PRIDE.25（プライド・トゥウェンティファイブ）2003年3月16日

シリーズ PRIDE（ナンバーシリーズ）
主催 DSE
開催年月日 2003年3月16日
開催地 日本
神奈川県横浜市
会場 横浜アリーナ
開始時刻 午後5時
試合数 全8試合
放送局 フジテレビ（地上波）
入場者数 19,247人

新年おめでとうございます! Shinnen omedetо̄ gozaimasu! Or indeed 明けましておめでとうございます! Akemashite omedetо̄ gozaimasu! However you prefer it, Happy New Year! Wishing you all the best for a healthy and prosperous 2003! These heartfelt wishes are occasioned by this, our encounter with this first PRIDE FC event of that selfsame year, a circumstance that has me reflecting pretty hard on what sort of cares (all of them no doubt foolish) I myself had as 2003 began, and what my hopes for that long-passed year may have been. I cannot say with any certainty, as I have no true and lasting records of how I felt then (aside, I suppose, from several copiously annotated baseball scorekeeping books). Foremost in my mind is that 2003 is the year we made the acquaintance of Doris, A Cat, who would be our steadfast companion until her peaceful passing in 2020 (a difficult year for us all, surely). Then (2020), as then (2003), as now (the final moments of the 2024 of the primary world of our experience), the final lines of Philip Larkin's "The Mower" read the same: "we should be careful / Of each other, we should be kind / While there is still time."

And yet somehow, and for some reason, we continue to watch all of the old PRIDE shows, where it must be said that very little care is at times taken; what on earth are we doing ("Some questions don’t warrant a question mark," the peerless poet Anne Carson has noted). With 2003 freshly upon us, it seems like a sensible time to take stock of just how far along we are in this, our indefensible project, doesn't it? PRIDE.25 might strike you (remember how we recently found "打 da" [strike] as part of our new compound term 打投極 datо̄kyoku?) as it strikes (there it is again!) me as really a very high number, considering that we only ever get up to PRIDE.34 by the time things well and truly fall to pieces in April of 2007 (on account of, you know, "the reasons"). And yet we are only just beginning 2003! 平成 15 年! Heisei 15! How can it be! Here's how (it can [be]): there are just so very many titled (rather than numbered) PRIDE shows in the remaining years (in addition to the often excellent and really-very-soon-to-be-here Bushido series) that it actually takes us thirty-three more events after our present one to add nine to our numbered-PRIDE total. Isn't that wild? All told, there are sixty-eight PRIDE events to which, in the fullness of time, we hope to address ourselves (should we be spared), and this one that we're just about to enjoy/be lightly horrified by is but number thirty-one amongst those many. We're getting there, but much remains! More than you might think! 

This time out, we find ourselves once more in the familiar confines of 横浜アリーナ Yokohama Arīna, and in checking just now, I see that not only is this is the sixth time we've been here specifically, but that the seventh time will happen in the very next show (PRIDE.26 REBORN [プライド・トゥウェンティシックス リボーン]). These guys just straight-up love Yokohama Arena, and quite frankly do not care who knows it. We are welcomed, as is customary, by Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros, and it occurs to me that before we get really a whole lot deeper into 2003, our time with Stephen Quadros will come to an end, and, in a significant vibe-switch, he will be replaced by Mauro Ranallo (who recently appeared as a guest on the many-hours-long Post Wrestling Christmas Show as a special guest of John Pollock and Wai Ting [for the first several minutes I thought it was someone doing an arguably-too-broad Mauro impression, but nope, it was Mauro-actual!]). Anyway, let us enjoy what time we may! Here, on this day, Stehen Quadros reminds us that we are in for quite a PRIDE FC HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP BOUT as Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, rightly loved by all, is challenged by Фёдор Влади́мирович Емелья́ненко / Fyodor Vladimirovich Yemelyanenko / Fedor Vladimirovich Emelianenko in a clash of former RINGS KING OF KINGS Champions (this last bit goes unmentioned, and so too the wonderful little quirks attendant to it, like how Fedor's early elimination from KING OF KINGS 2000 at the hands [in fact the slicing elbows] of 高阪 剛 Kōsaka Tsuyoshi perhaps allowed Nogueira's KING OF KINGS 2000 title to come to be at all? maybe? in a sense? hard to say!). We are offered powerful footage of the recently retired 高田 延彦 Takada Nobuhiko (in retirement will he revert to 高田伸彦? his "shoot" kanji?) holding the fairly standard PRIDE FC championship belt betwixt the tracksuited Emeliankenko, and the nice-sweatered Nogueira; in time, of course, it is Emlianenko who would come to be most closely associated with nice sweaters (does he win his first here?). Also pictured is Kevin Randleman, probably included in this because he seems like a nice person and so people like to have him around (it occurs to me once more that I am older now than Kevin Randleman was at the time of his passing [complications of pneumonia]; please be careful out there, everybody). 

Quadros warns us that Emelianenko "can punch like a mule," whereas I think of them kicking? I don't know if this a question best directed to the animal physiologists or to the philosophers but as I am neither I will simply sit with it. Before we move on, I would like to include a photograph that the above "screen grab" calls to mind, because of how I saw it just the other day:

The year, as I understand it, was 1984, and here we have Takada alongside Bret Hart (whose name came up at judo recently when we drilled the 禁止技 kinshi-waza or forbidden technique of 河津掛 kawazu-gake, which resembles nothing so much as his side Russian leg-sweep), The British Bulldogs (both "Dynamite Kid" Tom Billington and "Davey Boy" Smith [whose LJN toys I was very pleased with when I was small]) and "Babe Face," a luchador with whom I admit complete unfamiliarity (Lucha Wiki tells me he is José Guadalupe Fuentes Ochoa, known too as El Cañonero de Colima [The Cannoneer of Colima] and El Bombardero [The Bomber]). A powerful photograph, in my estimation. 

HEY HOW GREAT IS THIS: it's the PRIDE (and indeed mixed-fighting-at-all) début of 中村和裕 Nakamura Kazuhiro! What a delightful guy he was! And presumably remains, though less publicly. When his brief two-bout (and yet unforgettable) UFC career came to an end in 2008, I wrote a multi-part Nakamura career retrospective that I'm quite sure is no longer available, even through the deep sorcery of the Internet Archive, which might very well be for the best. PRIDE was, by then, of course over, but he took a little PRIDE with him wherever he went, you know? As is written at Wikipedia: "Nakamura made his debut in the UFC at UFC 76 against Lyoto Machida. His first apparition [spooky!—ed.] in the promotion was specially notable for his entrance and attire choices, coming to the cage wearing an ornated kimono, a jingasa hat and a gas mask before taking them off to reveal floral print shorts. He also carried a wagasa umbrella and exhibited a haircut adopted from Japanese comedian Toru Hotohara.[2] During the fight, Nakamura absorbed punishment and avoided several possible finishes, but he lost by unanimous decision. After the contest, Nakamura would be suspended and fined $500 by the CSAC for failing a drug test for marijuana.[4] Kazuhiro would protest the results, but it was not revoked.[2]." That's more or less the size of it. As you can see in the weigh-in footage here and the fight walk-out here, it is not a gas mask, but a surgical mask; you will also note the booing at the weigh-in, because of how the UFC fanbase has in fact always been what we sometimes lament it has only latterly become. Hey remember that time, too, when his PRIDE entrance was prefigured by dancing penguin mascots from the ドン・キホーテ Don Kihōte (or simplyドンキ Donki) discount store chain? We're really getting ahead of ourselves here—such is our excitement!—but let us try to return to the moment of this first PRIDE appearance, and what we knew of him then, and could about it say: a former 福山大学 Fukuyama Daigaku judo team member who trained under the peerless 柏 崎 克 彦 Kashiwazaki Katsuhiko (see his 寝技 newaza here, his 巴投 tomoe-nage here, his beautifully photographed Fighting Judo here, and Attacking Judo, his illustrated guide to combinations and counters co-authored with 中西 英敏 Nakanishi Hidetoshi, here; his Shimewaza, Osaekomi, and Tomoe-Nage books are easily the best in the Ippon Books Masterclass series, and still in print), Nakamura was a member of the Japanese national team, whose best international result was the German Open Braunschweig in September 2002. Nakamura's best domestic results were a second place at the Kodokan Cup, and back-to-back third-place finishes in the -100kg division of the the All-Japan Judo Championships in 2001 and 2002, which is obviously no mean feat. Those All-Japan divisions were won, respectively, by 井上 康生 Inoue Kōsei and  鈴木桂治 Suzuki Keiji, who, between them, would ultimately put together five World Championship titles alongside their two Olympic gold medals, which is to say that for all his judo successes, an Olympic appearance was not a realistic prospect for Kazuhiro Nakamura (there's being blocked in your weight division, and then there's being blocked in your weight division by Kosei Inoue [there are those who argue that given the context {-100kg gold medal final of Sydney 2000} and quality of opponent {Canadian great Nicolas Gill}, this was, at the time, the greatest throw in Olympic judo history]). A full All-Japan match between Nakamura and Inuoe has actually been up on YouTube forever, and I treasure things like this, as there is very little by way of full-match, domestic Japanese judo footage available from that period is hard to come by (we gleaned what we could from the mail-order offerings of Byrd's Judo Shop). As you'll see, the slightly undersized Nakamura is an absolute gamer, and works hard to secure his 釣手 tsurite (lifting hand, power hand) over Inoue's shoulder (they are in left-on-right 喧嘩四つ kenka-yotsu opposing grips, which is the focus of the commentary in the opening moments). After the caution and guidance of 指導 shidō is offered to both (look upon these postures, judo-rules truthers, and tell me things were better then! you can't fool me! I've been around this whole time! I've seen it all!), Nakamura launches one truly nifty attack at 2m15s, a 朽木倒 kuchiki-taoshi (dead-tree drop) to some form of 橫捨身技 yoko-sutemi-waza (side sacrifice technique) (the commentators settle on the valley drop of 谷落 tani-otoshi which sounds good to me) that Inoue is fortunate to turn out of without conceding a minor score. It's not long after that that Inoue enters with his first tentative 大内刈 ouchi-gari to feel things out and, having learned all he needed to learn, finishes with a faultless 内股 uchi-mata (the time between those two occurrences in five seconds, generously; and please note, too, that these men are at or near 100kg throughout each of these moments). So that's Nakamura! He's since fallen in with our pal 吉田 秀彦 Yoshida Hidehiko, and so here we are, very much ready for a PRIDE FC début.

