and he looked like Jamie Noble would against Big Show.
3. Hayato Sakurai, in his Pride debut, won a unanimous decision after three rounds (20:00) over Daijyu Takase.
4. Murilo Ninja defeated Akira Shoji in 2:43 of the first round with a high knee to the face.
At this point Nobuhiko Takada came out and called out Naoya Ogawa [OH MAN, the things we miss on the English feed!—ed]. Ogawa & Shinya Hashimoto both came out. Takada told them that this is what a big show looks like and talked about how Pride was so much bigger now than pro wrestling. He asked what Hashimoto & Ogawa could do on 1/4 in the same building to compete with a show like this. Hashimoto brought up that they wrestled a famous match (1996 sellout at the Tokyo Dome where Hashimoto beat Takada for the IWGP title what that was a huge deal in Japan) and basically accused Takada of turning his back on pro wrestling. Hashimoto noted that he beat Takada and how Takada has forgotten about the fact he was a pro wrestler. Hashimoto said on 1/4 that they would show fans a new style of pro wrestling and Takada basically said it was pro wrestling’s last chance. Bill Goldberg’s music played and he came out to big pyro and told Ogawa, “You’re next.” The two had a stare-down and kept it simple, each shoving the other when everyone ran in the ring to do the pull-apart. Hashimoto tried to attack Goldberg as well, before it was broken up.
5. Royce Gracie drew Hidehiko Yoshida in two 10:00 rounds (20:00). Gracie threw Yoshida’s planning off totally when he took off his gi. Gracie kicked Yoshida low 42 seconds into the fight, but it was said to be unintentional and Gracie got a yellow card. First round was even with both guys going for submissions. Gracie was giving up 30 pounds and held his own. Yoshida got tired in the second round, and Gracie mounted him twice and threw down punches, and also went for several submissions. He never seriously hurt Yoshida, but he was far more technical and clearly would have won the decision. However, it was Gracie who insisted on if the time expired without a decisive finish, it would be ruled a draw. This was quite the comeback for Gracie.
6. Gary Goodridge, in his retirement match, knocked out Don Frye in :39 after a punch and a great looking high kick that may have caught Frye in his bad neck. Fans were stunned seeing this because of Frye’s rep in Japan, but the fans there don’t have any idea of how banged up physically he is.
7. Daniel Gracie beat Wataru Sakata (Zero-One pro wrestling) with an armbar in 7:12.
8. Yuki Kondo (Pancrase light heavyweight champion) beat Mario Sperry (former BJJ world champion) very quickly. Kondo, despite giving up 22 pounds, caught Sperry with a knee to the head on a shoot, and busted him up. Sperry went down and Kondo threw more knees until Sperry was bleeding badly and the ref stopped the match. Kondo immediately issued a challenge to Wanderlei Silva.
9. Kiyoshi Tamura (U-Style Pro Wrestling) beat Ronny Sefo in 7:39 with an armbar in a match Tamura dominated from start-to-finish.
10. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira beat Kazushi Sakuraba via unanimous decision after three rounds (20:00). Very exciting main event that went back-and-forth. Sakuraba caught Nogueira above the right eye in the first round with a counter punch that opened a cut. Second round saw Nogueira try and armbar, but the Sakuraba reversed him. Nogueira got a good looking triangle at the end of the round. Sakuraba, who has never submitted in the past seven years, held on until the end of the round. Sakuraba came back strong hitting Nogueira with many punches at the start of the third round. Nogueira had a flurry of his own late in the round, and then they were trading. Nogueira’s punches were harder than Sakuraba’s, but Sakuraba made another comeback. Sakuraba slipped at the end of the round and Nogueira started throwing kicks, and Sakuraba was bleeding badly from the mouth when the bell sounded to end the fight.
INOKI BOM BA YE AT KOBE WING STADIUM
1. Rene Rooze (kickboxing) knocked out Tadao Yasuda (New Japan Pro Wrestling) in :52. The night started badly for pro wrestling as the 40-year-old Yasuda did a stretcher job. It was a quicker repeat of their match more than two years ago where Rooze knocked Yasuda out with a high kick for several minutes in a scary scene. They brought Yasuda’s daughter at ringside to try and repeat the big story from the 2001 show when Yasuda upset Jerome LeBanner (which may have been a worked match) and then his estranged young daughter came into the ring and was held up by Yasuda. This made Yasuda into a major star and it was parlayed in him becoming IWGP champion. Rooze clocked him with a right to the head and followed up with a flurry. Yasuda tried to slow things down grabbing a bearhug, but Rooze tripped him over and landed in the mount, and followed with a series of punches until the ref stopped the fight.
2. Lyoto (Team Inoki) knocked out Rich Franklin (UFC) in 1:03 of the second round (6:03). The first round was even. In the second round, Lyoto caught Franklin with a left to the face, a high kick, and another left, followed by a flurry before it was stopped. The loss was a major blow to Franklin, who came into the fight with a 15-0 record and was being groomed for a shot at Randy Couture’s light heavyweight title. Lyoto, now 3-0, had not looked impressive in previous matches against lesser competition.
3. Alexander Emelianenko (Russia) defeated Angelo Araujo (Brazil) at 4:28 of the second round (9:28). Emelianenko bloodied him up and the doctor stopped the match.
4. Josh Barnett (New Japan Pro Wrestling) defeated Semmy Schilt (Pride) to retain the King of Pancrase open weight championship in 4:48 of the third round (14:48). The story here is that Barnett won the title that Schilt held for years and never lost, as it was taken from him when he didn’t defend it due to his K-1 contract. It was also a rematch from a UFC match that Barnett won via submission in 2001. This was an exciting match. Barnett scored two takedowns in the first round and largely dominated. In the second round, Schlit got an edge standing and hit Barnett with a few punches which bloodied him up. They went down with Schilt on top, with Schilt pounding on him. Barnett tried two triangles from the bottom, the second looking good, but Schilt escaped. Schilt went for a guillotine but Barnett reversed him and got on top. In the third round, Barnett took Schilt down and went for an armbar. Schilt escaped the first try, but Barnett locked it in perfectly and Schilt tapped out.
5. Tatsumi Fujinami (New Japan Pro Wrestling) beat Antonio Inoki in about 3:00 via choke in a worked pro wrestling match. This started with Inoki, dressed up like a Brazilian king, announcing that this would be Fujinami’s retirement ceremony. This was not advertised ahead of time. Fujinami came out and said he was surprised this was happening on this show. Both were wearing sweat outfits. Inoki then slapped him, threw a low kick and starting punching. Fujinami, made a comeback and they did an old 70s style pro wrestling match for a few minutes before Fujinami choked him out. Inoki acted like he was unconscious and the doctor called for a stretcher. Inoki revived before being taken all the way out. Fans liked this a lot.
6. Michael McDonald (K-1) beat Hiromi Amada (K-1) in a K-1 rules match. McDonald dominated, scoring two knockdowns when the second round started and winning at :46 (3:46).
7. Stefan Leko (K-1) beat Kazunari Murakami (New Japan Pro Wrestling) via knockout with a beautiful high kick in 1:04 of the first round. This was under K-1 rules, so it the quick finish was inevitable, as many people felt had Leko been in the K-1 World Grand Prix, he would have won it, which tells you the level of guy he is. Before the match, Musashi from K-1 gave flowers to Murakami, but Murakami attacked Musashi with the flowers, because he needed to get some offense. Kantaro Hoshino, Ryushi Yanagisawa and Katsuyori Shibata were in Murakami’s corner. Leko issued a challenge to K-1 World Grand Prix champion Remy Bonjasky after the match.
