PRIDE.26 REBORN（プライド・トゥウェンティシックス リボーン）

シリーズ PRIDE（ナンバーシリーズ）
主催 DSE
開催年月日 2003年（平成15年）6月8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6時
試合数 全7試合
放送局 フジテレビ（地上波）
入場者数 17,187人

POSTED DEEPLY WITHIN THE DEEPEST POSTINGS OF OUR MOST RECENT POST and therefore easy enough to miss were excerpts from Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter that offered details of the Japanese broadcast presentation of PRIDE.25（プライド・トゥウェンティファイブ）unavailable to those among us who have in our possession(s) not the JDM originals but mostly just the English-language ones (and we are lucky to have them; please do not mistake me). We missed out on some interesting stuff! For instance, there is the entire matter of Bob Sapp: "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." Even if we are fairly indifferent to Bob Sapp (I must admit that this is how I most often find myself), that sounds weird, but worth seeing. Dave also notes, importantly, that "[t]he week saw the company put on its first show since the reputed suicide death of its president, Naoto Morishita," and it is in this context that "[t]he 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!'". I share this with the group for two reasons, firstly because it offers us what I believe to be the first instance of that famous formulation, and secondly because it helps account for how this is our first numbered PRIDE FC event to also carry with it a non-numerical name in its Japanese designation; it is リボーン REBORN, which is perfectly fine name regardless but probably makes the most sense in this "Pride Never Die!" context, right? Any number of previous PRIDEs have had English-language names that we have largely ignored, because of how great a proportion of them are truly wack (for example, this, our present PRIDE, in its English-language broadcast appeared as "Bad to the Bone" which is embarrassing enough that I have already typed that name out and deleted it twice and there is a reasonable chance that I will do it again before I get to the end of this sentence [okay actually I made it but please agree not to bring it up later; I don't feel good about it at all]). I'm excited though! Could be good! And what awaits us on the other side of it is no less an occurrence that PRIDE GRANDPRIX 2003 開幕戦 which is to say both PRIDE GRANDPRIX 2003 KAIMAKU-SEN and indeed also PRIDE GRANDPRIX 2003 OPENING ROUND and, as I recall, it really is a lot of fun. But first! This one!

Our opening remarks from Stephen Quadros and Bas Rutten (hey guys!) emphasize the looming rematch betwixt Don Frye and Mark Coleman, whose one-night-tournament-final contest seven years earlier at UFC 10 resulted in Don Frye's only non-Yoshida mixed-fight loss to date. Though they highlight other matches as well, this for sure seems the one they hold to most dearly, and I am not about to suggest to you that they are at all in error (it's two compelling guys, plus the heart wants what it wants). In an interesting twist on the parade of fighters, the lights come up on a ring that is already filled with our sportsmen, who are introduced to the great esteem and regard of the 17,187人 assembled in the 横浜アリーナ Yokohama Arīna. All athletes but two are presented in this way, leaving only 藤田 和之 Fujita Kazuyuki and our champion Фёдор Влади́мирович Емелья́ненко / Fyodor Vladimirovich Yemelyanenko / Fedor Vladimirovich Emelianenko their own distinct walk-outs, or walk-halfway-outs, as they loom just barely in the area, each looking quite rad in their own distinct idiom. 

Our first bout sees Antônio "Nino" Schembri, who last time around defeated  桜庭 和志 Sakuraba Kazushi in truly dispiriting fashion (for us, I mean; Schembri was at least okay with it), against the débuting 浜中 和宏 Hamanaka Kazuhiro, who took first place in the -85kg division of the 全日本社会人レスリング選手権大会 / Zen'nihon shakai hito resuringu senshuken taikai / All Japan Amateur Wrestling Championships only two years earlier. Although in the fullness of time Hamanaka's mixed-fight career cannot really be said to have "gone well," his début here is promising, as he stays largely out of trouble against the able Schembri en route to a deservèd decision win. Schembri's best moments came as he threatened with his famed (it's at least a little famed) gogoplata, a modern rediscovery of the 踵絞 kakato-jime of yore. Several thousand years ago, I wrote a piece on this technique and its compelling (and perhaps illustrative!) history at a now-defunct blog (it was later translated into Portuguese by a fellow enthusiast, to whom I am grateful). I have just now revisited the piece, and although I am struck by how differently I wrote then than now (this is only natural after nearly twenty years; and of course questions of audience must always be considered), it does objectively contain information. It is available through the glories of the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine here if you are so inclined, but it is totally, one-hundred-percent more than okay if you are not (so [inclined]). At one point in the second round, Quadros wonders if Schembri has the flexibility in his right leg (I would add hip!) to apply this technique, as he only ever seems to perform it with his left, and this seems to me an excellent question, as I am definitely, profoundly one-sided with my own 踵絞 kakato-jime, but it would be folly, I think, to disclose publicly which side that is, lest my foes use that foreknowledge against me in a moment of martial encounter in which we each seek the ritual purity and symbolic death of 一本 ippon (just kidding, it's left; I can only do it on the left).   

Anderson Silva! 高瀬 大樹 Takase Daiju! Who is of course a Wajitsu Keishukai guy, which makes him a 宇野薫 Uno Kaoru guy, and we are all, of course, 宇野薫 Uno Kaoru guys ("I am an 宇野薫 Uno Kaoru guy; I am an 宇野薫 Uno Kaoru guy," it is not hard to imagine Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira saying [this is an allusion to a Wrestling Observer Radio appearance remembered only by me, and so qua allusion it suffers, in that the assumed shared tradition that binds us together in allusion in largely absent in this instance). Our commentators understandably predict an Anderson Silva knockout win—I mean, hey: fair enough—but Silva is quite badly out-grappled both early and often throughout this enjoyable first (and only!) round, as Takase attacks and nearly finishes with first the reverse arm entanglement of 逆腕緘 gyaku-ude-garami, before threatening the stepover 橫三角絞 yoko-sankaku-jime that I most closely associate with the largely forgotten (though not by me!) judo 三段 sandan and SHOOTO welterweight (76kg) champion 菊地昭 Kikuchi Akira (I often teach it as part of a knee-cut to 崩袈裟固 kuzure-kesa-gatame sequence, specifically as an alternative to the stepover far-side 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame: both options are entirely suitable for the beginner; both feel more or less like magic; both rule). It is not that particular sort of stepover 三角 sankaku that ends the bout, though, but the considerably more common (no diss whatsoever) iteration that takes one right up on top (think a very high 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame) before one rolls to one's back to finish an 表三角絞 omote-sankaku-jime. Takase really couldn't have done a better job at any of this, and I am going to check real quick to confirm this as the best win of his workmanlike career (I mean, it pretty much has to be, right? unless he beat like Fedor and Nogueira at the same time once and I have since just forgotten about it somehow?) . . . okay yes, extremely confirmed through the ceaseless blessing of Wikipedia, although I would note that Takase does also in time collect a split-decision win over Carlos Newton, which is a nice one too (of a different order, we must admit).       

Boy, Alistair Overeem's flying knee to the solar plexus sure doesn't look like much fun for anyone but him, does it; it seems especially unfun for Croatian grappler Mike Bencic, who is felled by one so hard. Upon this felling, Bencic turns to his side in such a way that the referee really probably should have accepted it as the end of the bout, but no, Bencic is allowed to turtle and eat any number of punches. Still unsatisfied, our referee waits for Bencic himself to signal his defeat by tapping to these endless strikes, which on a certain level is fair enough, I guess, but also, maybe just help a guy out? It remains jarring to see this still-relatively slim Overeem; the Overeem of the mind is truly the horse-meat/drug-failure/LMFAO-video-era Overeem, isn't it? Also it is wild that this is the relatively slim version of the man:

We get back-to-back matches that end in submission due to strikes (a rare outcome!) as our thirty-six-year-old RINGS RUSSIA friend Mikhail Ilyukhin has entirely enough of grounded knees to the body from Quinton Jackson, a man twelve years his junior, and also really very good at fighting. Ilyukhin had his moments, certainly, both with the front choke of 前裸絞 mae-hadaka-jime and a 逆腕緘 gyaku-ude-garami off his back, but got knocked fairly loopy halfway through this contest's lone round, and never really recovered (one hopes he has in the intervening years.)