Arguably Antônio Rogério Nogueira (the littler of the Nogs [though still quite big]) is a pretty tough draw for your first ever mixed fight? I would accept that argument, certainly, but let us recall that Nogueira was himself only a few short years and half-a-dozen fights into his fine career, so while there is for sure a sizeable disparity in mixed-fight-specific experience here, it's not at all like when, say, Paweł Nastula would eventually make his début against Nog the Larger in Antonio Rodrigo's thirtieth professional match (we'll get there!). Nakamura is seconded (and indeed thirded, though no one ever says that) by Yoshida, who has quickly emerged as enormously important (both to the promotion and to us personally), and 高阪 剛Kōsaka Tsuyoshi, whom you may recall from just about everywhere and everything in this blog previously, including its domain name and title. 

 

In case you'd been wondering how Hidehiko Yoshida rang in the new year, it was actually at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2002, of all places, where (cornered by Kohsaka and Nakamura) he secured an opening-minute victory over 佐竹 雅昭 Satake Masaaki by what is recorded a neck-crank on Wikipedia, but which the commentary team enthusiastically declares a フロント・チョーク, furonto chо̄ku, and certainly both can be at once extremely true. It is, either way, another instance of the still(then)-controversial "arm-in guillotine" (from what the IJF helpfully refers to as a kata-sankaku configuration when delineating what one might and might not do from that intriguing position [indeed, those intriguing positions]). The match itself, in its brief entirety, can be seen here, and is a pleasure, given the considerable production values and also just overall vibe (and 桜庭 和志 Sakuraba Kazushi on guest commentary!).

"Nakamura is taking this almost as entertainment," Quadros notes of his preternaturally chill demeanour; Bas' focus early is on the considerable disparity in height (Nogueira's seventy-five inches to Nakamura's seventy), and also the extent to which Nakamura has a demonstrably good attitude towards leg day (he stops short of noting that our boy is caked up, but only just short). It does not take much clinching at all before Nakamura launches Nogueira with what is sometimes called 前内股, the mae or "front" uchi-mata, but what is increasingly being described as 櫓投げ yagura-nage, a term that comes to us from the ancient art of 相撲 sumō. In the judo context, it is super widespread these days, but it is probably most closely associated with the Mongolian great Дашдаваа Амартүвшин / Amartuvshin Dashdavaa, whose techniques have been set to a lovely beat over at the very fine Grappler Kingdom YouTube account. Here's a neat instance of Hidehiko Yoshida going from yagura-nage to a more conventional uchi-mata (連絡 renraku-waza, we're making connections out here; connections between techniques) from the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games (I giffed it myself!):

And here is Nakamura, with Little Nog his 受け uke (ungiffed, but just scroll up and down really fast maybe):

Pretty nifty! "Now that's some serious judo without a gi!" is Quadros call. I couldn't agree more, and I choose to commemorate this fine judo by sharing with you two fine judo badges that have come to my attention in recent days (I do not possess them, only their images); I will also post two very strong karate ones, too, just so I don't forget to later:

Our commentary team continues to make much of how calm and relaxed Nakamura seems for this his début as he slips in and out of Nogueira's able attacks from the bottom. Nakamura backs out and stands, comes back in, stands again; he really does seem fine with whatever? He is just a "bloom where you're planted" kind of guy by disposition, maybe. Nakamura slips while ducking a punch and ends up on his back, locking up Nogueira in the two-legged entanglement of niju-garami, which oh my goodness he releases for a bridging escape (with that kata-sankaku grip we mentioned a little while ago in the context of Yoshida/Satake) and it just totally works, Nogueira is well and truly swept onto his back. This is a wild thing to have worked against someone of Nogueira's calibre, and recalls (I suppose anticipates) Nogueira's brother's memorable (except it hasn't happened yet) hip-bump sweep of Randy Couture. I am dazzled by the simplicity and indeed (ritual?) purity of this movement! 

Quadros and Rutten rightly remark again on Nakamura's calm and ease as he slips into and out of the many attacks proffered by Nogueira's active hips (and the rest): from Nakamura's affect, you would think he was engaged in a solid-but-affable round of 乱取り randori (and not even one in the hard-training weeks before a tournament!) with a pal, and nothing more, certainly not a professional mixed fight for the biggest such promotion in the world, with hitting and money and scandal and everything. He is just a remarkably chill guy in a way that I cannot help but admire, perhaps partially in recognition of my own limits in this regard? Wouldn't it be something to be that chill? Nogueira really is throwing up a lot of really solid attacks (三角絞 sankaku-jime; 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame; the form of 腕挫脚固 ude-hishigi-ashi-gatame commonly called 足三角絡 ashi-sankaku-garami), but Nakamura seems pretty okay with it? So too Yoshida, who is coaching, certainly, but only lightly:

Much of the long, ten-minute first round passes in like fashion, and it is a fashion I like. For whatever reason, Quadros and Rutten keep referring to Nakamura as "a judo world champion," which is of course incorrect, and also just extremely far from the case; they have been misinformed, or perhaps simply misheard something at a dinner one time. 

The second round lacks the dramatic 投げ技 nage-waza (throwing techniques) of the first, but there is a lovely sequence in which Nogueira ably stuffs Nakamura's tackling 双手刈 morote-gari, and seems likely to come out of it on top, until Nakamura rolls through to the rear-facing scarf hold of 後袈裟固 ushiro-kesa-gatame (which the 講道館 Kōdōkan classified as a form of 崩袈裟固 kuzure-kesa-gatame [broken or modified scarf hold] until the just excellent 2017 classification revision). "Look at this," Bas laughs. "I've never seen this!"

"He was in such a good position, but Nakamura turned it around as if it was nothing. I gotta see this back on video, because that was a good move." I'm with Bas! In time, they are restarted standing, and when next Nakamura attacks with 双手刈 morote-gari, he is well and truly stuffed, and ends up not just on bottom, but subjected to hitting (a dark fate). Weary of so much hitting, Nakamura rolls to his tummeroo; securing the back, Nogueira elects to finish not with the 絞技 shime-waza of 裸絞 hadaka-jime but instead the 関節技 kansetsu-waza of 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame. "What a technique," Bas says, and I agree! "It was a perfect match," he says too, and I don't know if we can go that far, but it was enormously interesting to me certainly. A fine first effort from the charming Nakamura, and Nogueira was just as good as you'd think. What a pleasure!

Remember Alex Stiebling? He has had some good ones! Most recently, we saw him stopped early by Anderson Silva (obviously no shame in that) at PRIDE.21（プライド・トゥウェンティーワン）2002年6月23日. Here, he'll face 小路晃 Shoji Akira, stopped early by Paulo Filho last time out at PRIDE.22（プライド・トゥウェンティーツー）2002年9月29日 (that's fine, too). Shoji is a true crowd favourite, and they are super into it when he takes Stiebling to the mat early with the major inner reap of 大内刈 ouchi-gari, and each subtle improvement in position gets the people going. "That's the thing that everybody says they've got figured out," Stephen Quadros tells us (do they? is that what they say about ouchi-gari?), "but when push comes to shove it gets you down." In what sounds like overreach, the Japanese fight press have apparently nicknamed Alex Stiebling—a handsome young for sure; please do not mistake me—"The Fighting Brad Pitt," which, I mean, that's a lot, and probably isn't doing him any favours. This stray fact reminds me, though, that one of our brown belts recently sent me the following meme, saying that he had posted it ironically to his BJJ/MMA club's Facebook page, but then thought he should share it with me in earnest because it is "honestly the vibe" at our judo club:

"lol I hope so! it's what we're going for!" was my eager reply (I forwarded it to the other instructors, who were like haha; it was all very merry). It's not that hard to be nice! And in my experience it by no means gets in the way of training people to launch, smoosh, and entangle (the big three). We're getting sidetracked here but look the bottom line is that Alex Stiebling is handsome, and Bas and Stephen are here to celebrate that fact, and I join them. Good for young Alex! Less good for young Alex: the crowd going wild as Akira Shoji drops him with an improbable right hand, and pursues him to the mat no less punchinginly. Quadros had just been saying that it probably wasn't a good idea for Shoji to stand and trade with the better striker, and who would have argued? Certainly not me! But just as Quadros finished that utterly reasonable sentence, boom very much went the dynamite. To his credit, he was like "haha I was completely wrong on that one wasn't I!" immediately. Things settle in on the ground for a stretch before Stiebling bridges and sweeps, hits a little, passes, takes the back, and nearly finishes first with the naked strangle of 裸絞 hadaka-jime and then with just so much more hitting before this uncommonly dramatic round concludes. Wild times! Understandably, the third round offers less of this, as our fighters glide towards the judges' decision, which falls in Shoji's split-favour, but could plainly have gone either way. Shoji weeps in victory.

Hey it's Carlos Newton! We love that guy! The last time he was with us, it was PRIDE.19（プライド・ナインティーン） , as he bested Jose Landi-Jons in arguably the best Pride bout to date? Like out of any of them? Here, he is to face Anderson Silva, whom Newton suggests "offers unique challenges" (insanely true, king). Silva's take on Carlos Newton is no less incendiary: "He's a great fighter. I respect him more than most." 

I must admit that as A Carlos Newton Enjoyer I do not recall this fight fondly, but maybe there's more here than I remember? For instance, in the opening moments, Newton takes Silva to the mat with an unusually low 腰技 koshi-waza (hip technique) that surely falls somewhere along the 浮腰 uki-goshi (floating hip) / 大腰 o-goshi (major hip) continuum. "Wow, it's like little cat, hey? He climbs under him, then he's got him down. Unreal." Bas really does have a gift in speaking to the emotional truth of these matters in the moment itself, doesn't he, even if (perhaps especially if?) many of his utterances, when forced into the static prisonhouse of typography, seem to lack sequential reasoning or other conventional logics. He is principally a poet of the oral tradition. Newton cuts his hips (a movement that we call 腰切り koshi-kiri and include in our warmup literally every time out) while still within Silva's guard, his far-side arm underhooked; I believe it would be understood as a pass of the Sao Paulo school in the contemporary taxonomy of such things. Carlos Newton is really something in terms of positional grappling in these old fights, my goodness, shifting from 横四方固 yoko-shiho-gatame to 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame with mid-period RINGS fluidity, losing his 抑込技 osaekomi-waza only after Silva slips out of a 逆腕緘 gyaku-ude-garami. Silva seems to be playing for the stand-up, as he leggily secures just the leggiest body-triangle you're ever likely to see; that it never develops into the truly awful trunk strangle of 胴絞 dо̄-jime is a blessing. Okay yes, here's the stand-up, and here too a yellow card for his inactivity, actually, but Silva was right to do all of it, it would seem, as moments later he connects with a well-timed flying knee just as Newton drops low for a tackling 双手刈 morote-gari, and the result is just calamitous if you are either Carlos Newton or—and I acknowledge this holds true only to a far, far lesser extent—me. Replays reveal that it was indeed the very point of Anderson Silva's knee connecting with Newton's jaw just below the ear, which has got to be just like the knocking-outmost strike possible. Yikes, man. Not fun to see. After a respectable interval, I suppose, Silva puts on a little hat and regular-sized jacket and does a tidy little Michael Jackson-inspired routine (think the protagonist's main attack in the improbably strong 1990 Moonwalker game for Sega Genesis/MegaDrive) that the upright-again Carlos Newton plainly has no hard feelings about, so why should we. Perhaps Silva was trying to ask "[Carlos] are you okay, are you okay [Carlos]?" through the versatile medium of dance. 