8. Fedor Emelianenko (Pride world heavyweight champion) knocked out Yuji Nagata (New Japan Pro Wrestling) in 1:02. Nagata decided to try and make it exciting by throwing punches. Fedor grabbed a single leg and put him down and tried to turn it into a half crab. Nagata got back to his feet, but that wasn’t to his advantage and Fedor rocked him with a right and left, which put Nagata down. Fedor kicked him and punched him on the ground and the ref quickly stopped the fight. It appeared there was an agreement to stop it immediately if Nagata was hurt, to protect him because he needed to be healthy for the 1/4 Tokyo Dome show. Two straight one minute knockouts did no favors for New Japan. Even though this result was inevitable, the feeling was Nagata as a headliner was hurt badly here. The judgement rendered in just doing both of these matches, since the fast endings and destructions were a sure thing, is mind boggling.
9. Kazuyuki Fujita saved some face for New Japan beating former IBF world cruiserweight boxing champion Imamu Mayfield in 2:15 of the second round (5:15). This was billed as an Inoki vs. Ali Memorial boxer vs. wrestler match. The rules were similar to Ali vs. Inoki, where Inoki would only get 20 seconds on the ground before they were stood up. I don’t know about he rope breaks (in Ali-Inoki, the few times Inoki took Ali down, Ali scampered to the ropes which was an automatic stand-up). In the first round, Fujita took Mayfield down a couple of times, and kept working for submissions like a headlock, armbar and facelock, but Mayfield survived the 20 seconds. This happened a few more times in round two before Fujita got the submission with a move described as similar to a dragon sleeper, a choke while Fujita bent Mayfield’s back in an uncomfortable position.
10. Amar Suloev (Russian Red Devil team) beat Din Thomas (former UFC) in 4:22 of the first round with a series of punches on the ground after knocking him down with a kick.
11. Alistair Overeem beat Tomihiko Hashimoto (DDT Pro wrestler) via knockout in the first round with a left flying knee. This was a top-flight shootfighter with great reach at 6-5, facing a pro wrestler totally inexperienced at this game.
The scrambling in the days leading up to the shows was incredible, but ultimately, when the dust cleared, the feeling was it was overkill, and all three promotions and networks spent a ton to divide up an audience already small because of the traditional NHK musical show. It was a ton of publicity, but because of the expenses, did at least some companies, if not all, more harm than good in the long run.
The biggest victim, although it was likely of his own doing, was Antonio Inoki. Unfortunately, Inoki has had 35 years as a national celebrity and almost that long as a cultural icon. Even when he does wrong, which is frequently, or looks to be down and out for good, he’s the proverbial cat, who not only lives, but becomes bigger with every resurrection. In his case, and some would argue it’s partially of his own doing, he’s managed to jump off being associated with a struggling pro wrestling business into a thriving new business.
But his biggest mistake seems to be the breakup with Pride. Inoki was a public face (along with Nobuhiko Takada) for a company that was putting on excellent shows. His influence got pro wrestlers in, some of whom were beneficial and others of whom really weren’t. But with the breakup, he’s become the public face of a company in a fight, and he made statements and moves that got him in trouble. He has the money behind him to raid the top talent from Pride, and because of that, he may still be a major player when those contracts expire.
The Mirko Cro Cop vs. Yoshihiro Takayama fell apart, which happens. But after Cro Cop went public with that information, the company denied it, trying to quell the problem until the last minute and keep ticket sales and interest strong. They denied Fedor Emelianenko had a contract, trying to claim because it was negotiated by his former management that it’s no longer valid. They tried to get Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. The next main event, Nogueira vs. Yuji Nagata, fell apart because Nogueira had an exclusive with Pride, which should have been established already since that fight had been fought. Then they went with Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Ray Mercer, a 1988 Olympic gold medalist in heavyweight boxing who later held a version of the heavyweight title and in the early 90s was one of the biggest names boxers in the world. This match was billed as bout with a 100 million yen ($935,400) going to the winner. It was so funny reading about this on MMA boards, where people have no understanding of pro wrestling and Battle Royal money, which is what this was. The rules of this match were similar to the proposed Brock Lesnar vs. Lennox Lewis match that WWE tried to put together a year ago, with frequent stand-ups. If Fujita could take Mercer down, he’d only have 20 seconds on the ground before he’d get a stand-up. Fujita could use submissions on the ground, but he’s hardly a submission master. Mercer also would have almost no submission training. However, Fujita couldn’t punch on the ground. Then, just days after the surprise announcement of Mercer was made, Mercer didn’t come. Inoki’s people claimed they didn’t know Mercer wasn’t going to do the fight until he wasn’t there when the plane took off.
When that happened, they announced Emelianenko, a claimant to the disputed Pride world heavyweight championship, would, in fact fight, as they were desperate for a main event, despite the threatened legal action by Pride, and face “Mr. IWGP,” Nagata, a match only announced two days before the show. Takayama’s role ended up being as a television color commentator.
Nobuyuki Sakakibara of Pride said that Inoki’s side once again, claiming to be desperate because of not having a main event, came to them on 12/28 and asked for Emelianenko to be able to appear at the show as a second for his younger brother. Pride agreed to that, saying as long as he’s only in the corner. The next day, claiming they were desperate, they asked to work out a deal for Emelianenko to face Nagata on the show. Sakakibara demanded two stipulations. That they recognize Emelianenko has a contract with Pride, and agree not to use him again in 2004. At this point, Emelianenko’s exclusive contract with Pride expires in October, so this would add a couple of months, including if there was to be a possible New Year’s Eve battle next year. Sakakibara also that the fight could only be against Nagata, which Pride figured was a safe fight, and wouldn’t risk him for Pride’s planned big three-way program for the title with Nogueira and Cro Cop in 2004. He also demanded that Inoki, at his press conference, announce that Emelianenko is working the show due to permission from Pride, that these were the stipulations given, and admit the stipulations. However, at the press conference, Inoki said none of this.
With hours to go before the show, Sakakibara said that they recognized the Inoki show was in a shambles, and as a show of mercy, they would allow Emelianenko to fight, but this would be the only time they would allow it. He said that the Fuji Network, which is the money behind the big Pride show, was mad about it, but they would allow it recognizing the situation the Inoki show was in. But he said that Inoki’s side did not keep its promise from a few days earlier. There were also reports that Sakakibara, apparently doing this to save face from his side and avoid having to go to a legal battle (Inoki’s side claimed that Fedor’s contract with Pride was invalid because of his switch from the Brazilian [I'm assuming he means Russian—ed.] Top Team to the Red Devil team), asked one last time for Inoki to publicly acknowledge the stipulations they demanded, and if not, they would take action to attempt to stop the match.
It wasn’t until the night before that Imamu Mayfield, 31, a former IBF cruiserweight (190 pound weight division in boxing) champion in 1997-98, was announced as Fujita’s new opponent. While not a big name in boxing, Mayfield, who has a 23-4-2 record with 18 knockouts, was listed by Ring Magazine in 1998 as the No. 65 ranked boxer, regardless of weight, in the world. Yet another pro wrestler, Tomihiko Hashimoto, an indie wrestler from the DDT promotion who has worked some mid-card matches with All Japan, was also announced at the last minute as an opponent for Alistair Overeem, which looked to be another wrestling suicide.
Like with Inoki’s Bom Ba Ye show two years ago, and his Tokyo Dome show in 2002 (which was one of the worst disasters ever), they couldn’t even finalize a main event until the last minute. To show backdoor cooperation between Inoki and K-1, made obvious by the New Japan wrestlers on the K-1 show, Inoki at the last minute announced a match with two K-1 stars, Hiromi Amada vs. Michael McDonald, to fight under K-1 rules. In addition, the match with Kazunari Murakami of New Japan vs. Stefan Leko of K-1, was under K-1 rules, which meant it was going to be yet another destruction of a name New Japan wrestler.