Oh wow, they're going with Fujita/Fedor now? In the middle of the show? That's pretty surprising! In that it is obviously the main event! But in this English-language presentation, here it lies before us even now. Fujita makes the correct decision to enter to "Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye (Theme of Antonio Inoki) アントニオ猪木" (I would suggest clicking threw to that link just to see the album art, if nothing else) and follows this bold æsthetic move with an enormously creditable effort throughout this match's extraordinary four minutes and seventeen seconds. After each fighter defends the other's early 投技 nage-waza (throwing techniques)—Fujita's 双手刈 morote-gari, Emelianenko's 小外掛 kosoto-gake—a brief period of tentativity (I considered "tentativeness" and rejected it) ends in an instant, as Fujita connects with so thunderous a right hand that the stout and stalwart Emelianenko is transmuted at once into a floppy, floppy fish. There is a Tumblr gif (not mine [except in the sense that Tumblr gifs are our common human heritage) that speaks to this more eloquently than any number of screen caps or indeed these impoverished words ever could:

I do not mean to make undue sport of Fedor's disequilibrium, or indeed of anyone's (I am deeply and particularly sensitive to this matter), but this is a truly remarkable happening that is happening remarkably. Fujita tackles Fedor to the mat, and Fedor, though badly cut alongside the left eye, looks collected, and you could easily come to think that whatever effects Fujita's blow may have had already receded entirely. But when Fedor pops back to his feet a few moments later, you can see he is still somewhat unsteady, although not so unsteady that he cannot follow a kick to the body with several clubbing blows that send Fujita crashing to his knees, at which point Fedor finishes with the "short choke" super-traditional variation of 裸絞 hadaka-jime just like it was no big deal (recall perhaps his finish of Tim Sylvia with that same variation, which attacks the trachea in a wind-choke rather than the carotid arteries in a blood choke [wind chokes, unlike blood chokes, are slow and painful rather than quick and painless, and so are seen as fairly rude in the context of 乱取り randori but this of course is not 乱取り randori]). A proud but fairly low-key raising of a single fist is all Emelianenko allows himself in victory. That Muhammad Hussain Inoki/ 猪木寛至 Inoki Kanji /アントニオ猪木 / Antonio Inoki (may Allah be pleased with him) is on hand in the aftermath is so obvious as to hardly bear mentioning but here I am doing so and attaching a post-match screencap in support of that mention(ing).    

An incredible match! As far as brief, wild, back-and-forth mixed fights go, this is maybe, to me, the best one? I have mentioned previously that Frye/Takayama has always been a little lost on me (if the argument is how closely it resembles a hockey fight, I have in mind a sport that you might enjoy even more than the one we are discussing presently), but maybe this is my Frye/Takayama? Perhaps it occupies that same space? Or a like one? I'm unsure. 

Hey look, it's Sydney 2000 Olympic Champion (-100kg), three-time world champion (-100kg in each of Birmingham, Munich, Osaka), and three-time All-Japan Open-Weight champion 井上 康生 Inoue Kōsei who flashes briefly across our screen, and goes, alas, uncommented upon by our English-speaking friends.

He really is quite a guy of judo, this Kosei Inoue, as we have discussed previously (and may well again, when next he sits in).

Hoo boy, well, after all that, what we're left with—aside from Mirko Cro Cop's body-kick stoppage of the ever-game but here-overmatched Heath Herring in a brief bout into which I can offer no insight, other than that Cro Cop continues to emerge as just an absolute menace of the highest order—is really quite a snoozer between Mark Coleman and Don Frye, a bout characterized by such seemingly paradoxical hard-fought inactivity that it lost the incredibly hot crowd (they loved these guys coming out) almost at once and, as it turned out, permanently. Coleman spent nearly the entirety of the bout super duper on top, with Frye unable to do anything about it other than get squished and hit pretty thoroughly throughout, though never so badly as to ever risk a stoppage (more's the pity, I think, from Frye's battered perspective). Although they are each, in their own way, charismatic and compelling figures, fundamentally these are two overly muscled, increasingly creaky middle-aged men, and they fight here with a dynamism commensurate with those indisputable facts. Coleman is somewhat apologetic to the crowd in victory, but I feel a little sad for him, as I'm sure he tried hard. The file I have before me (and that indeed we have before us) concludes with thirty minutes of highlights of the very show we have just been watching. Pretty flat finish, guys! However: Fedor vs. Fujita was really something, even more than I'd remembered (my memories of it have never been less than fond), and Takase vs. Silva was certainly of interest, so on this whole I would describe this strangely sequenced, somewhat brief show as a pretty good time, all things considered. In closing, I would like to note that Frank Shamrock, who cornered Don Frye for this one, has a pretty nice hat that says "judo" on it.

And that'll just about do it! Except of course for checking in on WHAT DAVE MELTZER HAD TO SAY:

June 16, 2003:

"The Pride “Reborn” show on 6/8 from the Yokohama Arena was more predictable, which was good.

The company was looking at building up Vanderlei Silva vs. Quinton Jackson for the under-200 pound title, which was being risked by putting Jackson in with Russian Mikhail Ilioukhine. Even though on paper that wasn’t a big risk, as we’ve seen whenever companies try to book long-term angles, they inevitably get screwed up. The other match they were building was Emelianenko Fedor vs. Mirko Cro Cop for the Pride heavyweight title and real baddest man on the planet honors, which at this point looks likely for 11/9. That couldn’t have been done better, as Fedor choked out Kazuyuki Fujita in the main event, and Cro Cop took only 17 seconds to take out Heath Herring. This, being that it’s Pride’s toughest guy against K-1’s toughest guy, makes it probably as big a foreigner sports dream match as could happen these days. That also leaves open Bob Sapp against the winner down the line, which would be even bigger box office, and possibly Mark Coleman and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in line as well. Cro Cop has turned into the national sports hero in Croatia after his win over Bob Sapp aired on television there. The Pride show aired on same-day tape delay on TV in Croatia in prime time and drew a 70.0 rating (that is not a misprint).

For American fans from the glory days of UFC, this show featured a rematch, seven years in the making. On July 12, 1996 in Birmingham, undefeated Don Frye, going for his second straight tournament victory, met up with former Olympic wrestler Coleman. Frye’s combination of college wrestling skill and pro boxing experience had proved too much up to that point for all opponents, even though he was an undersized heavyweight at about 200 pounds. Coleman’s huge weight and power edge resulted in Frye taking the beating of his life. Frye was hospitalized after the match with multiple injuries, and vowing revenge. The match was set up a few times over the years, but injuries prevented it from taking place. This time Coleman’s power and wrestling ability prevailed again, winning a three round unanimous decision where Frye was largely grounded the entire fight.

The show drew a legitimate sellout of 17,187 fans. The show, which will be entitled “Bad to the Bone” in the U.S., will air 6/13 on PPV in the U.S. The reports on this show were it was a great show, with some saying it was better than the previous show, which was considered among the best MMA shows in history.