Newton, still understandably trying to piece this all together, is caught in a candid moment asking one of his dutiful seconds from Newmarket, Ontario's Warrior Martial Arts Centre, "Was I out?", and when his pal nods whilst attempting to staunch the bleeding from (or hopefully just below) his ear, Carlos performs just an all-timer of a head-tilting, eyebrows-up half-smile of a "well, what are you gonna do?" 

 

I mean, what are you gonna do? What might any of us? The symbolic death of 一本 ippon in incontrovertible. 

Next we have Dan Henderson (a former opponent of Carlos Newton, actually [it was really good!], fresh off his tremendous effort against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, set to face 大山 峻護 Ōyama Shungo (cornered here by 高阪 剛 Kōsaka Tsuyoshi), who, as far as Gracies go, holds a win over Renzo, and a loss to Ryan. It is literally impossible, though, to like his chances here against Dan Henderson, as Stephen Quadros extremely notes. Oyama, to his credit, somehow manages to survive an early barrage of what looks like just disastrous hitting, but in the second such true flurry, he is well and truly finished at 3:28 of the first round. In between those two crucial moments, Oyama actually managed a pretty sweet 払腰 harai-goshi, which I can't say I expected:

Hey good for him! Henderson, though, does have (or will in time have) a reputation for getting taken down by people you would not expect to see take down a two-time Greco-Roman wrestling Olympian. We're going to see a lot of that actually once the PRIDE BUSHIDO series and it's more Dan-Henderson-appropriate weight-classes get going real soon! You won't believe some of these guys who take Dan Henderson down! But it serves as a useful reminder that mixed fighting is very much its own weird thing, and, of course, almost certainly an error. 

Set apart from the main run of files that bless us with their filings, and instead filed separately, we find a bout between アレクサンダー大塚 ALEXANDER OTSUKA—not my kind of guy, necessarily, but a certified character—and 山本 喧 Yamamoto Ken'ichi, whom we recently saw in a pretty creditable losing effort to the dangerous Kevin Randleman, and about whom we recently learned (from Observer excerpts) the fun fact that one time he told everybody that all the best 田村潔司 Tamura Kiyoshi RINGS matches were totally fake and so now Kiyoshi Tamura just can't stand the guy. I'm not totally sure why this match would be set aside in the way it has been? It is, inarguably, a match between two Japanese professional wrestlers, which is sometimes enough to get yourself excluded from the English-language broadcast, but this one includes commentary from Quadros and Rutten like any other match. Maybe it was edited out of the pay-per-view telecast, but included as a DVD extra? This is what I have decided to settle on, and I honestly feel content enough with that that I will not look into it any further. We get full ring entrances, which is always a treat. Before he enters the ring, Yamamoto ostentatiously gargles water and spits, which, I don't know, brother; it's okay to have a little tiny drink if you need it. He then declines to shake Otsuka's hand in a way that seems particularly unchill even by the broadest standards of this categorically unchill move. Maybe I am Team Otsuka in this one! Does this make me, at least on this day, a  格闘探偵団バトラーツ / Kakutō Tanteidan Batorātsu / Kakuto Tanteidan Battlarts / Fighting Detectives Battlarts / Fighting Investigation Team Battlarts guy? It is a promotion I will admit to enjoying much more in the context of ファイヤープロレスリング Faiyā Puro Resuringu than in the primary world of our experience, and I sometimes wonder if my occasional dis-ease with the particular version of shoot-style advanced, for the most part, in the estimable JOSH BARNETT'S BLOODSPORT series owes to my preference for Fighting Network RINGS, whereas many prefer to be Fighting Detectives in the Battlarts tradition? Like the great Wai Ting (whose Post Wrestling partner John Pollock I can vouch for as a good dude dating back to the days of Live Audio Wrestling gatherings at O'Grady's on College St. some twenty years ago [so too Dan Lovranski and Jason Agnew]), the thing I like best about the Bloodsport shows is seeing each of the participants demonstrate their own particular understanding of shoot-style, to see what it means to them, and how they wish to participate in its conventions (Wai said it better, I'm sure; I am quoting loosely from memory). I quite enjoyed the recent JOSH BARNETT'S BLOODSPORT XII that came to us from the White Eagle Hall in Jersey City (a town inseparable from "Tweeter and The Monkey Man" in my obviously quite limited imagination), and like most everyone else, I think, I was particularly impressed by the Georgian Olympian (later Uzbek competitor) დავით მოძმანაშვილი Davit Modzmanashvili, who, as a man retroactively stripped of a silver medal in the esteemed discipline of Greco-Roman wrestling following the 2012 London games after a retested sample revealed Modzmanashvili to have at some point ingested the actual mutagenic ooze from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the mutagen from the original black and white comix/Palladium RPG specifically [the gnarliest kind]), is perhaps uniquely suited to the work that was set before him that Jersey City night. Also tremendous, it must be said, was Marina Shafir (Romanian: Marina Șafir), accompanied by her DEATH RIDERS colleague (and indeed All-Elite Wrestling champion) Jon Moxley, who finished Toronto's Jody Threat with the gnarly mother's milk smother (neither Wai Ting, who I believe trained in submission grappling as a younger man, nor Pedro-Sauer-black-belt Bryan Alvarez, seem to be aware that this technique has carried this very name for ages, and it is not merely an excellent name Shafir has herself settled on for the hold; Alvarez has also failed to describe the mechanism of the technique in a way that I must admit I found disappointing for someone who teaches in the field!). Marina Shafir has really come into her own in her current rôle as the Death Riders' ultra-violent, judo-throwing heavy, and of course that is something I would think, but I also think it is just objectively true! Anyway, it was a fun show as always; Marina Shafir and Davit Modzmanashvili were the standouts (although everybody did a good job!); and Bloodsport remains neat. While we digressed for a minute there, the Otsuka / Yamamoto match was fought to its lightly-booed conclusion, with Otsuka taking a decision win that probably could have gone either way. The highlight was for sure Bas talking about how he had recently obtained an electric scooter that goes forty miles per hour. That's pretty fast!   

"I'm sure that my friend Dave Meltzer will give me a complete discourse on what this mask means, because I have no idea" are Stephen Quadros' sensible words as he encounters 桜庭 和志 Sakuraba Kazushi in the guise of ザ・グレート・カブキ / Za Gurēto Kabuki / THE GREAT KABUKI! With ヌンチャクnunchaku! And streamers! And Asian Mist? Will there be Asian Mist?

This is all of course a lot of fun (as was Sakuraba's encounter with The Great Kabuki at Wrestle Kingdom 10's New Japan 乱暴 Ranbo [you'll note the 乱 of randori {also of Kurosawa}], but what I recall of this coming bout is that it is in fact absolutely no fun at all, in that instead of worrying about Sakuraba in the ways to which we become accustomed (uh no, he's fighting a big scary guy!), we had to begin worrying about him in new and uncomfortable ways (uh no, he's fighting at all). Here, we find him matched against the completely inoffensive Antônio "Nino" Schembri, with whom we can have no real quarrel. Sakuraba boxes (and indeed kickboxes) this fine jiujiteiro up quite thoroughly over six crowd-pleasing minutes before improbably (or so it seemed at the time) eating three absolutely brutal clinched-knees, a few hammer-fists to the back of the head, and one "soccer kick" that lands about as flush as you'll ever see amid several others that thankfully do not. It's a complete disaster. 

"This is bad, bad, bad for Sakuraba," is Bas' assessment, and who could argue? Our fun times with Kazushi Sakuraba were never entirely uncomplicated, but they are about to get significantly more complicated going forward.

Nothing complicated about this title-eliminator between Kevin Randleman and Quinton Jackson, though, right? Haha probably not! Just one man who will die before his forty-fifth birthday and another who will engage in years of dangerously erratic behaviour! Guys I am feeling a little low about our subject matter! I am spared from feeling too low about it for all that long, though, as Jackson finishes the fight fairly quickly, or in the first round, at any rate, with a knee right up the middle, an uppercut right behind it, and several mounted punches that should probably never have been thrown (I am not blaming Jackson for throwing them but rather the structural factors that create the conditions for the throwing [of them]). Jackson calls out Wanderlei Silva in his post-fight comments, and Silva, who has at times proven excitable, is either legitimately perturbed by this, or puts on so fine a performance of perturbation as makes no difference. As I have mentioned before, I find the idea that oh man these guys don't like each other one bit a completely inconsequential thing for how eager I am am to see a martial arts match, in that, how does this change anything? They have already agreed that they will hit each other and stuff, right? That is a clear requirement of the activity they are about to undertake, isn't it? Do we believe, or are we expected to believe, that Jackson and Silva hold in reserve an extra kind of hitting that they do not employ in their quotidian professional mixed-fighting but instead save for the special circumstance of not liking a guy? Do they otherwise only lightly hit? Are we to think that because Jackson and Silva have demonstrated dislike for one another (be it real or otherwise), they will do an extra fighting that is unavailable to, say, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira or Fedor Emelianenko, who are at present saying very nice things about one another in their pre-taped pre-fight interviews? Since they are both talking about how fine an athlete and sportsman the other is, will these guys only sort of barely fight? I find it all pretty foolish! And yet here I am before it, a fool myself; there's honestly very little to be done about this particular foolishness, or about many of the prevailing foolishnesses that beset us (or that we beset upon ourselves [plagued by self-besetment]).