They weren’t the only ones. It wasn’t until three days before the show that much of the Pride show was finalized. Matt Lindland, the UFC star whose contract has expired, was expecting to have the deal to face Sakuraba finalized on 12/27. He verbally agreed the day before, but then the decision was made to go with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira instead. The surprise there was Kiyoshi Tamura, who was the money opponent, ended up doing the show against Ronnie Sefo, whose main claim to fame is he’s Ray’s brother. Tamura refused the Sakuraba match, even though Sakuraba is nowhere close to ready due to a foot injury, saying he hadn’t been given adequate preparation time. Another late change was due to Ryan Gracie getting a legit training injury, so he was being replaced by Daniel Gracie (Daniel Simoes, who is a legit family member, as his mother is a Gracie) for the match with pro wrestler Wataru Sakata. The back story on Sakata is that Pride’s “token pretty girl” ringside commentator, Eiko Koike, is Sakata’s boyfriend. The idea was to get her “natural reactions” if Sakata did or didn’t do well. In addition, to compete with the Genki Sudo vs. Butterbean freak show on K-1, Pride signed Heath Herring to face pro wrestler Giant Silva (Paulo Silva). The Andre the Giant look alike is 7-3 ½ legit and probably 450 pounds. He’s also freaky strong, as when WWE first got him and started him on lifting weights, he was doing 450 on the bench in almost no time flat. But he’s 42 years old and has never fought. Musashimaru, the recently retired sumo grand champion, was announced on the last day as making an appearance at this show. This meant every major retired sumo star of the past decade would be making a high profile appearance at one of the shows.
The promotion also arranged its show by putting the top match, Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Royce Gracie, on fifth among ten matches. The idea behind this was that Yoshida vs. Gracie could draw a good rating, and to keep it as far away from the Sapp vs. Akebono match. The rules were finalized the day before the show. It would be two rounds of ten minutes, so a 20:00 time limit. If neither man wins conclusively, it would be ruled a draw. Neither the referee, nor the doctor, would have the power to stop the match. Gracie also insisted on not having a Japanese referee, so Matt Hume was made special referee. The match could only end via knockout, submission or one man from each side had the power to throw in the towel. It’s almost a real-life coward waves the flag match. Yoshida appointed Tsuyoshi Kosaka as his flag man, while Royce picked brother Royler. I wonder if they did those Jerry Lawler interviews from Memphis. “Bill, if my leg is broken and you can see the bone sticking through the skin, will you throw in the towel?” Dundee: “No, King, I won’t.”
The biggest coup of the final week came from K-1, which managed to involve Mike Tyson, Stevie Wonder and Rickson Gracie in its show. A deal was struck where Tyson, who K-1 was unable to get clearance for to come to Japan for the show, would be in Hawaii and do color via satellite feed for the Bob Sapp vs. Akebono match. The idea is to set him up with a match with the winner in 2004. Gracie was announced as appearing on the show at ringside, and K-1 is making a play for him to do a high profile fight this year, although he just turned 44 in November. Wonder played the national anthem on a harmonica. Even though the deal was pretty much done a week ago as reported here, K-1 saved the announcement for the day of the show as a way to get last minute headlines. In addition, Yuki Koyanagi, who is one of the top women pop idols in Japan, sang the Japanese anthem. K-1’s only major change was just before fight time, when it was announced that Cyril Abidi had been injured in training, and that Predator would be facing Mauricio Da Silva, a submission specialist from Brazil. This presented another problem for a pro wrestler at the last minute. Predator’s training to take down a kickboxer and punish him on the ground could have wound up being the absolute worst game plan, although that didn’t turn out to be the case.
TBS (the Japanese network as opposed to the U.S. station of the same name), NTV and Fuji Networks all devoted tons of times over the days before the show to plugging the event. TBS pushed the hardest, with documentaries on the lives of Sapp and Akebono on 12/26 from 9-11 p.m. A second documentary aired 12/28 at 6:30 p.m. There were even two head-to-head battles earlier in the week where two networks would have specials where they would advertise adding new matches to their respective shows. Two days before, NTV had Inoki appearing from early morning until after midnight, on seven different network talk, news and sports shows, promoting the card.
On 12/31, the final TV schedule is that TBS aired a K-1 pre-game show from 3-5:30 p.m. before the special from 9-11:30 p.m. NTV for Inoki ran a pre-game show from 4:50-5:50 p.m., followed by the show itself from 8-11:15 p.m. The Fuji Network for Pride aired a pre-game show from 5-5:30 p.m., followed by the special from 6:30-11:40 a.m. In addition, for fans who didn’t want to see all the commercials, both Inoki and Pride shows were also on PPV. Inoki had an uncut PPV starting at 5 p.m. from the Nagoya Dome. Pride started its uncut PPV starting at 6 p.m."
From the ZERO-ONE section:
"Yuji Shimada, the Pride ref, was at the 12/25 and 12/26 shows as the heel representative as they are trying to build 1/4 around the Pride vs. pro wrestling theme. Ogawa had confrontations with Shimada the first night. On the second night, it wound up with Hashimoto & Ogawa in the ring for Zero-One and Shimada and Nobuyuki Sakakibara for Pride. It ended up with Hashimoto and Sakakibara shaking hands and agreeing to work together for a new form of pro wrestling that will debut on 1/4."
January 12, 2004:
Further NYE fallout, broadly:
"“Unbelievable” was the word used by K-1 promoter Sadaharu Tanigawa when word got out that the peak rating for the Bob Sapp vs. Akebono match on 12/31 was a 43.0, and that the short match beat out the Red & White music festival.
It was only a four minute period when the K-1 show main event (which did a 42.5 overall for the match from 11 p.m. to 11:03 p.m.) beat what has been a Japanese tradition on New Year’s Eve, in its 54th year as one of the highest rated shows every year (which did a 35.2 rating head-to-head). It was a major headline throughout the Japanese media on 1/5 when Video Research reported the breakdown of the numbers in the most competitive television night in the history of this industry.
The Sapp vs. Akebono match, which drew nearly 54 million viewers, broke the record set in the 2002 K-1 Grand Prix of a 33.4 peak rating for the Ernesto Hoost vs. Jerome LeBanner championship match. Even though the competition was fierce, it was the highest rated match in the history of the Japanese expanded pro wrestling world since the June 25, 1976 match between Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki did a 54.6 rating.
The Sapp vs. Akebono match, won by Sapp via knockout in 2:58 of the first round, garnered more world wide publicity than any pro wrestling, K-1 or MMA match since the Hogan vs. Rock match at Wrestlemania in 2002. Video played on news stations around the U.S. as well as many U.S. newspapers, as well as the two largest newspapers in the U.K., ESPN and media from all over the world, ran items about the former NFL lineman knocking out the sumo grand champion before 43,500 fans (a worked number) at the Nagoya Dome.
Both TBS in Japan and K-1 considered the show such a success that they are planning something even bigger, for May, when the TV competition won’t dilute the rating, called “Dynamite in the U.S.” Tanigawa is headed to the U.S. at the end of the month to try and put together deals for both Mike Tyson and George Foreman. The idea is to run Sapp vs. Tyson (who did commentary during the Sapp vs. Akebono match via satellite from Honolulu) and Akebono vs. Foreman as a double main event in either Madison Square Garden, the Staples Center in Los Angeles, or, most likely, in Honolulu. While the ratings would be record setting in Japan if such a deal could be put together, it creates another problem. Even though Foreman claims to be 54, and maybe a couple of years older, and hasn’t fought in several years, he would easily knock out the unskilled Akebono under K-1 rules. Sapp would have a good chance with Tyson under MMA rules, but in a stand-up fight, even with kickboxing rules, he’d be lucky to last a round and would have almost no chance of winning. So there would be a big one night score, but it would hurt the country’s two biggest drawing cards as they’d be exposed.
There is also talk of a Sapp vs. Akebono rematch for later in 2004. Akebono, after the match, talked about a rematch. He noted that in his legendary sumo series with Takanohana ten years ago, that they traded wins, and he only had two months of kickboxing training going into this match.