The show featured an angle right out of WWE to build for the next show on 8/10 (airing the same day in the U.S.) at the Saitama Super Arena. Nobuhiko Takada came out and asked Vanderlei Silva if he’d fight in the Grand Prix tournament, which starts that night. Silva agreed. Quinton Jackson, who had just beaten Ilioukhine after 20 minutes earlier, then got on the apron and asked to get into the tournament. Renzo Gracie came out and said that you can’t have a Grand Prix tournament without a Gracie. Renzo didn’t say that he would be in the tournament, but did say the family would send a representative. Then Takada, doing the Arn Anderson in Greenville deal, said that he’s forgetting about one man. Kazushi Sakuraba came out, wearing a mask, to a big pop. Sakuraba apologized for his recent losses and said he would redeem himself in the tournament. Takada asked Sakuraba if he was healthy enough to fight (he may be healthy enough for Renzo Gracie, but he isn’t going to be for Silva or Jackson at this point), and he said he was. Most likely it’ll be Sakuraba against the Gracie rep and the long pushed Silva vs. Jackson matches on 8/10 at the Saitama Super Arena, along with two other quarterfinal matches (Alistair Overeem, who scored an impressive win, is said to be in the tournament), leading to the November semifinals and finals. The downside is the same Sakuraba issue as has been the case for years. Sakuraba is usually around 183 pounds without cutting weight, and he’d be going against 220-pounders who cut down to make 200, and that’s just not feasible with the sport at the level it is. While Sakuraba has been told this, and Pride has offered to create a 185-pound championship (where he’d still be fighting naturally bigger guys because 205-pounders would cut to that weight), Sakuraba has refused it on many occasions, feeling it is his duty to beat bigger people.

Pride also announced it is following the lead of K-1, in creating a second promotion based around smaller guys. Nobuyuki Sakakibara announced in a press conference before this show of a 154-pound division, which would have separate smaller shows. This would take the place of “The Best,” which were secondary shows that ran at Korakuen Hall that didn’t do well. They are talking about calling this promotion, “Pride Bushido.” There are plans for a first show in November, and to build it around Japanese stars like Hayato Sakurai, Genki Sudo, Rumina Sato and Caol Uno.

1. Kazuhiro Hamanaka won a three round decision (20:00) over Nino Schembri. Hamanaka came out wearing a Sakuraba mask. Hamanaka, a top amateur wrestler who was studying submissions under Sakuraba, was expected to be able to out wrestle Schembri. Schembri did well early, pulling Hamanaka into guard, and bloodying his nose with a knee to the head. Schembri kept going for submissions. Before the round was over, Schembri was bleeding from the nose as well. Second round was Hamanaka on top in the guard and throwing punches. Schembri was bleeding a lot by this point. Third round saw Hamanaka land some good punches to the face standing, and more on the ground. He continued to land with head and body punches on the round. Hamanaka stood up, and landed more punches on Schembri before time expired. Fans were into the storyline of Hamanaka, trained by Sakuraba, getting revenge for his teacher and he became at least a minor star in one night.

2. Daijyu Takase scored a major upset beating Anderson Silva in 8:33 with a triangle choke. Most of the match was on the ground, and Takase was going for submission after submission. He went for a Kimura, a reverse armbar, a new form of a triangle and even a necklock, before finally getting the full triangle for the tap out. People were stunned not only by Takase winning, but that he was dominant the entire way.

3. Alistair Overeem beat Mike Bencic in 3:44. Bencic, who is Mirko Cro Cop’s 37-year-old trainer who was thrown into the fight on a couple of weeks notice when Ricardo Arona pulled out due to having a bad flu, just wasn’t ready. They nicknamed him “Batman,” and he came out with a Batman mask and cape. Overeem also came out wearing a mask. Bencic admitted that he only had one week of hard training and wasn’t ready. Overeem got him down and pounded on him. After a hard knee, Bencic appeared in great pain and submitted when he was on the ground taking punches to the rib.

4. Quinton Jackson beat Mikhail Ilioukhine in 6:26 via knockout. Jackson came out and pulled out a yellow card to the referee as a gimmick, because he’s been made about getting yellow carded in his last match with Kevin Randleman, which results in a significant fine. This was actually scary for the promotion, because Ilioukhine was going for several submissions early, largely a Kimura. After Jackson escaped, he nailed Ilioukhine with a knee and a punch that knocked him silly. He got more punches, and Ilioukhine tried to take it down. Jackson stood back up to land more, before it went down. Jackson was throwing knees to the body when Ilioukhine tapped.

5. Mark Coleman defeated Don Frye via unanimous decision after three rounds (20:00). Frank Shamrock was in Frye’s corner. Frye got by far the biggest pop of anyone on the show coming out. He caught Coleman in a near guillotine early when Coleman shot, but Coleman was able to power out. He got a second one later in the round. The two exchanged body punches similar to the Frye-Shamrock match. Coleman finally got Frye down with a double leg and worked his body and head from the top. Frye was never able to escape from the bottom and took small punches the rest of the round. Coleman went for a takedown to start the second round, and Frye tried to guillotine him again, but Coleman completed the takedown and got a side mount, throwing knees to the head and body. Coleman threw about 20 knees to the head in this round, and Frye took a real beating, but got up when the round ended, ready to go. Third round was the same thing, with Coleman taking Frye down, getting a full mount, punching and cutting Frye’s face. Coleman went for a neck crank, but Frye wouldn’t tap. Coleman kept throwing punches on Frye from the top for the rest of the round. Coleman said he apologized for not having a more exciting match, but he was only halfway back and that Frye was tough and he needed to get the win. Frye did a promo saying he was going to get the belt back and that he knew he needed a lot of work, but “I promise I’m gonna do it.” Frye was privately saying that his shoulders hadn’t fully recovered from surgery on both of them earlier in the year and that spelled the difference.

6. Mirko Cro Cop knocked out Heath Herring in 3:17. The crowd was going nuts for Herring. He was in the same position as Vanderlei Silva, who was a big-time heel at the time, was against Cro Cop in that the Pride fans want to see him beaten so badly. Cro Cop is getting tougher, since he was able to throw Herring down twice, and Herring has a wrestling background. Both went for kicks. Herring tried a takedown but it was blocked. Cro Cop put Herring down with a kick to the body and followed it up with series of ten punches before the referee stopped the fight. Cro Cop said after the fight that his goal was to become the first person to hold the world title in K-1 and Pride at the same time.

7. Emilianenko Fedor beat Kazuyuki Fujita in 4:17 in a non-title match. Antonio Inoki came out to the biggest pop of the night to call Fujita into the ring, with a version of Inoki’s music playing.. The two traded punches early. Fujita was able to block Fedor’s takedown attempt. Fedor started dominating standing, as expected, but they traded and this time Fedor blocked Fujita’s takedown. Fujita actually caught Fedor with a good right, and then took him down. Fedor was bleeding over the right eye. Fedor escaped from the bottom and connected with some punches, got Fujita’s back, and choked him out. Crowd was really into this match, and it was the first time Fujita had ever been stopped in a fight."

June 23, 2003:

"MMA: In what was a major surprise, Pride announced Hidehiko Yoshida is going to drop weight ala Randy Couture and enter the middleweight tournament that starts on the 8/10 Saitama Super Arena show. Yoshida has fought at 225 pounds against Royce Gracie, Don Frye and Masaaki Satake, but he won the gold medal in the 1992 Olympics in judo at 172 pounds and took 5th in 1996 at 190 pounds. They also announced Kazushi Sakuraba, Quinton Jackson and Vanderlei Silva in what will be the loaded tournament of all loaded tournaments. Also expected are a Gracie family member, Ricardo Arona and Alistair Overeem, with one spot remaining. I guess the Japanese feel with Yoshida and Sakuraba, they have a good shot at getting two people into the final four on 11/9. Yoshida’s judo skill gives him some great throws, balance and submissions, but I don’t see any way he’ll be able to hang with Jackson or Arona because of how things match up."

and

"Some notes on the 6/8 Pride show after watching the PPV. First, based on our poor response here compared with the last show, which was 62 thumbs up (89.9%), 0 down and 7 in the middle (10.1%) (poor as in volume, most of the responses themselves were favorable), it is clear that people won’t buy a PPV show delayed more than a few days, as this was only five days, had a great line-up, and it just seemed like everyone ordered UFC. The other point clear is that they did a terrible job of getting the word out they were on In Demand. Virtually all the response we got were from the same people who have always ordered the show. Pride had been available probably to 35% tops of the PPV homes, and now it hit the 65% who had never had a chance to see it, and we didn’t hear form any first-timers. I think Pride thought getting on In Demand, so they reached the cable homes, would make them a major player on U.S. PPV. This was a reality check that they have to win over a new audience that has never heard of them. Best match was Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Emelianenko Fedor with 64 and worst were Mark Coleman vs. Don Frye with 23 and Alistair Overeem vs. Mike Bencic with 20