Quadros and Rutten note that this is Brazilian Top Team against Russian Top Team, but regrettably delve no further into the (fairly recent) past to declare it, crucially, RINGS Brazil against RINGS Russia (weird, right?). It sure is though! We are offered full walk-outs and ring entrances, which help confirm the RINGS Russianity of it all, as NIKOLAI ZOUEV can plainly be seen! I am saddened to learn, or to reminded if I had once learned but since forgotten, that Zouev is not longer with us: "Zouev died on May 21, 2022, a day after his 64th birthday, from years of heart disease.[6]" I'm sorry to hear it. Let us be grateful for the RINGS Russia team members who are with us still, such as for example Volk Han, seen here in a recent photograph:

What a jaunty hat! As the national anthems play ahead of this championship bout, Stephen Quadros reminds us that "[t]his is all about sport, folks: these guys don't have any animosity towards each other; there's nothing personal in this match, other than that they personally want to own that title." Now we're talking! "Pure sports build" as we used to say on "the boards," often in jest. Given his appearance in the very first photograph atop this very post, I suppose I should not be surprised that Nobuhiko Takada is here once more, reading prepared remarks in the middle of the ring once the unusually lengthy anthems have concluded, and yet I am, a little. The crowd is abuzz! Referee 島田 裕二 Shimada Yūji offers his final instructions! Stephen Quadros says the word "sportsman" an infinity of further times! (I am not upset about it, and am thinking once again about the impossibly cool  細野 晴臣 Hosono Haruomi song of that name.) And here we go! 

Anyone sufficiently interested in any of these matters to have read this far no doubt knows all too well how this fight goes, and how relentless a pounding is visited upon the noble visage of Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira throughout by the relentless judo/sambo-fists of Fedor Emelianenko, and will understand just how difficult (if not impossible) it will be to see any single moment of this contest as anything but completely representative of the bout in its totality (please consider James Dilthey's formulation of the "hermeneutic circle," the name he gave to a procedure German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher had described in an 1819 series of lectures on general hermeneutics [or don't {but seriously please do}]), but even allowing for that difficulty, the earliest seconds here really do give a regrettably clear sense of the doom that is not far off: almost at once, Nogueira shoots in for what he hopes will be a low, tackling 双手刈 morote-gari two-handed reap, or, failing that, a lower still 踵返 kibisu-gaeshi heel-trip; we cannot fail to comprehend at once that any plan of attack premised on the notion that an Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira morote-gari or kibisu-gaeshi will be sufficient to put Fedor Emelianenko on his back in any ongoing sort of way is really no plan at all. And yet what else might he do? Stand and box with the man who will, in time, stalk Mirko Cro Cop about the ring? That sounds bad too!  

Right on cue, behind a looping right hand, Fedor sends Nogueira reeling into the ropes and down to the mat. Fedor follows him there, and both Quadros and Rutten feel Fedor is making a mistake by not standing back up. Such were the limits of understanding at the time. But these misapprehensions do not survive more than a few moments more, cast aside by some pretty remarkable camera-work:

Bas can't believe what these punches sound like. And somehow, amid all this action, Bas also finds the time to say hello to everybody on the Sherdog forums, which must have made everybody over there pretty stoked! I actually had a Sherdog forum thread come to my attention earlier this week for the first time in ages, as the Google News Alert I have had set to "judo" for about twenty years took me to a post titled "A thread to celebrate Fedor's beautiful Judo" (worst comment: "Basic ass judo throws lol. Fedor fans reaching." [should he have used more complicated ones instead? should 木村 政彦 Kimura Masahiko have cut it out with that basic 大外刈 osoto-gari?]; best comment: "You spelled 'body' wrong'"). Hey speaking of Kimura, which we did a moment ago (parenthetically), Nogueira's brief attacks with the 逆腕緘 gyaku-ude-garami that bears his name (Kimura's, I mean) are the only offense he is mustering between moments of getting hit so hard that nobody—not Bas, not Quadros, not the 19,247 assembled 人, perhaps not even Nogueira himself—can even believe it. "Fedor is fighting the fight that Nogueira wants him to," is Quadros' call, and thriving doing it. Bas feels certain that Fedor will be baited into overcommitting in his defense of the ude-garami and will be caught with a clever combination technique (or 連絡技 renraku waza), and although that's not quite what happens, it's not at all a bad call, Bas: the crowd thrills as Nogueira, for half an instant, attacks with an 表三角絞 omote-sankaku-jime that Fedor limberly / liquidly shrugs his way out of. Just as Quadros repeats a point he has made previously, that in Japan, mixed fighting appeals not only to the blue-collar but to the white-collar as well, not merely to an audience that wants to see blood and violence, Fedor hits Nogueira harder than I think anybody has ever been hit by anything. 

HEY WAIT NOGUEIRA SWEEPS I REPEAT NOGUEIRA SWEEPS! I have no recollection of this whatsoever! With his feet on Fedor's hips and his knees high to do what he can to manage distance (which hasn't worked out great so far), Nogueira slips his right foot between Fedor's legs and accepts the "worse" position of half-guard (some might say niju-garami), a weird call unless your plan was to follow your leg's recent patch with your scooping arm, all scoopingly, which he extremely does. There's only a minute left so he's going to have to hustle with this time on top oh no he has himself been swept as oh my goodness, Fedor just sat up through Nogueira's 横四方固 yoko-shiho gatame; he didn't shrimp and dig in with a hook between the legs and do all the things one would expect, but instead bridged to his right shoulder just to get the reaction, and then just sat up towards his left hip, straight through the pin. Absurd. 

Nogueira's mistake, if you can even call it that, was to use his shin to trap Fedor's arm; this point of contact gave Fedor what he needed to scoop the leg not from the inside, but straight up through, but you would never tell anybody not to trap the arm there because what Fedor did is just not a reasonable thing for anyone to have done. My goodness. Quite a first round!

The second begins as did the first, with Nogueira shooting in unsuccessfully; and again, when Fedor follows Nogueira to the mat after stuffing the takedown, Quadros is like Fedor no that is where he will submission-hold you! but of course this does not prove to be the case. It's just the hitting again; all the hitting. Nogueira can't do anything substantial from his full guard against Fedor's wide base, and so he cleverly works his way into half-guard again to try sweeping from the extreme angles that position can create. Finally, with seconds to go in the round, it works! And he's on top! For literally two seconds before the bell rings. Nogueira looks understandably disheartened.

   

This has been a pretty great show for bridging escapes and sweeps from the bottom! That's maybe not something you hear a lot of people say about PRIDE.25（プライド・トゥウェンティファイブ）but it's super true!

Round three sees Fedor follow a clubbering right hand with a right-legged 小外掛 kosoto-gake (minor outer hook) that plants Nogueira firmly on his back, but Nogueira, that old so-and-so, attacks with 足三角絡 ashi-sankaku-garami (known to some as the omoplata)! What! It's probably more useful as a sweep or a route to the back than as a match-ending 関節技 kansetu-waza (joint-locking technique, or as it sometimes says somewhat more charismatically in the older texts, bone-locking technique), but in this instance it doesn't even get to be one of those lesser-but-still-very-good things, as Fedor just stands up, and throws a full-on soccer kick (that Nogueira blocks [thank goodness] with a shin [that's still got to hurt a bunch) before crashing back into his guard and just keeps coming with—you guessed it!—the hitting. Fedor helps Nogueira back to his feet as the closing bell sounds, and they embrace as sportsmen might, but Nogueira slumps to the mat, crushed (in terms of his feelings, I mean).

Murilo Bustamante and Mario Sperry draw near, and seem to be very good friends to Nogueira in defeat, and though of course we cannot know with any certainty what, precisely, their friendship means to him in that low moment, it comforts me, at least, and so I thank them (thanks guys). As Fedor accepts his championship belt and truly enormous trophy, a shot of the Japanese commentary position demonstrates the full range of emotional responses available to the Nogueira enthusiast. 

 

What an event! Of martial arts fighting! Let's see what Dave Meltzer had to say about it in any number of old Observers.

March 24, 2003:

"PRIDE 25: BODY BLOW

Thumbs up 154 (100.0%)

Thumbs down 0 (00.0%)

In the middle 0 (00.0%)

BEST MATCH POLL

Antonio Rodorigo Nogueira vs. Emelianenko Fedor 109

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Nino Schembri 18

Dan Henderson vs. Shungo Oyama 15

Akira Shoji vs. Alex Stiebling 10

WORST MATCH POLL

Alexander Otsuka vs. Kenichi Yamamoto 38*

Akira Shoji vs. Alex Stiebling 8

*All based on responses from people who either saw the show live or on PPV in Japan

Overall based on phone calls, fax messages and e-mails to the Observer as of Tuesday, 3/18.

“There was never a horse that couldn’t be rode, and there’s never a man who couldn’t be throwed.” – an old saying that probably got to be an old saying because it’s true.

The fantasy of the unbeatable fighter is just that, a fantasy.

The latest victim of this belief was Pride World heavyweight champion Antonio Rodorigo Nogueira, who has beaten everyone in his path en route to the general consensus belief he was the top fighter in the world. But there are too many variables in MMA. Boxing has its frequent surprises and that’s only one skill, but with MMA, you are mixing wrestling, submissions, jiu jitsu positioning with boxing, kickboxing and transitions between all of the above. It’s a rock, paper, scissors sport where styles, as well as training, injuries and motivation make the difference at the top level.

Nogueira had never been truly beaten in this game. His 19-1-1 record going into the title defense was also a modern day record for someone against top level opponents, as he garnered wins using a submission hold in 67% of his matches. His record lists a split decision loss to Dan Henderson in the semifinals of the 2000 RINGS “King of Kings” tournament, but that’s only a black mark to people who never saw that fight. His accomplishments, placing third at the 32-man King of Kings in 2000 (that he probably would have ended up winning had he not been robbed in the Henderson match) and winning the 2001 version of the same tournament, then using his famed triangle choke as well as armbars to put away opponents as varied as Kiyoshi Tamura, Gary Goodridge. Enson Inoue, Valentijn Overeem, Semmy Schilt, Mark Coleman, Henderson and most notably Bob Sapp, made people think he was that myth. But Emelianenko Fedor, the 2002 winner of the King of Kings, who, like Nogueira, dispatched people like Schilt and Heath Herring, looked to be the guy who stylistically would be his toughest opponent, and who could beat him. But few would accept that since nobody ever saw Nogueira truly lose.