But the Sapp vs. Akebono match was not the only record-breaking match. It was a night of extensive channel switching between the three MMA shows and the traditional musical powerhouse event. Ratings showed wide variations on every channel. In smart counter programming, Pride put its main event of Royce Gracie vs. Hidehiko Yoshida on in the middle of its show, so it wouldn’t have to complete with Sapp vs. Akebono. The match itself drew a 23.6 rating, setting the all-time record for the company. The 28.7 peak rating, or 31 million viewers, broke the record for MMA rules fighting (unless you consider Ali vs. Inoki in that realm), breaking the mark set on 9/21 for the Sapp vs. Stefan Gamlin match of a 25.2 rating and 28 million viewers. The all-time Pride record was a 24.5 rating set one year ago when Pride and Inoki worked together on the New Year’s Eve Inoki Bom Ba Ye show, set by the Sapp vs. Yoshihiro Takayama match. Not including that show, the previous Pride record was a 21.9 rating on 8/10 for the Yoshida vs. Kiyoshi Tamura match.
To understand the equivalent of how Sapp vs. Akebono did, it would be as if WWE, or boxing for that matter, had a match that it promoted head-to-head with the Super Bowl. While the Super Bowl still easily won the night, with the game in doubt, it would be as if WWE or boxing got so many people to switch over that its main event head-to-head beat out the Super Bowl. On January 31, 1999, when WWE was at its popularity peak, it put on a Rock vs. Mankind taped empty arena match for the title where Mankind regained the title Rock had won a few days earlier, during halftime of the Super Bowl. It was at the time considered a phenomenal success as the match itself did a 6.59 rating.
Overall, for the night, the Red & White Music Festival did a 41.0 rating (35.5 from7:30 to 9:30 p.m.; 45.9 from 9:30 to 11:45 p.m.), the lowest rating in the history of the festival, down from 47.3 last year, which went head-to-head with one MMA show.
The K-1 Dynamite show from 9-11:30 p.m. did a 19.5 rating, the highest rating in history for a show on New Year’s Eve in opposition to the festival, breaking the 16.5 record set last year by Inoki Bom Ba Ye. TBS, the day after the show, announced plans for a similar big event next year. Because of the competition, the show did not come close to breaking K-1’s all-time record for a big show, which is the 28.4 set for the 2002 Grand Prix.
The Pride show on the Fuji Network was divided into three segments, but overall did a 12.2 rating for the period from 6:30 p.m. to 11:40 p.m. The 50 minutes of the show, which was the 30 minute pre-game show, the opening ceremonies and the opening match of Quinton Jackson vs. Ikuhisa Minowa, did a 9.3. The second segment, from 7:20 to 9:20 p.m., featuring Heath Herring vs. Giant Silva, Akira Shoji vs. Murilo Ninja and Royce Gracie vs. Yoshida, did a 17.2 rating. The final segment, from 9:20 p.m. to 11:40 p.m., which mostly went head-to-head with the K-1 show and the strongest acts on Red & White, did an 8.9. The overall 13.1 rating for the show itself once the pre-game show ended, ranked it 13th for the week in Japanese ratings. The 17.2 rating for the two hour block broke Pride’s record set on 8/10 for the first round of the Grand Prix, at 16.0. The rating was also significantly higher than what was predicted and considered a major success.
As can be noted, there was a big loser on the night, the third annual TV special (and fourth annual) Inoki Bom Ba Ye show on NTV. The show that started what looks to be the pro wrestling/MMA New Year’s Eve craze in Japan on television in 2001, aired this year on NTV from 8 p.m. to 11:15 p.m., and only did a 5.1 rating. With the competition, the goal for the Inoki show was an 8.0 rating. It finished 5th on the night, as the regular “Beat Takeshi” show on TV-Asahi, did a 6.1. NTV was expecting the kind of numbers last year’s show did (16.5) when it signed a three-year deal with Inoki to produce New Year’s Eve specials, thinking it would be the only sports competition and the perfect counter programming for the Red & White special. NTV was also a lot of the money funding Inoki’s new promotion that was scheduled for several prime time specials per year, the next being on 3/28 at the Yokohama Arena or the Saitama Super Arena, possibly featuring the debut of UFC washout Pedro Rizzo. Inoki’s show was hurt by disorganization, including the two main events that weren’t announced until the night before the show, and had nowhere near the interest of the big matches on the other shows.
From a live standpoint, the attendances were a game of chicken and how much you want to say, with little credibility because of the fight. The Inoki show, outdoors at Kobe Wing Stadium, announced 43,111 fans, although the real figure was about 25,000. The K-1 show at the Nagoya Dome, which announced a sellout 43,560 (they had previously claimed the event was sold out well in advance), which went reported world wide, was not actually a sellout and the real figure was estimated at 30,000. The Pride show at the Saitama Super Arena announced 39,716. While Pride was the only group to sellout live, the Arena holds about 35,000 in expanded form. The show clearly was a huge success live, as the company never expands the building until ticket sales pass 27,000. The real attendance was about 5,000 less than claimed.
To show the wide audience channel switching, at about 11:05 p.m., when Sapp was in the ring celebrating his win, the audience for the NHK special went from 35.8 to 44.7. Inoki Bom Ba Ye (airing a video of Kazuyuki Fujita before his main event match against boxer Imamu Mayfield) grew from 0.3 to 4.5. Pride, which waited until after the Sapp match ended to start its Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira second main event, went from 4.4 (ring introductions) to 10.4 (bell sounding to start the match), meaning nearly seven million viewers switched to the show over a one minute period. Sapp vs. Akebono fell all the way to 23.5 for the post-match celebration, showing that 22 million viewers, almost half the audience, switched off in the first minute after the bell rang to end the match, looking for something else big on another station.
What is important to note on this is the value the sponsors were getting. Sure, there were huge ratings, but one would suspect people were switching stations in droves when commercials hit (NTV went to a commercial break during Sapp vs. Akebono, figuring why not, and only 220,000 people in the entire country, about the audience a Jesse Ventura talk show would get, viewed what no doubt were very high priced commercials.
The ratings peak for the Inoki show was for the opening match with New Japan’s Tadao Yasuda vs. Rene Rooze. K-1 had not started yet, so that match did a 13.6. The Ernesto Hoost vs. Montanha Silva match on K-1 was the third strongest match of the night, doing a 23.4 rating. That match went head-to-head with Josh Barnett of New Japan vs. Semmy Schilt, so you had world champions vs. giants on two channels at the same time, which peaked at 10.6. Pride’s Wataru Sakata vs. Daniel Gracie did an 8.0. Inoki’s Kazunari Murakami of New Japan vs. Stefan Leko under K-1 rules did a 10.0. Another huge success on the K-1 show was New Japan’s Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Alexey Ignashov match, which did a 22.2, fourth on the night, and destroyed the Yuki Kondo vs. Mario Sperry match which was a much bigger deal to hardcore fans on Pride. The Fedor Emelianenko vs. Yuji Nagata match only did a 7.0 for Inoki. Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Ronny Sefo match for Pride did a 9.0 going against the hype for Sapp vs. Akebono on the K-1 show. After Sapp vs. Akebono ended, Pride picked up a huge audience for Sakuraba vs. Nogueira, which ended up at a 17.6 rating, amazing since Sakuraba’s ring entrance, going head-up with Sapp’s fight, was at 3.2.
Pride’s angle with Naoya Ogawa, Shinya Hashimoto, Nobuhiko Takada and Bill Goldberg, building up the 1/4 pro wrestling show, did a 10.0, airing before K-1 got started and during Lyoto vs. Rich Franklin on the Inoki show."