The show wasn’t a blow-away show like the previous one, or even as good as the UFC show two days earlier, but overall I’d call it good. Frye vs. Coleman wasn’t entertaining, as Coleman just kept Frye grounded almost the entire fight and Frye couldn’t get off his back. Frye looked very disappointed at the end. Frye’s interview before the fight was amazing. Talk about an interview that made you want to see the fight, even if the fight itself didn’t deliver fireworks. A correction from the report from last week. The interview about promising to train harder and wanting to win back the title was by Coleman, and not Frye. The show couldn’t have built up Emelianenko Fedor vs. Mirko Cro Cop any better. Cro Cop is a total machine now. Everyone should have learned by now that on any given day, anyone can be had, but we haven’t seen that given day for Cro Cop, and he’s this calm guy who is afraid of nothing. He hammered Heath Herring like he wasn’t even competition. The reason Herring went down so hard at the end is because he suffered a broken rib from Cro Cop’s ridiculously hard kick, and went down in pain and Cro Cop did the rapid fire punches on him before it was stopped. Cro Cop as a Pride fighter has improved so much, as he’s so quick at avoiding a takedown he’s almost a freak. Fedor, on the other hand, looked all too human as Kazuyuki Fujita rocked him with a punch, busting his eye, and he did the rubber leg dance. He was very close to being upset but Fujita instinctively took him down, and he was able to regain his bearings on the bottom. He looked damn impressive in exploding out of trouble, rocking Fujita and getting one of the quickest and greatest looking chokes you’ll ever see for the finish. That was a hell of a fight. I had thought Fedor would take Cro Cop down and hurt him bad, because nobody has the punching power on the ground of Fedor, but after Herring and Fujita couldn’t take Cro Cop down, I’m not sure. Most of the fights were one-sided, and they didn’t air the angle with Vanderlei Silva, Renzo Gracie, Quinton Jackson and Kazushi Sakuraba building up the next show. I guess that was because most of it was in Japanese, since the show ran short and there was plenty of time for it. Daijyu Takase’s win over Anderson Silva was an upset, but he got him on the ground and controlled him the whole fight."

and

"There was a poll done at the last Pride show asking, aside from Kazushi Sakuraba, a Gracie rep, Vanderlei Silva and Quinton Jackson, who do you want in the middleweight tournament. The five-leading point-getters were: 1) Kiyoshi Tamura (pro wrestler with a big following); 2) Daijyu Takase (who beat Anderson Silva in a stunning upset that night so he’s fresh in everyone’s minds, but he’d get killed by bigger guys); 3) Ricardo Arona (who could very well win the thing since he’s such a strong grappler); 4) Frank Shamrock (who I don’t think wants to do it); 5) Murilo Bustamante (who should be picked by all rights); 6) Kevin Randleman (who got over as a pro wrestler); 7) Kendo Kashin (pro wrestler); 8) Randy Couture (who proved he can fight at that weight); 9) Carlos Newton; 10) Chuck Liddell."

June 30, 2003: 

Pretty interesting!

"Pro wrestling was only named by 1.7% of sports fans in Japan polled as their favorite sport. In prior national polls during the late 80s and throughout the 90s, pro wrestling fared between 5th and 8th with usually about 5% of sports fans listing it as their favorite sport. It was even more popular in previous generations, finishing as high as No. 3 in the early 80s during the glory period of Antonio Inoki and the original Tiger Mask, behind only baseball and sumo. Most attribute the drastic decline in popularity to the lack of new charismatic stars. From the late 60s and into the mid-80s, Japanese pro wrestling was dominated by Giant Baba and Inoki, who were as well known culturally as any sports stars. The stars of the 90s like Mitsuharu Misawa, Atsushi Onita, Nobuhiko Takada, Akira Maeda, Keiji Muto, Masahiro Chono and Kenta Kobashi, while very popular among the wrestling audience and drawing houses that Baba and Inoki never did, had nowhere close to the mainstream name recognition. With the exception of Bob Sapp, who is more of a media celebrity than a pro wrestler or fighter, none of the new generation stars have even come close to the mainstream recognition of the 90s stars. This is largely attributable to pro wrestling’s decline as a television product, going from weekly prime time network slots in the 70s to strong slots through the 80s and into the 90s. But in recent years, airing largely well past midnight, while the pro wrestling fans themselves watch or tape the weekly network shows, the casual audience rarely comes across it. Many people in Japan noted that when New Japan was doing incredible business not all that many years ago, that it couldn’t last, because future fans weren’t being developed even though buildings were being packed with regularity in that era.

Hideki Matsui of the New York Yankees is generally considered the biggest sports star in Japan, and that’s why 34.5% of sports fans listed baseball as their favorite sport. Still, it is said that baseball’s popularity in Japan comes from those over 40, similar to the U.S., who are fans of the Japanese baseball league; and teenagers, who follow American baseball and have less interest in the Japanese product, and are more interested in sports stars like Matsui and Ichiro Suzuki than the sport itself (think U.S. with younger fans’ knowledge of people like Tiger Woods and Serena Williams but who really don’t have a lot of interest in golf or womens tennis).

Pride and K-1 were lumped together in the poll, called “New Martial Arts” (signified as Pride and K-1), and that was listed as the fifth most popular sport, and as the favorite sport of 4.1% of the sports fans. It trailed baseball, soccer, sumo and golf respectively, and was slightly ahead of tennis. K-1 and Pride were found to be almost exclusively popular with the under-40 audience, as once you got older than that, virtually nobody were fans of those sports. Also ahead of pro wrestling were Western boxing (which has also declined greatly, likely due to the rise in K-1 and Pride and also Mike Tyson, who was huge in Japan, not being considered a real contender and with no drawing card to Japanese to take his place), auto racing and horse racing."

and

"It is generally considered that the greatest tournament in MMA history was the two-show Pride Grand Prix tournament in 2000, won by Mark Coleman.

The finals on May 1, 2000 became legendary for a number of reasons. The story of Coleman and friend Mark Kerr’s training before and battles in the tournament was the backdrop for the acclaimed movie “Smashing Machine.” The show also featured perhaps the most legendary MMA match of modern times, when Kazushi Sakuraba beat Royce Gracie in 90:00 of a no time limit match. It also saw Sakuraba, giving up more than 40 pounds and after going 90 minutes, take the measure of Igor Vovchanchyn in his second match for the first 10:00 before finally hitting the wall and losing in the performance that made his career. It was also the night Kazuyuki Fujita became a major pro wrestling star, beating a messed up Kerr, whose system just shut down minutes into a fight he was dominating, leaving Fujita to batter him at will and take a decision.

Pride is attempting to duplicate the newsworthiness of that show, because from a talent standpoint, the upcoming middleweight tournament looks to already have more depth. The final eight of the Pride Grand Prix included Gary Goodridge, a charismatic but still “B” level fighter; Akira Shoji, who was certainly no threat; Royce Gracie, who had no chance to win although he was a gigantic nam;, and Fujita, whose skill level wasn’t that high, but managed to be tough enough to withstand Kerr’s onslaught before Kerr short circuited.

It doesn’t appear there will be any slouches this year in the eight-man tournament, which starts with first round matches on 8/10 at the Saitama Super Arena, and concludes on 11/9 at the Tokyo Dome. Both shows will air on a same-day basis in North America.

The announcement of Hidehiko Yoshida joining Sakuraba, Quinton Jackson and Vanderlei Silva already gives the nucleus of four superstars. Yoshida is more a drawing card than a proven commodity in MMA (although he did beat Don Frye via submission with an armbar on 11/24). Also announced is a member of the Gracie family, and that Dana White would send a UFC representative into the tournament, which leaves two open slots for the likes of Ricardo Arona, Kiyoshi Tamura, Murilo Bustamante, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and perhaps others.

I’m going to jump ahead of the situation and put myself in the positions of Dana White and Nobuyuki Sakakibara, and give my thoughts on what decisions should be made.