Fedor was a better wrestler and a harder puncher. While not quite as good in submissions, with his sambo background, he figured to be the best opponent at avoiding submissions that the champ had ever faced. Fedor had done some training with Volk Han, who, at the age of 40, was one of the few men Nogueira had been unable to beat decisively. Fedor controlled most of the match on the ground, constantly avoiding Nogueira’s constant attempts at submission, and countering with sick punches to the face and body. To Nogueira’s credit, he took incredible shots and never seemed rocked or out of the fight. But he suffered a 20 minute beating en route to losing his championship via unanimous decision. Fedor has an 11-1 record, which includes a decision win over Ricardo Arona. His only loss, via blood stoppage, was to pro wrestler Tsuyoshi Kosaka in the 2001 RINGS tournament that Nogueira ended up winning. Kosaka, ironically, is the only fighter besides Henderson to mar Nogueira’s perfect record, since he held him to a draw.

The title change, and producing one of the great MMA shows in history was a distant second in importance to the big story. Dream Stage Entertainment spent the latter part of the week insisting it was alive and well, and having no problems, and will soon be expanding Pride live into the U.S.

The week saw the company put on its first show since the reputed suicide death of its president, Naoto Morishita. The company also announced it had reached a deal with In Demand, meaning that the next show will be available in virtually all of the more than 50 million PPV homes in the U.S. Details of the deal were not available, but in previous promotions dealing with In Demand, the terms are very steep and it’s been difficult to make the deal pay off. Pride had previously only had limited cable exposure in the U.S., with much of its penetration coming among dish owners in the U.S. and among Canadian cable households.

Nobuyuki Sakakibara, 39, who is the new face of the organization and will take over as President, said the company was putting together a partnership which would result in regular live shows in the U.S., targeting Nevada and California. He also said that Dream Stage would continue to run Pride and denied any financial problems. Pride officials talked about at the end of the month, announcing its reorganization as well its schedule for the rest of the year. Company officials claimed they would move away from using Japanese pro wrestlers, and concentrate on people with stronger MMA backgrounds. While that will satisfy the American audience and Japanese purists, it is clearly the mix with pro wrestling that sells the tickets and PPVs in Japan.

But to that degree, they’ve recruited Nobuhiko Takada to serve as the other public face of the company. Takada, 40, a pro wrestling Hall of Famer, makes the most ironic choice for the figurehead role. He comes from the world the company tells Americans they want nothing to do with, to such a ridiculous degree that when bringing in Bill Goldberg, his credentials listed ended when he was cut by the NFL. Takada is also a reminder of the days when Pride had worked fights to keep the mystique of people like Takada and Naoya Ogawa strong for business purposes.

But while talking like nothing has changed, and putting on a show that, if the company had exposure in the U.S., would probably do more to create new fans than any show in its history, the future is still murky. On the U.S. PPV broadcast, there was never an announcement of a specific return date, only a hazy “in June.” In Japan, there was no official announcement at the show of a return date either, although the rumored plan is for 6/8 at the Yokohama Arena, a change from the previous announcement of 5/27 in Osaka. It is not definite when that show will air in the U.S. The problem with 6/8 is that it is two days after a live UFC show, although Pride and UFC have run in the same weekend on PPV in the U.S. in the past. 6/15 is out of the question because of WWE’s King of the Ring, and by 6/22, there will be minimal interest in the show, as fans have become less apt than ever to buy PPV events that are delayed more than a few days. On the U.S. PPV, the show went off the air with a monster push and continual hype of Vanderlei Silva defending the middleweight title against Quinton Jackson on the next show. Jackson’s stock both as a fighter and performer skyrocketed on the show with his knockout win over Kevin Randleman as his interviews would put him in the top tier in pro wrestling. After the win, Jackson did a pull-apart brawl angle with Silva. However, Silva, after double knee surgery, is not expected back in the ring until August.

Another angle on the 3/16 show at the Yokohama Arena, which drew a legitimate turn away crowd estimated at 16,000 despite terrible weather (announced at 19,247, which is ridiculous because the building holds 17,010, and they block some seating off for their elaborate entrance stage), came after the U.S. PPV ended. Russian Emelianenko Fedor surprised everyone (well, almost) by capturing the Pride world heavyweight title , and then Bob Sapp challenged him to a title match. This didn’t air on the U.S. show, for reasons unknown, but perhaps because Sapp’s U.S. debut will be with K-1 and not Pride. The 6-1, 226-pound Fedor seemed none too interested in the fight, even though it would be the biggest money fight he could possibly have, saying he’d consider it if he gained 70 kilos (154 pounds) or the 6-5 ½, 375-pound Sapp lost that much weight. Because of how they match up stylistically, Sapp has a much better chance of beating Fedor, with the Russian’s only real chance being if he can hold on until Sapp runs out of gas. And the money in Sapp as champion is huge compared with Nogueira, who is very well liked and has become a superstar but not a huge draw, or Fedor, who is quiet and lacks charisma, although he is accepted at the next generation Igor Vovchanchyn-like Russian who doesn’t look like much, but is an ultimate bad ass.

Another angle saw UFC’s middleweight champion, Murilo Bustamante, show up wearing his belt and saying that he was going to fight for Pride. At least he didn’t throw the belt in the garbage can. This was edited off because, despite stories to the contrary, Bustamante has not signed yet with Pride. If he does and Pride creates a 185-pound division, his list of potential opponents is tremendous, between Anderson Silva, Dan Henderson, Carlos Newton, Kiyoshi Tamura and of course, Kazushi Sakuraba.

The biggest story on the show in Japan was not that Nogueira, after winning virtually every fighter of the year poll last year, proved the great fighting axiom to be true when faced with the sledge hammer blows and tremendous submission defense of Fedor. In Japan, the biggest news was that Sakuraba was knocked out by Nino Schembri of Brazil. This ended up on the front page of several sports section the next day with a giant photo of Sakuraba’s head on the ground with Schembri lining up to kick it off his shoulders. The other story that made most headlines wasn’t that Fedor beat Nogueira, but that Sapp had challenged new champ Fedor.

It had come out that Sakuraba had not trained hard for the fight, and he looked the most of out shape he ever had, particularly in the middle. His right knee was wrapped tight, although he did a play on it in a training film, as he was rolling around with Daijiro Matsui and screamed in pain, only to get up and laugh at the camera with the “I fooled you” face. But he was limping as he came to the ring dressed up like 1980s pro wrestling star the Great Kabuki. He toyed with Schembri in a spectacular fight, with a shocking ending. Schembri accidentally head-butted Sakuraba when moving in, and this stunned Sakuraba. Schembri exploded, nailing the Japanese hero with three hard knees to the chin. The first one did the damage, and Sakuraba was really done. He went to the ground after the third one and Schembri kicked a field goal with Sakuraba’s brain before the ref thankfully stepped in. While some point to this as the finish for the 33-year-old Sakuraba, it’s probably a benefit to him.

If he had won, the promotion would have matched him up once again with Vanderlei Silva to avenge his two previous losses. While a huge money fight, the odds are good that Sakuraba, as banged up as he is now, would have taken a beating in it. Now, Sakuraba has a natural big-time return match with Schembri, who in reality, a loss Sakuraba should avenge without taking much of a beating, and might be the fight to bow out on.

If there are no money problems, Pride actually looks to have a strong 2003, with marquee matches such as Sapp against either Fedor or Mirko Cro Cop (an MMA rematch, provided Cro Cop wins the first match under K-1 rules on 3/30, would be huge), Sakuraba vs. Schembri, Jackson vs. Silva, or Hidehiko Yoshida against either Nogueira, Don Frye or Fedor leaves slew of strong matches that people are already looking forward to seeing. Not only that, but a second Fedor vs. Nogueira match would be a bigger marquee match than the first.

The live show opened with a tribute to Morishita and a video piece which opened saying “The End of Pride–Born October 11, 1997, Died 2003,” teasing this would be the final show, and then an image saying “Pride Never Die!” [You may have heard about this!—ed.]

1. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira defeated Kazuhiro Nakamura in 13:30 (3:30 of round two) with an armbar submission. Nakamura was much shorter than Nogueira, but a powerhouse grappler. He threw the Brazilian down hard with a belly-to-belly suplex. The Japanese national champion in judo at 220-pounds, in his first MMA fight, dominated early and even did some cool cartwheel guard passes. The time figured to be Nogueira’s ally, as Nakamura was used to shorter time limits in judo. Nogueira started taking control late in the round. Nogueira constantly went for submissions and was blocked. A tired Nakamura was unable to take Nogueira down in the second round, and eventually was being pounded on and gave Nogueira his back. Nogueira got the armbar from that position for the submission. Good opener.

Bustamante came out wearing the UFC middleweight title belt, and spoke in Japanese, saying that his dream is to win the Pride middleweight title. If this didn’t air in the U.S. because Bustamante actually hadn’t reached a deal with Pride, then why should it have aired on PPV in Japan where far more people would have seen it? On the U.S. broadcast, this was never referenced other than Stephen Quadros and Bas Rutten drooling over the possibilities of future fights, and mentioned Bustamante’s name with Anderson Silva or Dan Henderson.

2. Akira Shoji won a controversial split decision over Alex Stiebling after three rounds (20:00). Shoji dropped considerable weight and looked in far better shape after training with Matt Hume in Seattle. Hume was in his corner. Shoji took the first round as he was on top, but didn’t do serious damage other than Stiebling starting to get a mouse on his right eye. Second round was one of the best five minutes of the year. They traded blows, with Shoji decking Stiebling with a combination. Shoji beat the you know what out of him on the ground with solid punches and hard knees to the point it was probably close to being stopped. Stiebling arose from the dead to score a reversal on the ground, and it was his turn to do damage. Stiebling came close with a choke. He gave up the choke and gave Shoji a pounding to where Shoji was close to finished at the end of the round. That round was too close to call. Stiebling’s face was a mess by this point. Stiebling dominated the third round as Shoji tired. The announcers expected Stiebling to win, and he probably should have taken a close decision. But this was hardly a robbery as it was a close fight, and the result shouldn’t be that much of a surprise because fighters know in Japan you get home town decisions in close ones.

3. Alexander Otsuka (Takashi Otsuka) defeated Kenichi Yamamoto via unanimous decision after three rounds (20:00). This match was edited off the U.S. show. Both are veteran Japanese pro wrestlers. Yamamoto refused the handshake to get the crowd going. Otsuka dominated the first round, including doing the first ever cradle piledriver in Pride. In the second round, Otsuka landed a big knee and they traded some punches standing. Otsuka had a bloody nose. Third round was slow, with both tiring. Otsuka went for a dropkick, which missed. When Otsuka won, the crowd booed, partially because some thought it was a draw, but more because they felt it was a boring fight.