Dave on Yoshida/Gracie:
"Royce Gracie vs. Yoshida was also conditioning. This was one of the big surprises of the night. Gracie was 190 pounds while Yoshida was 220, and Yoshida is very strong for his size when it comes to functional grappling (as opposed to pushing weights) strength. Although this fight was technically a draw, there is no question Gracie really won, and also, that Yoshida made a terrible showing. In their 2002 match, Yoshida was able to throw Gracie around at will and overpower him. That probably gave Yoshida a sense of overconfidence. It was said he hardly trained for the fight, feeling his power was enough to dominate, plus he was banged up pretty bad in the Wanderlei Silva fight. Of course, Gracie, not wearing a gi for the first time, thwarted Yoshida’s game plan, as he was counting on holding onto the gi to toss Gracie around. It was funny, but in their first meeting, people were furious, largely trying to make a statement about judo vs. jiu jitsu. The judo people backed Yoshida saying it proved judo is a great base for a fight. Jiu Jitsu people ripped on Yoshida, because the choke stoppage was premature, so wanted to throw it out. In reality, the first fight proved that a stronger guy can physically dominate a weaker one, and that’s it. This week, the debate went back. Jiu Jitsu people said that was proof of Jiu Jitsu when, giving up 30 pounds to a gold medalist, the Jiu Jitsu guy owned the judo guy. The judo people tried to salvage it by saying under the rules of the fight, it was a draw, so nothing was proven. The reality wasn’t judo vs. jiu jitsu, but in the beginning, Gracie crossing Yoshida up on strategy, and overall being better prepared, more cardiovascularly than anything. Yoshida was not in shape, and his getting mounted and pounded in the second round, and basically hanging on for the draw, had nothing to do with jiu jitsu superiority, but that a gassed out fighter is done. See pro wrestler Alexander Otsuka’s fight in an early Pride against much more skilled fighting legend, Marco Ruas, or Mark Kerr vs. Kazuyuki Fujita, or Mark Coleman vs. Maurice Smith, for other examples. Yoshida learned a lesson, that you can’t fight a top guy unless you’re in shape, and it’s dangerous to go in against a guy who is 100% motivated when you’re neither motivated nor ready. I suspect a healthy Yoshida in a third fight would be entirely different."
Ah, what could have been:
"Leon “Vader” White signed a $400,000 contract for six matches with Pride. Some of these, like the 1/4 match, were planned to be pro wrestling matches, but he is expected to do several shoot fights this year. At this point he’s scheduled to have his first shoot match on the 2/15 Pride Bushido show. White, 47, has basically burned all his big money pro wrestling bridges, and this is his last opportunity. If he is to do well, and logically that seems impossible, it would open every door for him for comebacks. At his age, he will probably get hurt fighting, since he used to get hurt after big PPV matches because of how much he did while being to heavy. This will be a difficult undertaking for him. White did some boxing, more as a sparring partner, I think for Michael Dokes (a top heavyweight way back). I don’t think he ever had pro fights. He’s got no background in wrestling or submissions, as he was a college football star, and that was 25 years ago. But he was a legend in Japanese pro wrestling and him against the right opponent, at least the first time (and more if he does well, although it’s hard to imagine he’d be able to), would have enough curiosity to justify the payoff. From a business standpoint, I think he and Sakuraba, while a freak show to be sure, would be a real money fight, but that date is too early to do it as Sakuraba badly needs a rest to heal up. Ultimately, Vader looks to be the Japanese version of Tank Abbott."
and
"Nobuyuki Sakakibara on 1/3 said that Frank Shamrock would be coming in. While not finalized, the plan is for Shamrock vs. Sakuraba on 3/26 in Las Vegas. He also said they would have a major sumo star. Typical promoters. The gimmick of the big sumo star drew numbers, so you copy the gimmick, which almost never works as well the second time. They’ve been trying to get Musashimaru, who came to the 12/31 show, to sign, but he’s said he has no interest in doing so. Sakakibara said that after the Olympics, he would be looking to sign up gold medalists in judo and is also looking at adding a big name pro wrestler. He also said they are planning a big show working with UFC in the summer that would include matches both in the ring and in the octagon
Quinton Jackson suffered a broken right hand in his 12/31 match with Ikuhisa Minowa, after two or three minutes into the match. No word on how long he’ll be out, but it will be several months
Mirko Cro Cop said he’s back training, and said he’s a free agent, whose goals are singles matches with Fedor, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira to clear up who is the No. 1 heavyweight in Pride, plus a K-1 rules match against Grand Pris champion Remy Bonjasky."
and, going back a bit:
"Pride has the unwritten rule on the U.S. broadcasts of using the term pro wrestling as little as possible, which makes for funny avoidance at times. But when Bas Rutten on the 12/21 PPV mistakenly called ref Yuji Shimada “Yuji Nagata (Rutten joked he often makes that mistake and Rutten had an IWGP title match with Nagata in New Japan),” Ranallo noted that Nagata was a very famous Japanese pro wrestler. When Caras Jr. came out with the mask, there was no mention as to why this guy was wearing a mask, Lucha Libre traditions or his famous family background and why that’s a big deal in Japan. Can you imagine when Ken Norton Jr. played in the NFL if they told the announcers you can never mention boxing. And then Ken Sr. is on the sidelines (okay, bad example, as I know they were kind of estranged) and they never mention his name and were not allowed to refer to him as a boxer. Worse, what if both were wearing flashy masks? They also edited out his ring entrance, which is half the attraction of seeing a Dos Caras Jr. match. Ranallo pronounced Dos like you would the computer program and not the Spanish number. He did say his background was Mexican Lucha Libre, which I guess is a way of sneaking pro wrestling in without anyone in management knowing you did it. The greatest will be when Goldberg shows up again and they introduce him as a former college football star. Also, when Cro Cop KO’d Caras Jr., Ranallo referred to Caras Jr. as “just another victim,” taken from a pro wrestling catch phrase [or perhaps the Judgement Night sountrack—ed]. Nobody explained the significance of all the masked men (his father and first cousin) in his corner. Ranallo on the air did say he had tons of notes for that match, but since it was over in 46 seconds, didn’t get to them, so perhaps he would have pointed out the significance of the mask. Caras Jr. wore an old Vader-like string mask as opposed to a Lucha Libre mask, because a traditional mask would hamper his vision badly, which is the last thing he needed against Cro Cop. Well, the last thing he needed was to sign the contract in the first place, but he actually wrestled just days after the match, and got a $125,000 payoff, which is the biggest payoff any Luchador has ever gotten and several years’ worth of full-time wrestling in his native country."
January 19, 2004:
This is the 2003 Observer Awards issues, which saw PRIDE win Best Promotion (over Pro Wrestling NOAH), Nobuyuki Sakikabara win Best Promoter, PRIDE 11/9 Tokyo win Best Major Wrestling Show (8/10 Saitama came in fourth), a number of fighters place in the "Lou Thesz / Ric Flair Wrestler of the Year Award" category (3. Randy Couture, 5. Wanderlei Silva, 7. Yoshihiro Takayama, 9. Bob Sapp, 10. Mirko Cro Cop, with an honourable mention for Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira) and elsewhere for minor awards. Shootfighter of the Year went as follows: 1. RANDY COUTURE, 2. Wanderlei Silva, 3. Mirko Cro Cop, 4. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, 5. Fedor Emelianenko, 6. Matt Hughes, 7. Quinton Jackson, 8. Bob Sapp, 9. Hidehiko Yoshida, 10. Tim Sylvia. Shoot Match of the Year unfolded thusly: 1. WANDERLEI SILVA VS. HIDEHIKO YOSHIDA 11/9 TOKYO, 2. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Mirko Cro Cop 11/9, 3. Randy Couture vs. Tito Ortiz 9/26 Las Vegas, 4. Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 3/16 Yokohama, 5. Matt Lindland vs. Phil Baroni 2/28 Atlantic City, 6. Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 8/10 Saitama, 7. Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell 6/6 Las Vegas, 8. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Dan Henderson 12/23/02 Fukuoka, 9. Wanderlei Silva vs. Quinton Jackson 11/9 Tokyo, 10. Quinton Jackson vs. Murilo Bustamante 8/10 Saitama 86, with an honourable mention for Caol Uno vs. B.J. Penn 2/28 Atlantic City.