For White, the person to pick in the tournament is Chuck Liddell. Tito Ortiz, who likely wouldn’t do it, serves no purpose because if he’s going to fight, it has to be against Randy Couture. Couture and Vitor Belfort look to be the November UFC PPV main event, so you can’t risk either of them. If UFC were to send Couture, who isn’t officially the champion but is considered as champion by everyone, it’s too risky because you don’t want your world champion losing on PPV in another organization. Even though Belfort looked great on the last show, there is no point in risking him losing. Liddell, on the other hand, is coming off a loss. Liddell also matches up well with the people in the tournament, and you have to send a guy you think is going to win, or at least has a good shot of it, because there is no point sending someone for any other reason. A tournament win would erase Liddell’s loss to Couture in people’s minds, and would set him up for a tournament shot. And if he doesn’t win, whoever does win still would make a contender for the Couture vs. Belfort or Ortiz winner.

For Sakakibara, this is how I’d bracket things, and I’m thinking business as well as a good show, but primarily business. The thing you have to consider is you want marquee value on the Tokyo Dome show, because you need it in a building that large. Second, it is egotistical to the point of stupidity for anyone to think, at this level, they can predict outcomes with any certainty. When it comes to the tournament, I’m not expecting anyone to win or anyone to lose, just that you need to have an attractive Dome show.

So here goes for the bracketing:

*Jackson vs. Silva – There is some talk on putting these two, who some would consider the two favorites, in opposite brackets, figuring they’ll meet in the finals. Forget thinking you can arrange that. Jackson and Silva already had a big in-ring angle, and people are as interested in this match as they are going to be with a match with two non-Japanese fighters. My philosophy is there is no point wasting hype for a match not delivered, and if either lose, delivering it next year will lose some of its luster. The time is now. And it’s a great fight on paper.

*Liddell vs. whomever. For argument’s sake, I’d put Arona in. Arona is a great grappler, but Liddell can get off his back well and avoid takedowns. Liddell is the superior striker, although we all thought that with Couture, and it wasn’t the case. So you’ve got the tactical battle that could go either way.

*Sakuraba vs. Yoshida. Of all the matches, this is the most important. This match guarantees a major Japanese drawing card making the final four. Plus, there will be super interest in this match. Because both fighters are ground fighting wizards, it plays to both of their strengths, although Yoshida would have a huge power edge. Unless it’s a quick finish, nobody will likely be hurt by losing, and somebody will be made into a much bigger star by winning. It’s the ultimate no lose situation for he promotion. If both Sakuraba and Yoshida were to lose in the first round, you are risking a final four without the necessary marquee value to fill the Dome.

*Gracie rep vs. Tamura. To me, this match is one to go out of the way for. It’s a match that will generate great heat and interest and probably be a good match. Whomever wins will get a big boost from it, and create a Dome match that will be a big ticket seller. Tamura may be tough to get. He hates fighting under rules with punching on the ground. He was a reluctant adversary of Silva last year, even though he gave him a great fight. He’s coming off a KO win over Nobuhiko Takada at the last Dome show, which means nothing to fight fans but was the main event on a show that drew more than 50,000 fans. Granted, that really isn’t impressive to a fighter, but the symbolism in Japan was gigantic. Tamura carries the hopes and dreams of the old UWFI audience, as well as RINGS fans.

Going to round two, on the top bracket, we have four possibilities. Silva vs. Arona has the Brazilian Top Team vs. Chute Boxing grudge match, although my own opinion is that’s the least desirable match of the four because Arona may simply out wrestle Silva. But it would be a star maker, since Silva hasn’t lost in Japan. Silva vs. Liddell has the Pride superstar vs. UFC superstar overtones, plus both are strikers and it’s almost guaranteed to be a great fight. Arona vs. Jackson is good because Arona won’t be able to out wrestle Jackson that easily, and Jackson, if he’s in the spot, would have to have beaten Silva, making him a superstar. Jackson vs. Liddell is another no lose, because you are hopeful of getting an American into the finals. Putting Bustamante in the Arona position starts off with a UFC rematch, as Liddell beat Bustamante via decision in a match many feel was a bad decision.

On the bottom, it’s a great deal. Yoshida vs. a Gracie has storyline overtones since Yoshida beat Royce Gracie due to a bad ref stoppage last year at Tokyo National Stadium. Yoshida vs. Tamura is a dream match since Yoshida would have beaten Sakuraba and Tamura would have beaten a Gracie. Sakuraba vs. a Gracie rep continues the most lucrative storyline in MMA history, and Sakuraba vs. Tamura is even more of a dream match than that. For getting Tamura, it’s also a good deal because a Gracie, Sakuraba or Yoshida aren’t going to be beating on his face on the ground as much as trying to win a more skilled fight. He can match his skills and won’t have to face a Silva like pounding until the finals, and if he gets that far, he’s helped his career anyway, win or lose. Because Tamura is the only draw of the new U-Style promotion, doing well in such a high-profile competition, or just being in a dream match with a Gracie and/or Yoshida or Sakuraba will bring him more publicity than anything he’s done, perhaps with the exception of the Takada match, in his career.

Yoshida was at the press conference, saying he currently weighs 220 pounds. He said he’s been mulling over the offer for three weeks before accepting. He said getting down to 93.0 kilos (204.6 pounds) is not an issue to him because he routinely dropped more than 25 pounds to make weight when he was competing in judo. On 6/24, Yoshida said that after a week of hard boxing training, and eliminating beer and sake from his repertoire, he had already dropped 11 of those pounds and was almost there. He also said that he doesn’t want to face a Japanese competitor in the first round, which means he doesn’t know what’s good for him.

The reality is that Yoshida, Jackson, potentially Arona, potentially Liddell and to a lesser extent Silva, all four of the top half, would have a big advantage as they are big guys (Jackson, Arona and Liddell probably walk around at 225, and Silva at 215-220 before cutting). The walk around best weight for Sakuraba is closer to 185 and Tamura is maybe 190, and the competition has evolved to where that is now a major factor . The other hold-up with Tamura is that there is a decent shot of injury in doing a tournament, and he’s the lone draw for his U-Style promotion (which does UWFI style pro wrestling) and maybe can’t afford that risk, although Pride pays well enough to where that can be taken care of. The company also may be looking at avoiding criticism of having more than two Japanese in the tournament, but the people doing the criticizing don’t have any idea about business and how difficult it is to sellout a Tokyo Dome show.

Pride is scheduled to have a press conference just hours after press time. Based on reports on people who had flown in to Japan over the previous day, the belief is the final four in the tournament are Alistair Overeem, Arona, Liddell and Ryan Gracie. So in handicapping things, Yoshida is a question mark, as he’s excellent at one dimension (judo) but inexperienced at everything else, Sakuraba is too small and past his prime, Gracie simply isn’t good enough to win this tournament, which leaves Silva, Jackson, Overeem (who has a string of ten consecutive first round knockouts to his credit), Arona and Liddell as favorites, and it really comes down to who has the right day. It becomes even more imperative if this is the line-up to match Sakuraba with Yoshida first, because as great as those five are, four of them with no Japanese won’t have Tokyo Dome level interest."

and

"Pride is trying to put together Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Mirko Cro Cop on the 8/10 show in addition to the Grand Prix tournament, with the winner getting a title shot at Fedor Emelianenko on the 11/9 Tokyo Dome show. Bob Sapp would be the natural to face Cro Cop, since it would be an MMA rules rematch of their K-1 match, which was the biggest non-tournament match in K-1 history. But he’s going to be fighting in the K-1 event in Las Vegas on 8/15."