4. Anderson Silva knocked out Carlos Newton in 6:26. This was edited off the U.S. tape, but Silva came out dancing like he was Michael Jackson. Newton got the first takedown, but was caught in Silva’s guard. Silva is very tall for a 185-pounder, with long legs, allowing him to control Newton well with his guard. Newton scored some punches. Silva got a yellow card for stalling on the ground, but as they got up, Silva killed Newton dead with a knee as Newton appeared to be going for a takedown. Silva followed with some punches on the ground before it was stopped.

5. Dan Henderson knocked out Shungo Oyama in 3:27. Many expected this to be a one-sided slaughter, but it was actually competitive and a match that would win best match on almost any show. They traded wild punches early in a great exchange where Oyama ended up rocking Henderson at one point. Henderson got Oyama in a body lock, which is exactly where he likes him, except Oyama threw Henderson down to the mat hard and threw some knees. Henderson escaped and took Oyama down and punched him. Finish was spectacular, as Henderson stunned Oyama with a punch and in following through, did a flying tackle which sent Oyama down hard. Henderson then pounded him on the ground until it was stopped.

Live, Inoki’s music played, and Sapp came out, wearing a short sleeve shirt and an Inoki mask, as if it could be hidden who it was. Sapp acted like he was Inoki until finally unmasking. The lights went out and a tape of the real Inoki appeared on the big screen. Inoki was snorkeling under water with Kazuyuki Fujita, who challenged Sapp to a match. Sapp cut a promo accepting it, and then Sapp did Inoki’s “Ichi, ni, san, da!” catch phrase.

6. Nino “Elvis” Schembri defeated Kazushi Sakuraba in 6:07. Sakuraba came out with a Great Kabuki mask, doing the nunchakus and having the Spiderman like tape come out of his arms. No green mist, however. Crowd went crazy for everything he did. Total one-sided domination, with Sakuraba keeping the fight standing and nailing him with punches and kicks, almost at will. Schembri tried a flying guard to get Sakuraba to the ground and end his misery, but Sakuraba stayed standing. Bas Rutten called this the koala position. Rutten and Stephen Quadros were on fire all night anyway. In the show’s open, they did a WWE-style vignette where Rutten was wearing his official Pride gloves and said that nobody could get them off him. Suddenly, out came Vanderlei Silva, and Rutten sold for him like he was, well, Vanderlei Silva, taking his gloves off and nearly crying as he gave them to him. As Sakuraba was clowning around, Rutten said that if Sakuraba knew English, he’d be as good with the jokes as them. Schembri’s nose was busted and blood was everywhere. The doctor checked him but kept the fight going. Schembri had a huge bruise on the inside of his leg that Sakuraba kept nailing with leg kicks. Crowd was having so much fun here. Sakuraba then did the dreaded Mongolian chop, but wound up stunned by a head-butt and as he stood there, got clocked with a knee to the chin, followed by two more knees to the face and the field goal kick. Sakuraba’s nose was busted open and the ref had to stop it. Since almost everyone is a Sakuraba fan, people were sad, but it was another great match.

7. Quinton Jackson knocked out Kevin Randleman in 7:00 in a match to determine the No. 1 contender to Vanderlei Silva. Jackson looked amazing, because Randleman is a fantastic wrestler and he went for every kind of take down imaginable and Jackson kept his balance. As Randleman would struggle to try and take him down, Jackson would steady himself and throw knees to the body, which were going to work against Randleman later in the fight. Randleman hit Jackson with some hard punches. This was a slow fight as they were locked up with Jackson throwing knees most of the way. The ref gave both men yellow cards for not providing enough action (if you want to know why Pride matches are usually so exciting, if the matches are boring, they pull out the card, and when they do, that’s a 10% cut in your pay for the fight). Jackson kneed Randleman in the side of the head and he went down and out, and followed with a few punches where it was clear Randleman couldn’t defend himself, and it was stopped. After the match, Jackson grabbed the mic and bad mouthed Silva, who was at ringside. Silva hit the ring, they did a stare down, and Silva shoved Jackson hard. There was a wild pull-apart right out of old-time pro wrestling (where a pull-apart looked serious as opposed to funny). The place was chanting like crazy for Silva, who became a big-time babyface when he represented Pride against K-1 in the Cro Cop match last year. Silva started screaming over the p.a. “Come on, let’s go right now.” Jackson came back but was kept from getting into the ring.

8. Emelianenko Fedor defeated Antonio Rodorigo Nogueira via unanimous decision after three rounds (20:00). The fight consisted of Fedor on top, continually pounding on Nogueira with punches while Nogueira kept going for triangles, armbars, one chicken wing and una plata submissions. Fedor’s short distance punches have incredible power, but Nogueira can take a punch like nobody’s business. Fedor controlled him with his superior wrestling and hurt him with his punches on the ground. I don’t see Fedor losing to anyone except a super wrestler or a guy like Sapp who just has too much size. Fedor gave Nogueira beating that would have stopped almost anyone, but Nogueira would keep moving and trying his triangles. Nogueira’s mistake is that he fought the fight Fedor expected and that he wanted to fight, but when it wasn’t working, he needed to try something different and risky to go for a different submission than the four he kept going for and that Fedor had scouted. Fedor’s punches were like rock. He threw one punch early that Nogueira slipped that would have tested Nogueira’s chin like nothing he’s ever taken. Fedor hit punch after punch, with Nogueira bleeding from the cheek and puffy almost everywhere. Nogueira managed to get a reversal late, but Fedor quickly reversed him back. One of the most exciting rounds ever that was largely ground and pound, because of Fedor’s punching, Nogueira’s constant movement and very entertaining play calling. Second round saw Nogueira’s lip start swelling. It was more of the same, although not as exciting as the first round. Nogueira got a reversal and may have done some damage but the round ended just as he made his move. Third round was more of the same, with Fedor continually hitting Nogueira with solid shots en route to the unanimous decision.

After the U.S. PPV went off the air, all of the fighters from the undercard hit the ring as they did a confetti celebration, to get over Fedor’s winning of the title (with the exception of Vanderlei, since Jackson was there). Sapp came out and issued the challenge, which Fedor acted like he didn’t want to accept."

April 7, 2003:

"The world record is in excess of $7 million set on August 28, 2002 at Tokyo National Stadium for Mirko Cro Cop vs. Kazushi Sakuraba in a Pride match. Not including Pride, the all-time record would be right at $7 million set on April 4, 1998 at the Tokyo Dome for Inoki’s retirement match against Don Frye."

and, after Bob Sapp's first-round K-1 loss to Mirko Cro Cop:

"This does open the door for a rematch with Cro Cop under Pride rules, which would be as big or bigger an attraction than the first match, and a match where Sapp would figure to have a much better chance in, and thus redeem himself almost completely. Sapp didn’t appear at the press conference the next day, where there was talk about a rematch on 10/11 at the Osaka Dome under K-1 rules. Cro Cop issued a challenge to new Pride heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko at the press conference. Pride, on the other hand, sees more money in a Cro Cop vs. Hidehiko Yoshida match."

from UFC news and notes:

"Murilo Bustamante, the middleweight champion, appears gone from the promotion for Pride, although that deal isn’t finalized."

April 14, 2003:

"I saw the Japanese version of the 3/16 Pride show, and as good as the U.S. version was, unedited the show was even better. I can’t believe they edited out the Sapp coming out as Inoki stuff, because Sapp and Inoki got the biggest reactions on the show."

and

"The Cleveland Scene had a negative, but very well written and researched, piece on UFC over the past week. The story noted that MMA matches will not be sanctioned by the athletic commission in Ohio. What that means is they have MMA shows, but none of the fighters get paid, as the commission has no jurisdiction over amateur sports. There is something so wrong with loopholes like that. There was a lot on Mark Coleman. If you saw “Smashing Machine,” you’ll be sad to hear that of the two Marks, the one going through a divorce right now is Coleman. Coleman had an interesting quote regarding his first UFC tournament championship match with Don Frye. “I felt like the fight should have been stopped way sooner than it was. And there was a couple times I can remember looking down at him and wondering why they weren’t stopping this fight. The guy still had life left in him, the guy was still fighting back, but it was one-sided from start-to-finish. At that point, I just wanted out of there. I wanted the win, and I wanted my paycheck. He had enough, but I had to keep going because the cameras were rolling. I was just right on top of him, in the dominating position. Most of my punches were getting through, and head butts were legal. The head butts…they didn’t look so pretty.” Coleman said his downfall came because he got lazy and cocky. The story followed him back to his wins in Pride. Dana White was quoted as saying they at one time had 52 fighters under contract but now have only 13. Coleman, now 38, said he’s still interested in fighting for Pride. He had a rematch with Frye scheduled for last summer, but suffered a bad neck injury a few weeks before and hasn’t fought since, although he has done a few pro wrestling matches. They also talked with Dan Bobish of WJ, who said he only made $30,500 total in 11 fights over the past six years (which included some fights in Brazil, UFC and recent King of the Cage matches), including $2,500 for his King of the Cage main events. I guess that explains why he wanted to get into pro wrestling so badly. The story noted him going into pro wrestling in Japan, but he also wants to fight in Pride and of course, is interested in WWE."

April 21, 2003:

"Dream Stage Entertainment failed to answer many questions about its future at its press conference on 4/15 regarding its future.

As expected, Nobuyuki Sakakibara was announced as the new president of the company, replacing Naoto Morishita, who died of a reported suicide in January. Sakakibara was second in charge at the time. Although Pride officials in March talked of breaking ties with pro wrestling and concentrating more on the U.S. market, the new company listed Antonio Inoki as its Executive Producer and Nobuhiko Takada as General Manager. Takada’s duties are said to include matchmaking, setting up training for new talent and scouting new fighters from around the world.