From the Kazuyoshi Ishii files:
"Kazuyoshi 'Kancho' Ishii, who was named Promoter of the Year in 2002, was sentenced on 1/14 to 22 months in prison and fined $660,000 for income tax evasion in a case that has been going on for the past year.
Ishii was convicted in Tokyo District Court on charges of hiding 900 million yen of income (nearly $8.5 million), and defrauding the government of 300 million yen ($2.8 million) in taxes over a multi-year period. He was then sentenced, with his prison term starting immediately, by judge Yoshinobu Iida. There is some talk that Ishii will attempt to appeal the jail sentence. Ironically, the scheme involved creating and forging a bogus contract with Mike Tyson, who is now actually under contract to the group. Ishii and two company officers who were sentenced late last year, put together a scheme where they presented a contract and forged Tyson’s signature, saying they would have to pay him $8.5 million if they failed to line up a fight for him, and then claimed they had paid the money and listed it as company losses.
Ishii, who had a background in Seido Kaikan karate, owning a number of studios in Japan, formed K-1 in 1993, after studying the pro wrestling promotion model by working with Akira Maeda in the RINGS promotion. K-1 was first presented in Japan under the same guise as UFC, as the idea of many different styles of fighting combining to see who is the greatest fighter in the world. Essentially, unlike UFC, which was a fighting free-for-all at first, K-1 was all standing and was really just kickboxing under a more fancy moniker. It marketed itself to both martial arts fans and the then last pro wrestling audience in Japan, combining the real fighting of the former with the gimmickry and hype of the latter. K-1 quickly became a television hit, and the Fuji Network had great success scheduling the big show in prime time, where they became “must see” sporting events. He created the December K-1 Grand Prix championship as one of Japan’s major sporting events, equivalent to the Major League baseball World Series or College Basketball Final four in the U.S. Through appearances in television commercials and wins in big shows, he made people like Peter Aerts, the late Andy Hug, Ernesto Hoost and Mike Bernardo into major Japanese celebrities. What was the most noteworthy of Ishii is that he was able to do something that pro wrestling could never fully accomplish, and that was regularly garnering major mainstream interest in fights involving foreigners against one another. While many felt a weakness of K-1 is that they were unable to find a Japanese star who could compete at the world class level, its popularity surpassed that of New Japan Pro Wrestling, the leading pro wrestling group, by the late 90s, and was considered part of the reason for the decline in the industry. Really, the first true Japanese superstar came when creating a middleweight show, when Masato, a young Japanese star with tremendous charisma, won a world wide tournament.
Hug was a karate fighter with rock star charisma, while Aerts and Hoost were perhaps the two best heavyweight kickboxers of all-time. Bernardo was a transplanted boxer, but who kickboxing training. But it was taking a pure novice huge former football player and pro wrestler in Bob Sapp, largely due to the coincidence of Ishii’s former star fighter, Sam Greco, being in the same WCW training camp with him, and carefully making him a celebrity by doing what amounted to pro wrestling angles, pull-apart brawls, DQ’s and lucking into some high profile performances (most notably a classic MMA match against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira on the biggest MMA show of all-time before 71,000 fans in 2002), upping the company’s domestic and world wide profile.
Ironically, many felt the company was done after its most successful show in history, the 2002 Grand Prix at the Tokyo Dome, due to Ishii’s indictment, that came just weeks later. However, because K-1 continued to draw big ratings this past year, the networks that were considering dropping the sport due to the scandal, stuck with it, and it became bigger than ever and garnering world-wide attention when Tyson did a pro wrestling angle with Sapp in August in Las Vegas, and was then signed.
Once Ishii, who just one year ago was called by Time Magazine the Don King of Asia, was indicted, it was publicly said that he was out of the company, to maintain sponsorship and keep the television deals in place. However, after Ishii was released on bail, when he was sitting next to Tyson and basically directing him and the angle in Las Vegas, the truth became known that he was still heavily involved. Tanigawa got a reputation in Japan among the K-1 fans as almost a Vince Russo, because of using such freak shows as Butterbean, Toa the Samoan Beast, Montanha Silva and pro wrestling star Manabu Nakanishi. But a lot of that was actually Ishii. Before being indicted, Ishii was attempting to become an even bigger power broker and attempted to use Sapp’s popularity to dominate pro wrestling, working with Keiji Muto on the disastrous W-1 show on 1/19, with the idea with Ishii’s television contacts that he could return wrestling to its former place as a regular prime time television spectacle through the huge star power at their disposal. The star power was there, but using stars who couldn’t wrestle was a disaster. That show, which was headlined by a pro wrestling style rematch of the two hugely successful K-1 matches with Sapp vs. Hoost, was a ratings success (10.4 rating, the best for a worked pro wrestling show in Japan in two years), but a disaster of a live event. It drew a heavily papered crowd estimated at 20,000 (just 6,000 paid, lowest by far in history for a pro wrestling Tokyo Dome event). With Ishii’s problems, the idea died from there.
But with the Grand Prix ratings this year being the second highest in history, followed by the huge success of Sapp vs. Akebono, and K-1 enters 2004 stronger than ever.
However, Tanigawa now has to go a second year, this time without Ishii’s help, and the freak show formula has a life span to it that may be in its latter stages. Ishii won’t be back with the company until late 2005, and even then, he’ll have the taint of being a convicted felon.
Prosecutors were asking for 42 months in prison and a fine of $835,000."
PRIDE news and notes, plus DAVE GETS TAPE:
"PRIDE: There is talk of formation of “Dream Stage Pictures,” a new company headed by Nobuyuki Sakakibara, producing a movie in September. The movie would be a samurai movie called “Naguri Mono” using a Japanese movie star as well as fighters (with the idea of the babyface fighter being Kazushi Sakuraba and his main opponent being Wanderlei Silva, since I guess they figure since it always sells out when they do it for real), and filming would start next month. Lots of other major stars are expected to be involved
Hidehiko Yoshida has asked for a rematch with Royce Gracie, which is being discussed for the summer
Vader will be going to Columbus, OH, to train with Mark Coleman for his planned shoot debut. Coleman is expected to fight on the 2/1 Pride show. Kevin Randleman postponed his biceps surgery so he could do the 1/4 Zero-One show, but had surgery this past week and will be out for several months
Plans for right now are a 2/1 show in Osaka, 2/15 Bushido show in Yokohama, 3/7 pro wrestling style show in Yokohama, 3/26 in Las Vegas (there are reports that will be moved to June, and I’d be inclined to believe that since Pride has yet to ask the Nevada State Athletic Commission for the date), the opening of the heavyweight Grand Prix in April, two shows in May–one Bushido and the other pro wrestling on 5/23, The Grand Prix finals in June, another Bushido in July and a huge show in August probably looking at Yoshida vs. Gracie III
Kazushi Sakuraba did an interview on 1/13 saying that he wouldn’t be available for the February shows due to being banged up, but would be ready on 3/26
Mirko Cro Cop has been approached about facing Dan Bobish on 2/1. Bobish has a lot riding on that, as he’s been in talks with New Japan ever since his WJ deal fell apart
CNN this past week ran a feature on Pride, with clips of the Yoshida vs. Wanderlei Silva match and talked about how big it was in Japan