July 7:

"Kiyoshi Tamura ran another U-Style show on 6/29 in Osaka beating Pancrase’s Takaku Fuke via TKO in a worked shoot match. After the match, when Tamura was asked by reporters about being the eighth guy in the Pride Grand Prix, a U-Style official grabbed the mic and said “Please refrain from any questions except about the U-Style show.""

and

"In the Pride Grand Prix which starts on 8/10 at the Saitama Super Arena, the eighth guy as far as the last attempt was Kiyoshi Tamura. It’s amazing to me to see a tournament going almost exactly like I would have planned it. Tamura didn’t agree to do it which is why he wasn’t announced at the press conference. He was given a 6/30 deadline to make his decision and most feel he’s not going to do it because he’s many times talked about not liking to fight under Pride rules since he doesn’t like punching on the ground. It’s expected the announcement of the final guy would take place any day now. There is talk that the bracketing would be the result of a blind draw that would take place on 7/7 or 7/8, which I don’t think is a good idea when you’re running a business to allow fate to determine your box office. Early UFC’s were blind draw tournaments, and after a while, they learned their lesson and started doing brackets based on box office. Dana White (head of UFC) was at the Pride press conference almost doing a heel manager role for Chuck Liddell, saying that Liddell would win the tournament and UFC would prove it was better than Pride by Liddell winning Pride’s tournament. White was also there because there are attempts to put together a few UFC vs. Pride matches for next year. Kazushi Sakuraba has said he wants Hidehiko Yoshida in the first round of the tournament

. They are now marketing Mirko Cro Cop t-shirts in Japan with the highly original saying, “Mirko: Who’s Next?” on them. I smell lawyers. Speaking of Cro Cop, a clarification from a few weeks back. The 6/8 Pride show did not air on TV in Croatia itself, only the Cro Cop vs. Heath Herring match aired for 15 minutes that drew the big number

Tatame magazine in Brazil said that Cro Cop would face Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira on the show. There has also been talk of Emelianenko Fedor vs. Mark Coleman. Coleman confirmed that Pride has been talking with him about such a match. The thing with Pride is that they talk with fighters about many different matches, but until they are announced, that doesn’t mean a lot

The Pride show will air on the Fuji Network in a two hour time slot starting at 10:30 p.m. the night of the show. In that sense, this is huge to be in network prime time and almost live. It’ll hurt PPV buys, but the mainstream audience watching should be among the biggest, if not the biggest, in MMA history. There are rumors going around that the three non-tournament matches won’t be nearly as attractive as some would expect them to be. We’ll probably know in a week or so

The first Grand Prix odds I’ve seen form The Greek.com have Quinton Jackson as the favorite to win the whole thing at +275, followed by Vandelei Silva at +300, Ricardo Arona at +400, Chuck Liddell at +405, Hidehiko Yoshida at +440, Alistair Overeem at +625 (may be a good sleeper pick) and Kazushi Sakuraba at +770. What that means is if you put $100 on Jackson, and he wins, you get $375 back

White, at the press conference, said Liddell is the best 205-pound fighter in the world. Nobuyuki Sakakibara even talked about doing title vs. title matches in the future, although I doubt anything to that degree is planned. The thing is from a UFC standpoint, let’s just say they could get Fedor or Nogueira to face Tim Sylvia or Frank Mir or even Ken Shamrock. UFC is already deep in the red because they have so many big money deals they have to ride out because they misjudged how big it would become. But Fedor and Nogueira, awesome fighters to be sure, earn on their Pride contract, numbers equivalent to a Shamrock or Abbott. The question then becomes, how much box office power would they have in the U.S. and how much would it mean toward getting new buyers. Does Nogueira vs Sylvia, throwing a match out, while intriguing to hardcores, mean a 100,000 buy show? My feeling is the big buy shows are going to come from people they can get out in the media and places like BDSSP and talk people into buying old-school boxing and wrestling style. Or are the names Pride and UFC over enough that interpromotional would be a big draw? I’m skeptical on the latter

Liddell said that he wanted to prove that UFC is the best and challenged Silva, since he’s the Pride champion. Quinton Jackson then said that he liked UFC, but Pride is the best, and said he wanted to face Sakuraba in the first round because Sakuraba beat him by submission (Jackson has improved greatly since that loss)."

July 14, 2003:

"The biggest tournament in the history of MMA has been finalized and was announced at a Pride press conference in Tokyo on 7/9.

The company announced first round matches for 8/10 at the Saitama Super Arena of Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Vanderlei Silva, Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Hidehiko Yoshida, Quinton Jackson vs. Ricardo Arona and Chuck Liddell vs. Alistair Overeem. There are no brackets, as the four winners will advance to the 11/9 show at the Tokyo Dome, but the bracketing for that show will be put together based on the four winners.

Pride also announced that three heavyweight matches will be added to the show. None are signed, but Mirko Cro Cop’s people have said that he has agreed to face Igor Vovchanchyn, which would be on paper a major slugfest.

In handicapping the tournament matches:

*Sakuraba vs. Silva. This will be the third meeting in what was voted the 2001 pro wrestling feud of the year in this newsletter. The first meeting, in this same building before a sellout 20,600 fans on March 25, 2001, saw Sakuraba, at the time the man in MMA, get overwhelmed by punches and kicks, falling in 98 seconds. The rematch, on November 3, 2001, was the biggest MMA match in history up to that point in time, drawing a sellout 53,246 to the Tokyo Dome, with Silva winning a second time due to Sakuraba suffering a shoulder injury from a Northern lights bomb type of slam while breaking a guillotine choke. Silva hasn’t lost a match in almost four years, but is coming off double knee surgery. Sakuraba is giving up size, probably 20 pounds, and, at the age of 35 with numerous injuries, has lost three of his last four matches. Silva, 27, should be the heavy favorite and this is a stupid first round match-up because Sakuraba against either Tamura or Yoshida would have been a first-time dream match, that also would give Sakuraba, the biggest draw in MMA history, a decent shot of advancing to the Tokyo Dome, which needs him.

*Yoshida vs. Tamura. This guarantees one Japanese superstar in the final four. Tamura drew the only other Tokyo Dome sellout in MMA history, a crowd of 52,228 on 11/24 against former pro wrestling teacher and rival Nobuhiko Takada. He’s an exciting fighter and has beaten some of the best in the world, including UFC champs like Maurice Smith, Dave Menne and Pat Miletich and other highly regarded fighters like Jeremy Horn and Renzo Gracie. Yoshida, 33, was the 1992 Olympic gold medalist in judo at 172 pounds, although he’ll come in at 205 for this match. Tamura, also 33, will be giving away 15 pounds in what should be a battle of ground skill, but has blistering body kicks and presumably better stand-up. Tamura is far more experienced at this style of fighting, but Yoshida has beaten legends Royce Gracie (in a disputed referee stoppage) and Don Frye, but has not been tested as far as taking any punches yet. But neither of these two have anywhere close to Sakuraba’s drawing power. At this stage of the game, Yoshida’s size and power should give him the edge.

*Jackson vs. Arona. This is an interesting match-up. Jackson is the better striker and Arona presumably is the better grappler. Arona is the strongest grappler in the tournament, but Jackson has incredible balance, and Kevin Randleman, an incredibly gifted wrestler, could not take him down. Jackson should win via knockout, but whomever wins this match could go all the way.

*Liddell vs. Overeem. This was put together to be a standing battle. Overeem, at 6-5, will have a reach advantage and may be the superior striker. Liddell is the better wrestler, but he’s avoided using his wrestling for takedowns throughout his MMA career. Overeem has been on a roll with consecutive knockout wins, but this would be his toughest opponent.

Most likely, and even trying to pick matches like this is difficult enough, but you’re looking at Silva, Yoshida and Jackson. Because of the grudge, that would mean they should do Silva vs. Jackson (although I’d have suggested that as a first round match) and Yoshida vs. Overeem or Liddell."