But the press conference to announce the future schedule showed a cutback in plans. Only five more events are scheduled for the next 15 months. The next show will be on 6/8 from the Yokohama Arena, called in the U.S., “Bad to the Bone” headlined by Fedor Emelianenko, Pride’s world heavyweight champion, facing pro wrestler Kazuyuki Fujita, who is coming off a pair of losses to Mirko Cro Cop, in a non-title match. There is talk of Vanderlei Silva vs. Quinton Jackson for the middleweight title, but that depends upon Silva’s recovery from knee surgery, and Don Frye is expected to face a major name on this show. Fujita does have high profile wins over well known names like Ken Shamrock, Mark Kerr and Gilbert Yvel as well as a strange looking win (which was either a work or both had agreed not to hurt each other as sometimes training partners) over Tadao Yasuda. Fujita has a fight in the interim, against another New Japan headliner Manabu Nakanishi on 5/2 at the Tokyo Dome. Because Fujita is a few years younger and far more experienced, he is expected to beat Nakanishi, so to the Japanese public it’s a big win leading up to the fight. Fujita is a better credentialed wrestler than Emelianenko, having been a national champion in Japan in 1992, and can take punishment, having never been stopped in a fight even though he’s taken some brutal shots, but that’s his only edge, and he’d go into the match as a strong underdog.

The other two shows will be part of either an eight or 16-man under 200-pound tournament, no doubt banking on the drawing power of Kazushi Sakuraba. However, with the weight limit and people pulling weight down, Sakuraba would be facing stronger men with 20 and 30 pound weight advantages, so they’re once again booking him in a short-sighted manner. The original plan was to do eight-man heavyweight and under-200 tournaments. The heavyweight tournament is said to be planned for 2004. The idea is that the first round would consist of either four or eight matches on 8/10 at the Saitama Super Arena. The final four or eight would do what looks to be a brutal, but perhaps memorable, tournament in late October or early November either in Saitama or at the Tokyo Dome. The long talked about U.S. debut is planned for Las Vegas in January 2004, with the first major show in Japan of that year not scheduled until March.

Company officials are claiming their goal is to run as many events in the U.S. as Japan. The feeling is once getting on InDemand in the U.S., which they start on in June, that PPV will be their top revenue stream. While Pride has eight of the ten largest PPV shows in the history of Japan, that country has less than three million homes wired, as compared to 52 million in the U.S. and Canada, so on paper, the revenue potential is greater. However, with the exception of boxing and Vince McMahon, the riches derived from PPV have usually wound up being more theoretical than actual, and the Pride name isn’t known by anyone other than hardcore MMA fans in the U.S., and it will never garner the mainstream media attention in this country that it does in Japan."

and this is wild:

"NEW JAPAN: The company issued this release regarding its putting its wrestlers into shoot matches on 5/2. The basic gist is that New Japan was established in 1972 with the idea of it being the strongest form of mixed martial arts, “however, these past several years, K-1 and Pride were born and made their marks in the MMA field to finally be our rivals. Even the New Japan owner, Antonio Inoki, has doubt in our existence now. Pro wrestling should be about a fighting form that includes all the great elements of world’s strongest martial arts. NJPW’s professional wrestlers must train at MMA techniques at our dojo in order to show the audience their strong bodies and minds as well as te courage to live, and the excitement of life. All NJPW wrestlers, new or experienced, used to share the same belief, ‘I am the strongest of all.’ But young applicants at NJPW today seem to lack such strong passion and motivation; they rather desire to become famous, expect to get paid, or just hope to become like Antonio Inoki. NJPW is not trying to go back to the old times, and we understand that the market is different from then. But we would like to see our professional wrestlers train much harder, to their limits, at our dojo only to become the strongest. When (Shinsuke) Nakamura fought at Inoki Bom Ba Ye on New Year’s Eve, it was a disappointment for me to see none of NJPW wrestlers were on his side as seconds.” The release went on to say, “The Japanese may have less physical abilities compared to Western or Brazilian fighters. Yet when such Japanese shoot for a victory, risking their bodies and souls, great excitement and impact will be born. Do not be afraid to lose! NWF champion Takayama has never won in MMA yet, but look at where he stands. Fans are paying great respect to Takayama for his courage and fighting spirits.” One of the building blocks of the company and stars was using fighters from other sports and paying them to lose to Inoki (and later Akira Maeda, Keiji Muto and Shinya Hashimoto among others), which worked well before Pancrase, Pride, K-1, etc. changed the dynamic of that aspect of pro wrestling just as UFC did in the U.S. Wrestling in both markets could get away with pretending to be real when there was no real free fighting so people could see the difference. When real fighting organizations sprung up, it forced wrestling to change conceptually, and that did hurt the business in Japan in the long run, but not immediately. It didn’t hurt immediately in the U.S. either, because UFC never got the kind of mainstream visibility K-1 or Pride got in Japan. But U.S. wrestling changed so much that there will be no long-term effect either, although in changing what it was, U.S. wrestling got so carried away in not being real that it also lost its original lure of building a realistic big match and people paying to see it that carried the industry’s top level since the beginning of time. That has resulted in industry trouble in the U.S."

and

"Emelianenko Fedor, just three weeks after his Pride title win, was back in the ring on 4/5 in Vilnius, Lithuania and defeated Egidijus Valavicius of Russia with a chicken wing submission on a RINGS Russia show." [Dave says "chicken wing" way more than is either necessary or helpful or even slightly good imo—ed.]

and

"Pride star Anderson Silva, coming off his knockout win over Carlos Newton, scored a knockout in 2:57 over Tadeu Sanmartino on a 4/13 show in Brazil."

April 28, 2003:

"The 6/8 Pride show from Yokohama Arena will be airing on U.S. and Canadian PPV on 6/13, which I believe is the first time Pride will air on a Friday night as opposed to the usual Sunday pro wrestling time slot. Sky PerfecTV in Japan, which is the major PPV provider, has taken a partial ownership role in Pride. As mentioned before, Pride shows make up eight of the ten biggest PPV events in Japanese history, so Sky PerfecTV would want to keep it alive. The 8/10 show with the first round of the under-200 pound tournament will air on same-day PPV in the U.S., and they will air the Las Vegas show in January live. It looks like the talked about Quinton Jackson vs. Vanderlei Silva match will take place as a first round tournament match on 8/10. If that’s the case, the winner of the tournament should be declared the champion. A second fight was announced with Nino Schembri, coming off the win over Kazushi Sakuraba, facing Kazuhiro Hamanaka, a 22-year-old former amateur wrestler who is a teammate of Sakuraba. Hamanaka’s background includes placing second in 2001 at 211 pounds in both the All Japan trials and All Japan Cup, and fourth in 2002 at 185 pounds at the All Japan trials. He competes at 185 in the Japanese national freestyle championships on 5/1 and 5/2 before the fight, and his goal is to make the Japanese Olympic team at that weight for the 2004 Olympics. Another fight that is being negotiated right now is Don Frye vs. Mark Coleman.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira needed surgery a few weeks back for a broken nose suffered in the Fedor fight.

Pride president Nobuyuki Sakakibara is claiming he wants Kurt Angle to fight on a show and wants to put together Bob Sapp vs. Big Show. None of these matches will ever happen, and these are just things said to get press. Sakakibara has spoken more about the U.S. as the company’s primary market, and not Japan, believing that getting on In Demand is the key to success in this country, which I don’t see. The plan is to run two or three shows in 2004 in the U.S. Sakakibara said “In the future, USA will be the main market for Pride. Next year, DSE will have two or three shows in USA. Shows in Japan will be decreased.

The 6/8 show will be called “Reborn” in Japan and “Bad to the Bone” in the U.S. They have used subtitles for all the U.S. shows, but will now also be doing it for Japan."

May 5, 2003:

"Mirko Cro Cop was on TV in Croatia and said he would be facing Emelianenko Fedor for the Pride heavyweight title on 8/10. Hidehiko Yoshida, who has been talked with about facing Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, talked about fighting on the show against either Nogueira, Cro Cop, Sapp or Fedor. Cro Cop vs. Fedor is a bigger match to MMA fans, but Cro Cop vs. Yoshida is a much bigger ticket seller and would have more interest in Japan."

May 12, 2003:

"The proposed Don Frye vs. Mark Coleman match on the 6/8 Pride show looks to be off, although we’re not sure why and both are at last word still scheduled to fight on the show."

May 19, 2003:

"Mark Coleman vs. Don Frye was officially announced for the 6/8 Pride show in Yokohama. That match was supposed to take place last summer, but Coleman was dropped on his head and seriously injured. With Coleman out, the Japanese had to decide between Yoshihiro Takayama and Kevin Randleman to be Frye’s opponent. All the American MMA fans wanted Randleman, since Takayama had never won a fight. The promoters picked Takayama, and got a better ticket selling fight, and one of the great matches of all-time. They’ve been working on this match ever since, and even a week ago, it looked like it was falling through again. Frye and Coleman have a history that dates back to July 12, 1996, when Coleman handed Frye a terrible beating in the finals of the UFC X eight-man tournament. The two were scheduled for a rematch at the 1996 Ultimate Ultimate, but Coleman was injured. Frye had remained unbeaten with the exception of the Coleman match under MMA rules until his loss at the Tokyo Dome on 11/24 to Hidehiko Yoshida. Frye is currently in San Jose training for the fight with Frank Shamrock.

Nobuhiko Takada also said Pride is working on a heavyweight dream match for the show that would be announced in a week or so. Lots of rumors have it as Heath Herring vs. Mirko Cro Cop. Cro Cop did an interview in Croatia and brought up Herring as his next opponent."

and 

"More talk that Alexander Fedor, who is the younger brother of the Pride world champion, would debut in Pride this year." [close!—ed.]

May 26, 2003:

Honestly a little surprised to find an extensive ADCC report here!

"Several major MMA and pro wrestling names, including the return to competition of Mark Kerr for the first time since the debut of the acclaimed movie “The Smashing Machine,” highlighted the biggest submission wrestling tournament of the year, the annual Abu Dhabi Combat Championships on 5/16 and 5/17.

Even though Abu Dhabi is the name of the tournament, which has become an annual fixture as emanating from Abu Dhabi, this year it was held in Sao Paolo, Brazil. While about 7,500 tickets were said to have been sold for each night, because the shows were so long, there were probably never more than 3,500 to 4,000 in attendance at any point. Current plans are, going forward, to hold the tournament every other year.

The biggest event on the show was the bout between reigning superfight champion Kerr, and last year’s Absolute division winner, Pride star Ricardo Arona. Because of Kerr’s wrestling ability (he had beaten Kurt Angle when both were amateurs) and experience under the rules, which don’t allow any striking, he has been thought of as almost impossible to beat. However, Kerr’s fate seemed decided upon before the match started.