Notes from New Year’s Eve. The five-hour television show was great, even though five hours is too long for anything. While the K-1 show was for the general public, this was clearly the show for the real fan. It wasn’t as good as the last Pride, but it was an excellent show. The best stuff on the show is for newer viewers they showed tons of highlights of the famous matches from the past, and in particular, kept showing over-and-over the Frye vs. Takayama match, which is as good or better now than it was in 2002 when it first happened. Of course nothing, including a match of the year candidate with Sakuraba vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, could live up to those clips. That match was awesome, a total war, and the idea Sakuraba isn’t still a top guy is a joke after this one. While he lost, he was hurt going in, with little training, going against a bigger guy who is an excellent fighter, and hung in there for three rounds and the fight was pretty even until the last 30 seconds. Sakuraba cut Nogueira with a punch in the first round and the cut was in a bad spot, but they kept it going. Sakuraba had the first round won, until Nogueira dropped him with a left at the end of the round. Second round was also even, and while on the ground, Nogueira caught Sakuraba in the dreaded family triangle, and Sakuraba escaped. Sakuraba scored on a flurry early in the third round, but Nogueira tagged him a few solid shots during the round, cutting Sakuraba under the eye, and later giving him a bloody nose and splitting his lip. What made the match great as far as a finish, although hardly for Sakuraba, was the climax, which was almost a fluke, as Sakuraba was backing off, slipped with a few seconds left, and Nogueira kicked him hard in the face four times at the bell. That wasn’t pretty and Sakuraba mouth was busted bad. He drank some water as he was stunned after the match, spit it out, and it was deep red. In scoring, Nogueira scored with nine knees during the fight, most of which were solid shots. Sakuraba had a 14-2 edge in low kicks. In punches that connected cleanly, Nogueira held a 24-16 edge. Sakuraba had a 5-0 edge in takedowns. Quinton Jackson had a 26-pound (209-183) edge in weight and overpowered a game Ikuhisa Minowa (who, when listing, his sport, said pro wrestler). Jackson stung him with knees and great slams, but I have no idea why the match was stopped [I do! It's because he was blasted with a completely undefended knee to the face and then turned away from the fight!—ed]. Minowa didn’t either, as he was furious and didn’t appear hurt at all. As a shoot, Heath Herring weighed 242 and Giant Silva was 355, so he’s not really 460. He clearly had trimmed down a lot but I don’t think legit he could have been more than about 410. Silva had trained. This was interesting if only for anyone who ever questioned what would have happened had Ali fought Wilt Chamberlain (which was actually a big deal in the early 70s, but I guess Wilt trained and got smart) or Andre was alive today and did this stuff. The answer is, they’d have been taken apart by the top fighters. Silva is so much quicker than Andre ever was, and had stamina as he went 16 minutes without blowing, and he expanded a lot of energy chasing Herring and throwing wild blows without tiring. Ultimately, he didn’t have the speed or skill against a real stand-up fighter and took these wild swings at air, while being leg kicked to death. For whatever reason, they didn’t air the second round on TV, but Silva was not tired coming out for the third, and surprising Herring with a takedown. Unfortunately, he was lost on the ground, and Herring reversed him and got the choke. The one thing was, with his reach and height, Herring was never able to damage his head while standing. Murilo Ninja and Akira Shoji was the expected impressive Ninja win. Royce Gracie vs. Hidehiko Yoshida was interesting, although by no means a great fight. Royce played arrogant heel to perfection, calling Yoshida liar, telling him to f-off and saying how the Japanese disrespected his father, who would never come to Japan again. Clearly, Royce was focused and trained to perfection, and had a lot of hate. Yoshida hadn’t trained, and that was clear. I don’t know if Royce kicked him in the nuts on purpose, but it was the second kick into those regions before Yoshida went down, and Royce was total heel in acting like Yoshida was faking even though the replay showed a direct shot to the groin. Yoshida came back right away, as he could have rested longer. Yoshida got Royce’s back in the first round, but didn’t do much with it. Yoshida was stronger, but at about the 7:00 mark, Royce reversed Yoshida, and got his back and Yoshida was basically trapped and couldn’t do a thing. It was really something to watch this guy giving up 30 pounds to a stronger man physically control him because of better conditioning. Second round saw Royce drop to his back, not wanting to stand. It was actually pretty much even until the 16:00 mark. At that point, Royce physically dominated him, getting a mount and pounding on him. He got his back and again controlled Yoshida but never came close to finishing him. The last few minutes saw Yoshida just hang on. Really Royce didn’t look great, although he looked good, but in the end, Yoshida lost major face because he was so gassed he couldn’t do a thing. At one point he just laid there on his stomach and took blows without even moving. Royce totally screwed himself with the rules, as in UFC, John McCarthy would have stopped the fight, but Royce insisted on no ref stoppages (I think ref Matt Hume in a match like this, and for that matter McCarthy in a high profile, wouldn’t have stopped it), and no judges, so he had to settle for a moral victory. The presentation of Frye vs. Goodridge was strong, as both came across like major superstars and crowd reacted as such. Fight itself only went 27 seconds with a high kick to the neck finishing it. Frye physically looked great, and that kick would have finished anyone. Frye was laid out, but on the ground, gave a quick wink to show he was okay. So while the result of a 27 second loss to a guy he beat twice says Frye should quit. He certainly was hurting badly after the Coleman fight but said he’s healed up. He looked good in his pro wrestling match with Toshiaki Kawada (totally different but physically didn’t come across like a crippled limited guy whatsoever). This was the last fight on his Pride contract while it was Goodridge’s retirement match. Daniel Gracie over Wataru Sakata was just a bigger guy over an overmatched pro wrestler. Yuki Kondo’s win over Mario Sperry was a good match. Kondo was giving up 24 pounds against a master grappler and bloodied him up. Crowd went nuts for that. Kiyoshi Tamura was giving up 48 pounds to Ronny Sefo, but once Sefo was taken down, which was immediate, he was out of his league. Still, it was a high profile stage and Tamura and Kondo both helped themselves and I don’t see Sakuraba as being hurt rep was whatsoever, even though physically he took a real beating again. The crowd reacted really good to the angle to build up the Goldberg vs. Ogawa match for 1/4. The pull-apart looked good, and they reacted to Goldberg like he was a superstar, and the Takada and Hashimoto stuff got good heat."
and
"Antonio Inoki has talked about wanting to form a national Kakutogi (MMA) commission. To prevent mismatches and farce matches, no doubt. Inoki talked about doing an MMA show in Las Vegas in April at one of his infamous Narita Airport press conferences where he says headline grabbing things that often have no semblance to reality. Inoki did get a promoters license in Nevada at the end of the year, which allows him to promote MMA, kickboxing, boxing or pro wrestling events."
January 26, 2003
From "Other Japan Notes," always a favourite of mine:
"U-Style and Deep owner Shigeo Saeki announced that as a present to the fans, he is putting together Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka as the main event on a 2/4 U-Style (worked shoot style) show at Korakuen Hall. In the last few years of RINGS as a promotion when it was maybe half worked and half shoot matches, the biggest program was considered Tamura vs. Kosaka (three worked matches, one win for each and many consider their June 27, 1998 match in Yokohama as the greatest match in the history of that promotion) [that's true!—ed.]."