July 21, 2003:

"MMA: Pride fired Stephen Quadros as lead announcer and he’ll be replaced by Jerry Millen, a sportscaster out of Detroit. Part of this may be because Michael Braverman is no long producing the shows. Not much surprises me these days, but this did. Quadros and Bas Rutten were the best announcing team around, in that both understood the fighters and the fight, and played off each other so well, understood you have to make the show entertaining and understood how to get matches and events over. They also did pro wrestling vignettes that blew away almost any done in pro wrestling. They had some classic show opens but I’m guessing they’ll be going in a different direction. Rutten will be continuing with the show."

and

"Nobuyuki Sakakibara said that he was negotiating for several weeks to get Kiyoshi Tamura for the show. A lot of MMA fans are mad about Tamura because he’s a pro wrestler, even though he has some solid wins, even though his big wins with the exception of a great match this year with Ikuhisa Minowa, were all a few years back. In Pride, because his KO win over Nobuhiko Takada was edited off the U.S. version of the Pride show (since they were both pro wrestling stars and it would have been difficult to call the match without bringing up pro wrestling), the only matches people in the U.S. have seen were him losing in 11 seconds to Bob Sapp when he was giving him 190 pounds, and being KO’d by Vanderlei Silva, although they had a hell of a fight. The one difference between the MMA audience and pro wrestling audience is that pro wrestling fans, to a degree, understand you have to book matches that will sell to the public. MMA fans have no concept, and the fact Takada-Tamura sold out the Tokyo Dome and Tamura won means nothing because they could come up with a better fighter (and Tamura has no chance to win this tournament at his age and with his injuries), not realizing that the tournament is already loaded, but they still need to fill the Tokyo Dome in November. In negotiating with Tamura, the idea always was to put him in with Hidehiko Yoshida. Tamura kept turning it down because of the weight difference (while they will weigh in probably at 205 and 190, the actual walk-around real weights are 225 and 187 which is a huge body mass and power advantage). The belief is that after putting fluids back, Yoshida will probably come in around 215-220. It has been acknowledged Pride wanted a Japanese vs. Japanese match to guarantee that at least one Japanese fighter makes the final four. The plan right now is for Silva vs. Kazushi Sakuraba to be the main event. That is the match the Japanese fans wanted to see the most, even though I don’t, since they come from pro wrestling and believe Sakuraba needs to get his revenge, since in the end in pro wrestling, the Japanese eventually win out."

and

"Negotiations for an Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Mirko Cro Cop match for the 8/10 Pride have stopped. As mentioned last week, Cro Cop has said he’s facing Igor Vovchanchyn on that show, although in Pride you never know until the announcement is made, but that was a fight they had penciled in. They have spoken with Nogueira about facing Josh Barnett, which is a very interesting match."

and

"Don Frye, who is scheduled to return for a 7/20 match at Sumo Hall with Vader, is still going through with the match even though he has severe neck damage. Frye had already had his C-5, C-6 and C-7 vertebrae fused. In the many stories regarding Edge, Kurt Angle and Steve Austin and their neck injuries, the WWE’s leading neck specialist, Dr. Lloyd Youngblood has told wrestlers if they have more than two vertebrae fused, they should give up wrestling. Well, Frye not only didn’t give up wrestling, but he continued fighting. Apparently he re-injured his neck more than a year ago in the final training for his match with Ken Shamrock. He was in far more pain than anyone realized when training for the recent Mark Coleman match. This past week, with his neck bothering him badly, he had an X-ray done which showed that his C-2, C-3 and C-4 vertebrae are all collapsing and he needs fusion surgery on all three, which would make five in all. He’s planning on getting it done after the Vader match, but realizes he’s taking a major risk going into the match. He still has one match left on his Pride contract, which expires in ten months, and even though it seems to be a huge risk, he is planning on doing one last fight after the neck fusion surgery."

July 28, 2003:

"Mirko Cro Cop has switched from being a K-1 fighter who does Pride shows, to a Pride fighter. There had been rumors of contract problems with K-1 for a little while. Over the past week, all Cro Cop merchandise was pulled by K-1, and all Cro Cop merchandise was being sold through Pride. In addition, Cro Cop’s name was taken off the list of probables for the year end Grand Prix show, which starts on 10/11 at the Osaka Dome. Since Cro Cop beat Bob Sapp in what was the most-watched non-Grand Prix tournament match in the history of the company, a rematch would be a natural, but it looks like it would only happen now in Pride. Apparently the guy who handled a lot of K-1’s international deals was fired so Sadaharu Tanigawa could take more control. The guy was the intermediary with Cro Cop, and Cro Cop quit the company when he was fired."

and

"It was officially announced on 7/21 of the battle of the recently dethroned heavyweight champions of UFC and Pride on the Pride 8/10 show in Saitama, with Ricco Rodriguez facing Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. UFC agreed to the match and was part of setting it up, since Rodriguez is under an exclusive UFC contract. From the UFC standpoint, again, they are gambling that their guy will win, plus it takes a fighter under a relatively high contract that was due a fight before the end of the year and gets him that fight without UFC having to spend the money. Pride’s original negotiations were for Nogueira vs. Josh Barnett in the idea of a former Pride champion against a former UFC champion. That fell through because Barnett was going to have to fight in September or October in a shoot match for New Japan wrestling either at its next Tokyo Dome, or perhaps in the 9/14 Brazil show that Antonio Inoki is putting on. While Nogueira certainly has more respect among fans, and Pride’s heavyweights because of more star power are considered better than UFC’s, if the two were to fight under UFC rules, I’d favor Rodriguez for the same reasons I favored Fedor over Nogueira. Rodriguez would take Nogueira down, and use his elbows to the eye to cut him open. In Pride, it’s a tougher call because the elbows aren’t legal, and if Rodriguez gets him down, he’s going to have to rely on punches, with the longer arch, to do damage, which opens him up for Nogueira’s submissions from the bottom. Still, Rodriguez has a lot of submission training and won’t be easy to put away. It’s also a little known fact that Nogueira’s only loss via submission in his career was to Rodriguez, via a kneebar, a few years back in Abu Dhabi (which was a no striking tournament). If Rodriguez can’t get Nogueira down, the advantage then goes to Nogueira, but I don’t see that happening. It’s also interesting that UFC is risking two of its top stars on the show, and if they both lose, it’ll be a significant blow to UFC, and it wouldn’t surprise anyone to see Liddell lose. And most will have Nogueira as a favorite over Rodriguez. It almost seems that UFC is relieved because both have several fight deals, and this gets one fight off their relatively big money contracts with UFC not having to pay it, and probably getting a bonus for allowing Pride to use them. Two other matches made official were Mirko Cro Cop vs. Igor Vovchanchyn, as had been rumored for some time, which looks like a great slugfest. Vovchanchyn has probably taken too much punishment over his career, so he’s past his prime, and it may be a big name who is safe for Cro Cop. Vovchanchyn has the punchers’ chance because he hits hard, but in a standing fight, Cro Cop’s technical ability with his kicks will probably spell the difference. Also in a non-title match, heavyweight champ Emelianenko Fedor faces Gary Goodridge

The booking plans are that the winners of the Cro Cop vs. Vovchanchyn and Nogueira vs. Rodriguez matches (which they are assuming, which could be faulty, are Cro Cop and Nogueira), would face on 11/9 at the Tokyo Dome, with the winner then getting the title shot at Fedor early next year, which perhaps would be the January show in Vegas, but they’ll burn their top fighters out with so many fights in a short period of time

Sakuraba is said to have gained 15 pounds, so he’s 198 right now and looking at fighting at about 202 pounds. This probably isn’t good, even though it’s being portrayed as a new stronger Sakuraba who is giving his training partners fits to build the idea he can beat Silva now. No doubt he’ll have added strength and his partners can’t reverse him, but this is a stamina business, and a natural 183 pound guy going into a fight at around 200 may do better for the first 3:00, but it’s not going to help him in a 20:00 fight. The reality is that even though Sakuraba has done well against big guys, and did submit Quinton Jackson, who is the Grand Prix favorite while recovering from an injury, he is actually naturally smaller than a lot of guys who fight at 170, but has always fought bigger guys in the days when his skill level blew almost everyone away. Now that people have caught up to his skill level, the idea he can still do it has created his recent record of losses and injuries

The Skyperfect TV coverage of Pride on 8/10 in Japan will be an all-day deal starting at 11 a.m. They have a five-hour live pre-game show, including backstage interviews, predictions and airing both the pre-show press conference and the rules meeting. Then, after the show they will air the post-show press conference with all the fighters and do a live post-game highlights show. After the post-game show is over, they will repeat the show

On the English announcing, a correction. Jerry Millen is replacing Michael Braverman as the producer of the show. Millen chose a guy named Damon, who is a sportscaster from Detroit, to be the new lead announcer, in place of Stephen Quadros."