He showed up looking terribly out of shape. Before his match, he no-showed all of his scheduled promotional appearances and media interviews, as well as the rules meeting, in the days leading to the show, and there were comparisons made to Jake Roberts. Three had been rumors that even if Kerr were to have beaten Arona, who he held a significant weight advantage on, that he wouldn’t be invited back because of his unprofessional behavior.

But even with Kerr getting tired and mainly playing defense, he is such a phenomenal athlete that he was able to keep the match standing at a stalemate through the 20:00 regulation period with a 0-0 score. Then, when they announced the 10:00 overtime, Kerr started complaining saying that last year was only a 5:00 overtime (that wasn’t the case). Arona finally took Kerr down in overtime and the 30:00 time limit expired with Arona winning by a 4-0 score. Promoters were saying they would never invite Kerr back. After the match, Kerr was admitting this was a wake-up call for him and people were hoping he was serious about it.

The only other pro wrestler in the tournament, Japanese star Tsuyoshi Kosaka, was eliminated in the first round of the heavyweight tournament via points against Fabricio Verdum, who was a sub for Ricco Rodriguez, who pulled out presumably because his knee hadn’t recovered fully from his recent surgery. Rodriguez no-showed without a phone call or e-mail to the promotion, and the heavyweight division was also depleted by the late no-shows of two other competitors, including Tom Erikson (who did call a few days ahead and said he wouldn’t be coming due to personal problems at home). Verdum , not even scheduled, ended up submitting wrestling great Mike Van Arsdale, and going to the finals before losing to Pe de Pano (Marcio Cruz) via submission. Van Arsdale, who was praised by everyone for being a pro, as he moved up from the 218 pound weight division to go unlimited with all the drop-outs at the request of the promoters, finished fourth. He’s nearly 40, and while, aside from possibly Kerr, he was the best athlete in the competition, he doesn’t train with anyone with a submission background and fell victim several times to ankle locks.

In a major shocker, Dean Lister captured the absolute (all weight classes tournament, open to anyone who wants to enter based on their placings within their weight class). Lister, who was something of a human interest story because he was so deep in debt, won the $40,000 prize for the division. The Royce Gracie trained Lister, from San Diego, who earlier competed in the 218-pound weight class, and didn’t even place, losing in the quarterfinals by an 8-0 score to Alexandre Ribeiro, only got into the absolute tournament because so many others turned down the slot. He first submitted Pancrase middleweight champion Nathan Marquardt with a Kimura, then defeated Saulo Ribeiro, the 193-pound champion with an ankle lock in double overtime, followed beating heavyweight champion Pe de Pano with a big score with 15 seconds left, and finished by submitting via a takedown with 15 seconds and finished by submitting Alexandre Cacareco, who placed second at 218, using an ankle lock. The superfight championship in 2005 is now scheduled as Arona vs. Lister.

Pro wrestling promoters from Japan talked with Lister, saying that with his look, that they should put sunglasses on him and dress him up with an Arnold Schwarzeneggar “Terminator” gimmick.

Jon Oval Einemo of Norway took the championship at 218 pounds by submitting Cacareco of Brazil, but the big story was the debut of 21-year-old Roger Gracie, who placed third. Gracie defeated weight class favorite Mario Sperry by a 5-0 score in the first round of the tournament, and followed by overwhelming another old-school Jiu Jitsu legend, Rigan Machado, bringing back the Gracie vs. Machado age-old feud from Brazil. Gracie lost on points to Einemo in the semifinals.

In the 193-pound weight class, Marquardt lost in the first round to Rodrigo Medeiros by a 2-0 score. Jack of all trades Matt Lindland, who on 6/6 will have competed in a few week period in UFC, submission wrestling and Greco-roman wrestling at a high level, defeated Yushin Okami in his first round match. Two other Pride stars lost in the first round, with David Terrell out pointing Akira Shoji, and Ronaldo Jacare beating Ryan Gracie 5-0.

Jacare followed in the second round beating Lindland via armbar, which was only the second loss for Lindland in any sort of martial arts competition. Jacare then scored a quadruple overtime win over former UFC and Pride competitor Ricardo Almeida. But Jacare lost to former champ Saulo Ribeiro 3-0 in the finals. Almeida finished fourth.

Marcelino Garcia choked out Otto Olson to win at 169 pounds. Garcia beat Renzo Gracie via points and submitted Vitor Ribeiro via choke in under 30 seconds en route to the finals.

At 143 pounds, Leo Veieira of Brazil beat Barret Yoshida of Hawaii by points in the finals. In the biggest upset in the history of the tournament, Eddie Bravo, who played the Jonathan Coachman backstage reporter gig on the last UFC, submitted tournament favorite Royler Gracie with a triangle in the first round of a match that Gracie was dominating on points. The entire place went into a state of shock, as there was stunned silence for several seconds until people realized what they had seen. Bravo himself started crying when he realized what happened, and Helio Gracie stormed out of the arena. Bravo was then destroyed in the most one-sided match of the tournament, a 15-0 win by Vieira in the semifinals. Yoshida made the finals after being behind 6-0 to Alexandre Soca, and then came back with nine unanswered points to win. Bravo forfeited his third place match due to injury, allowing Royler Gracie back in the tournament in his spot, and he placed third."

and

"Heath Herring vs. Mirko Cro Cop was officially announced for the 6/8 Pride show in Yokohama. This should be Cro Cop’s toughest test in Pride, as he’s facing somebody bigger than him who is adept at doing damage on the ground and is decent on stand-up. If Cro Cop wins, and this is a close one to call, he’ll get a shot at the heavyweight title and Emelianenko Fedor, probably on 8/10 at the Saitama Super Arena. Also announced for 6/8 was Ricardo Arona vs. Alistair Overeem and Quinton Jackson vs. Mikhail Ilioukhine (the former RINGS star from years back). While not announced yet, there are strong negotiations for the Pride debut of Murilo Bustamante, and as of the weekend, they were talking about Anderson Silva as his opponent. Daijyu Takase, who is a 170-pounder, is also booked, and he may also face Silva. With Fedor vs. Kazuyuki Fujita, Frye vs. Coleman and Nino Schembri vs. Kazuhiko Hamanaka, it sounds like a loaded show."

June 2, 2003:

A neat excerpt from an overall state-of-the-business piece:

"A lot of the 90s boom stemmed from overseas concepts–the high-flying undercard matches came from Mexico, the WCW vs. NWO concept of course was taken from Japan, as was the garbage style brawling and gimmick matches with barbed wire and sick weapons. The changing nature of wrestling promos were more taken from urban America, although the national companies likely would have never embraced many of the changes had ECW not introduced them first and achieved cult success. So while their roots were overseas, in most of those cases, the big companies wouldn’t have discovered them on their own. While UFC was the next extension of the UWF concept in Japan, it really owes its roots to Brazilian Vale Tudo. Pride, on the other hand, became a mix of Brazilian Vale Tudo rules and UWF style pro wrestling personalities and hype."

and

"Final about announced on the 6/8 Pride show is Anderson Silva vs. Daijyu Takase, so no Murilo Bustamante on this show. The show is expected to sellout in advance

A correction in last week’s report from Abu Dhabi. We talked about the Roger Gracie vs. Rigan Machado match and the Gracie vs. Machado feud. Apparently that’s more of a story than reality. Those close to Rigan Machado say there is no feud. Rigan did have problems in the early 90s with Rorion Gracie, but that’s all blown over.

Don Frye is hoping that the second match on his two-match Pride deal will be a rematch with Hidehiko Yoshida. Pride officials have told him that Yoshida’s contract price is so high that it’s difficult to book him. Frye has gone so far as to offer to put $50,000 off of his contract up to Yoshida if Yoshida can beat him a second time. Yoshida beat Frye with an armbar on 11/24 at the Tokyo Dome. Frye was a guest on Wrestling Observer Live on 5/25 and Superstar Billy Graham, who along with Ric Flair were Frye’s sports heroes growing up, called the show as a surprise. Frye ended up dedicating his match with Coleman to Graham. It was one of the best shows we ever did (which now means Frye was a guest on two of the five best shows ever, because we did a show with Frye, Bobby Heenan and Frank Shamrock a few years back that was probably our best show ever). Frye was fascinating in talking about his 1996 match with Amoury Bitetti in Detroit, which Graham actually brought up. He noted it was a dark period of his life and that a combination of ref John McCarthy giving Bitetti so many chances to come back and his own savageness led to Bitetti taking such a horrible beating that it could have killed the sport. Bitetti was far more badly injured in that fight than was ever revealed. Frye said to this day he’ll never let his wife see that fight. In his next fight, which was two months later, he fought Mark Hall, and unlike with Bitetti, held back because he wasn’t wanting to give him that kind of a beating. He ended up tiring himself out because Hall wouldn’t quit and later that night faced Coleman. He said he took nearly as bad a beating in his match a few months later with Coleman and was beaten into semi-consciousness and needed to be hooked up to IV’s in the hospital after the fight. He said it was God’s way of making him see what Bitetti had gone through. He said when he regained consciousness in the hospital, the first thing he told his friends was that he was wanting a rematch with Coleman, which ended up taking seven years to happen."

and

"Jackson ripped on Pride during an interview on the MMA Weekly Radio show on 5/23. He claimed the organization treated him like shit, giving him yellow cards he didn’t deserve, and was disorganized in that they give fighters short notice on fights. He noted he was only given three weeks notice for his match with Igor Vovchanchyn, and they tried to get him to beat Heath Herring, who is a heavyweight, again with three weeks notice. He also didn’t like that Pride, when he first came in, gave him a gimmick of being a homeless guy, saying it was degrading. He said he’d be open to fighting in UFC. He said he was told he wouldn’t be fighting until the 8/10 match with Vanderlei Silva for the middleweight title, only to be told a few weeks ago he was fighting 6/8 against Mikhail Ilioukhine."

June 9, 2003:

"Mike “Batman” Bencic is replacing Ricardo Arona in the 6/8 Pride match against Alistair Overeem. Bencic, 37, is Mirko Cro Cop’s coach. All we know about him is he was born in Philadelphia, but he moved to Croatia in 1977. He started training in boxing and kickboxing in 1984. He had a 15-0 record in kickboxing matches and in 2001 won a “B” level MMA championship tournament in the U.S."

And that's that! You may recall that sixteen-thousand words ago (give or take) we wished you a healthy and prosperous 2003; I would like to close by extending those same wishes towards your 2025 as well. Let's reconvene early in this coming year and address ourselves once more to these same materials! I think it could be neat! Until then, thank you as always for reading, and please do take care.