And just a tonne in the PRIDE section this week:
"PRIDE: The 2/1 show at Osaka Castle Hall (air date 2/8 in North America) is very disappointing, with Mirko Cro Cop vs. Ron Waterman in the latest in the Cro Cop vs. pro wrestler feud. Waterman is 10-1-2, and unbeaten since being cut by WWE, but has never been in with someone at Cro Cop’s level. The show will be billed as “Pride Inferno: Return of the Smashing Machine,” trying to build it around Mark Kerr’s comeback after the highly acclaimed documentary on his life and drug problems. There are four matches which are qualifying matches where the winner will get into the 16-man Pride Grand Prix tournament, with Heath Herring vs. Gan McGee, Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Dan Bobish, Kerr vs. Norihisa Yamamoto and Sergei Kharitonov vs. Los Angeles Giant (a pro wrestler with Zero-One who is 6-10 and resembles Big Show). The other two bouts announced are Murilo Ninja vs. Alexander Otsuka and Kazuhiro Nakamura vs. Dos Caras Jr. (who may fight without his mask). I think they are saving the big heavyweight matches for the Grand Prix. We’ll get a good read on how strong the Pride name is because I don’t see a money match in Japan out of this line-up. It’s a big heavyweight show, so it looks as though they are hoping to create or rehabilitate (in the case of Kerr, Bobish, Herring, Caras Jr. and Igor) stars to make them stronger for the tournament
The 2/15 Bushido show at the Yokohama Arena 3/21 North America air date) is headlined by Wanderlei Silva vs. Ikuhisa Minowa and Mauricio Shogun Rua vs. Akihiro Gono (both as part of a series of Chute Box from Brazil vs. Japan matches on the show) with Hayato Sakura and Daijyu Takase fighting. Minowa, who bills himself as a pro wrestler (Pancrase background) is an exciting fighter, coming off a loss to Quinton Jackson, and will be giving away about 22 pounds, so the odds are pretty strong against him. These shows bring up the concern Pride is spreading itself too thin this year by running so many shows, as even if you combined the announced matches for both shows, you’d have a weaker card than almost any Pride put on in 2003. The Osaka show will be a real test of both the drawing ability of the Pride name since there are no marquee Japanese fighters on the show, plus Cro Cop’s drawing power without an opponent, and these days, nobody has ticket selling drawing power without an opponent
The U.S. debut, which has been talked of for years now, this time for 3/26 in Las Vegas with Frank Shamrock vs. Kazushi Sakuraba as the rumored main event, is officially off, as we noted was rumored last week. According to Hideki Yamamoto of Pride, the problem was they company needed to have back secured contracts with some of the main eventers with more lead time to promote the show. It didn’t happen, and they are targeting September. However, Pride did announce at a press conference this week that Shamrock had signed his deal with speculation of a May debut with Sakuraba, Kiyoshi Tamura and Hayato Sakurai talked about as potential foes
Dana White called Pride this past week about trying to get a date on Sakuraba. He was told Sakuraba would be taking six months off to heal up
The plans to unify the heavyweight title and have a Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira match, as well as involve Cro Cop in that three-way program, will probably not take place until after the Grand Prix, although all three are scheduled for the tournament along with the four winners from 2/1, and also talked about have been Mark Coleman, Don Frye, Hidehiko Yoshida and Kazuyuki Fujita. Emelianenko’s contract expires in October
After the February shows, the Pride schedule between now and the end of the summer is a 3/7 Hustle II (pro wrestling) show at the Yokohama Arena, 4/25 will be the first round of the 16-man Pride heavyweight Grand Prix tournament with eight singles matches (Saitama Super Arena), there are plans for a Hustle III show and a Bushido show (Yokohama Arena) in May, the second round of the heavyweight Grand Prix with the four quarterfinals will be 6/20 (Saitama), the schedule for July are both Hustle III and a Bushido show (Nagoya Rainbow Hall), and the Grand Prix finals, with the semifinals and finals, will be on 8/22 (Saitama)
Nobuhiko Takada was all over the Japanese news this week with the press conference where he and wife Aki Mukai, a famous actress, introduced the two boys they adopted from the U.S., Banri and Yuuta. This was the end of a long story because Mukai, who had uterine cancer, was unable to have children, and adoption in Japan is very difficult. There had been tons of news over recent years and even a television drama based on the celebrity couple’s plight to have children
Frye is saying the kick to the neck from Gary Goodridge caught him totally off guard as Goodridge never displayed kicking ability in the past. He’s undergoing an MRI to see how his neck is holding up."
February 2, 2004:
"Even though Pride announced the deal was done last week, Frank Shamrock has not signed a contract with Pride. He’s is negotiating, and they are looking at a debut in May, still with Kazushi Sakuraba as the planned first opponent. But it is not signed and Pride has not given a contract that would specify Sakuraba as the first opponent
The 2/15 Pride Bushido show (3/21 U.S. air date) has Wanderlei Silva vs. Ikuhisa Minowa, Mauricio Shogun Rua vs. Akihiro Gono and Jadson Costa vs. Takanori Gomi in a best-of-three Chute Box vs. Team Japan series. Other matches are Hayato Sakurai vs. Rodrigo Gracie, Mario Sperry vs. Mike Bencic (Mirko Cro Cop’s ground fighting trainer, but he’s going to need Cro Cop’s help if he’s going to have a chance with Sperry), Daijyu Takase vs. Chris Brennan, Yasuhito Namekawa vs. Egidijus Valabicius and Ryuki Ueyama vs. ?. This is another show that is really going to be a test of both the Pride name and Silva’s drawing power with no undercard. Pride looks to be spreading itself too thin this year
Yuki Kondo said he’s accepted an offer from Pride to fight in the heavyweight Grand Prix, which is now being renamed an open weight tournament. Kondo is 187 pounds, and it appears Pride is going to have other smaller fighters go against the big guys in the tourney, which to me in this day and age makes no sense. Kazushi Sakuraba has also talked about entering the tournament, saying he wants to slowly gain weight to 205 and then face Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Most great fighters who know the game duck fights against fighters who would be dangerous to them. Sakuraba seems to duck easy fights and constantly face guys much bigger. He’s currently suffering from conjunctivitis, a contagious eye infection, so he hasn’t been training
Nobuhiko Takada is attempting to get Yoshihiro Takayama back in Pride for the 4/25 first round of the Grand Prix, with Hidehiko Yoshida being talked about as an opponent. That’s a good one from a business standpoint, because Takayama doesn’t hurt himself fighting if he loses in an exciting fashion to people who are already over, although he really needs to quit fighting with all the beatings he’s taken. Takayama hasn’t fought in Pride since the famous Don Frye match. Takada talked about doing Mirko Cro Cop vs. Fedor Emelianenko as a tournament first round match, but I don’t put much stock in that until it’s officially signed
Vader is off the 2/15 Pride show due to an injury suffered while training. He’s now scheduled to debut on a summer show
Wanderlei Silva said he won’t enter the heavyweight Grand Prix
Fuji Network on 1/23 ran a two-hour special on the Takada family regarding the celebrity couple’s quest and fulfillment of adopting children
Damon Perry has been fired by Pride as an English announcer, and Mauro Ranallo will be Bas Rutten’s full-time partner. This has not been Perry’s week, because he was also fired from his regular job as a sports talk show host in Detroit."
And that final note would seem to signal "a series wrap" on Damon "The Dog" Perry, at least insofar as concerns our time together amidst these electronic pages of TK SCISSORS: A BLOG OF RINGS; though I did not enjoy his work, I do hope he has prospered in his subsequent endeavours both personally and professionally (let us be charitable). What a strange little foray into the world of mixed fighting he had: Perry called two of the best such shows there ever have been (I do not speak here of his work, but the calibre of the matches themselves), and was then asked not to call any others of them at all, please, ever. That's odd! He got two probably very interesting work-trips out of it, though, and how many of us can say that about a job we had for just a few months? Good for him.
WITH THAT, MY FRIENDS, LET US LEAVE BEHIND THE FIGHTING YEAR OF 2003 AS WE TURN OUR ATTENTIONS INSTEAD TOWARDS THE EVEN-FIGHTINGER (I mean, it could be) YEAR OF 2004 WHEN NEXT WE MEET, which I must admit may not be for a few months as I am temporarily setting aside my <<rôle>> of <<bloggeur amateur>> (amateur in the original sense, obviously [plus also I forgot to ask for any money]) for a few months as I attend to matters no less merry but which would benefit (I hope!) from my less-divided attention. Have you ever felt the weight of a one-eyed 達磨 darmuma doll? I am maybe feeling that a little! Daruma is a neat little guy (with profound associations not just with esoteric thought and the martial arts, but esoteric thought in the martial arts [yes please!]) who wants you to keep going and do a good job. That's pretty nice! Of him! Even if he seems a little grumpy sometimes! (Don't mind that, it's just his way.)
Take care my friends! We'll talk again a little later into this spring that is but a few days old! This is, of course, should we be spared. Until then!
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