August 4, 2003:

"The Pride Grand Prix tournament first round on 8/10 at the Saitama Super Arena will do an approximately $5 million live gate, which would make it a gate in the neighborhood of the biggest Tokyo Dome sellouts of all-time.

The seven match show, headlined by Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Vanderlei Silva’s third meeting, will be hell in an expanded version of the arena (the arena has a unique expansion feature), which holds about 36,000, instead of the 27,000-seat version, and it is virtually sold out at this point.

Because of the nature of selling combined tickets which include the 11/9 Tokyo Dome show, the advance for this show was reported to have topped $5.5 million about a week ago, but that is misleading.

The PPV is not expected to be record setting, because the show will be airing in an edited form that night on network television on Fuji TV. The show is expected to draw the largest TV rating in the history of the promotion. The record rating of 12.6 on November 5, 2000 (Naoya Ogawa vs. Masaaki Satake judo vs. karate main event) was for a show airing on a one week delay on a weekend 4 p.m. time slot.

Usually Pride shows air live on PPV, and then air a week or two later in a weekend afternoon time slot, edited down to around 60 or 90 minutes. Because of that, Pride doesn’t have the mainstream visibility of K-1, which doesn’t even use PPV, but its shows all air in network prime time and get huge numbers. So even though Pride is by far the biggest PPV attraction in Japan, K-1 has the mainstream visibility because it’s viewed by so many more fans. The feeling from Pride is that this is an experiment, and the current idea is to try it once or twice per year on big shows. But it is considered very much of an experiment and if it doesn’t work out, they’ll go back to the old system.

Most betting services have pegged either Quinton Jackson or Vanderlei Silva as the favorite to win the tournament, which ends on 11/9 at the Tokyo Dome, a show that should, unless bad luck is involved (which would be if Sakuraba loses, which is likely, and the Tamura-Yoshida winner gets injured), draw a bigger gate than Saitama. However, even if sold out, the Tokyo Dome won’t be scaled to break last year’s record set at Tokyo National Stadium of a gate in excess of $7 million.

In some controversy, the decision was made for weigh-ins (205 pound limit) on 8/8, which gives the fighters two full days to replenish fluids and the bigger guys like Yoshida, Jackson and Liddell could probably get to as much as 225 without much trouble. Sakuraba has protested this decision, claiming the 205-pound division has no meaning if fighters are given that much time to put their weight back."

and

"According to Hideki Yamamoto of Pride on the replacing of Stephen Quadros as announcer for the 8/10 show, which has become a pretty big story on MMA boards including petitions and the like, “The reason of the Quadros replacement is he has not changed since 2000. He has been claiming himself as `the best.’ He considers he does not have to improve himself anymore. The problems around him came from only the way he thinks himself. Our reason is very simple. We need to improve our production quality no matter how the current production is balanced. People told me that Bas and Steven were the best team. But I am wondering if people remembered how bad their commentary was in the beginning, which was May 2000. Their team was developed during 20 PPV productions. I will give opportunities to the new guy and Bas to develop their teamwork as we had given to Steve. I recognize Bas still has potential which has not been realized, but Steven does not. I am so sick about how he is still insisting `because anyone with half a brain knows I am the best, maybe in the whole world.'"

and

"Mirko Cro Cop, now that he’s exclusively with Pride after his manager had a falling out with K-1, said that on recent K-1 shows, there have been several fake fights. You would think after fire extinguisher angles, double turns, pull-apart brawls, novice freaks beating established fighters (not all of which were works), that someone would consider that possibility."

August 11, 2003:

"Even though the 8/10 Pride Grand Prix tournament from the Saitama Super Arena is considered the strongest tournament in the history of MMA, there is almost a shocking unanimity in favorites and predictions.

Quinton Jackson appears to be the odds-on favorite to win the tournament as noted by predictions by top fighters. In Jackson’s win over Kevin Randleman, he showed an incredible takedown defense, as the former two-time NCAA champion couldn’t get him off his feet. In two matches with Cyril Abidi under K-1 rules, Jackson scored two wins. The feeling is that nobody can strike with him, and nobody can take him down. At press time, due to an ankle injury suffered in training by Ricardo Arona on 7/31, he was officially ruled out of the show on 8/5 when doctors also detected a broken heel. Pride was negotiating with Murilo Bustamante, the current UFC middleweight champion, for the spot. In some ways, Bustamante makes a more exciting opponent because of his boxing background and the expectation the two would slug it out. However, with the ridiculous two-day ahead weigh-in rule, Jackson will probably go into the fight at 215 pounds (it could have been 220-225 but it appears that due to a protest by Kazushi Sakuraba, weigh-ins are going to be held either the day before or day of the show, and all fighters must make 205, so as to not allow the bigger fighters to replenish fluids and gain weight advantages). Jackson is freaky strong for his size. Bustamante will be maybe at 200-205. The difference in power makes Jackson the favorite. Arona may have been a tougher fight for Jackson, if he was able to overpower him physically, which is a big if.

But luck will play an important part in the tournament. Chuck Liddell, Vanderlei Silva and Alistair Overeem are all heavy hitters with knockout power. It takes both a lot of skill and a little luck to win three matches over world class competition. Jackson himself lost by submission to Sakuraba on July 29, 2001, but has improved greatly since that time and hasn’t lost since. There is no such thing today as an unbeatable fighter, although Jackson hasn’t looked to have had many weaknesses of late. Silva hasn’t lost since April 14, 2000, via decision to Tito Ortiz, but this will be his first action since double knee surgery. Overeem has a 12-match winning streak dating back to a June 15, 2000, loss to Bobby Hoffman, who is a 250-pounder . Liddell has only two losses, as before the Couture match, his prior loss was to Jeremy Horn on March 5, 1999, and has wins over Vitor Belfort, Bustamante (a very controversial decision), Kevin Randleman, Guy Mezger and Renato Babalu en route to the Couture fight. Hidehiko Yoshida is undefeated, but has only had two fights under these rules (Don Frye and Masaaki Satake) and has never shown any striking prowess, nor been in a fight that has tested his chin, but is an Olympic gold medalist in judo and was able to use his judo to physically dominate both Frye and Royce Gracie.

Bustamante, who is 38, is one of the original stars of Brazilian Vale Tudo, dating back to underground fights in 1991 and a pioneer of the sport with the Brazilian Top Team. He has only lost once in his career, to Liddell, and many think he really won that fight (he also had a 40:00 draw with 295-pound Tom Erikson in 1996, who outweighed him by just about 100 pounds, years ago that had their been judges, Erikson would have won). He’s well known in Japan for wins over pro wrestlers Christopher Haseman, Yoji Anjo and Sanae Kikuta. However, he would likely have less of a chance against Jackson should he agree to the fight. The main reason is he hasn’t been training for the fight, which would also be the reason he may turn down the offer. Then again, we’ve received reports he’s been training for Jackson for six weeks, and that Arona’s injury had been kept secret to get the preparation edge on Jackson, who would be preparing for an entirely different style of fighter. Bustamante is physically not as strong as Arona, but his stand-up is much better, as are his submissions. He became UFC champion in the 185 pound weight class beating Dave Menne on January 11, 2002, in Uncasville, CT. In his first title defense on May 10, 2002, in Bossier City, LA, he made at the time unbeaten Olympic silver medalist Matt Lindland submit, really twice, and even out wrestled him. After a contract dispute with UFC (he was wanting $100,000, far more than he was being offered), he hasn’t fought since, and his asking price also kept him out of Pride’s ballpark. I don’t know that he matches up as well as Arona when it comes to beating Jackson. Arona is a master grappler, just 23 years old with wins over Murilo Ninja, Dan Henderson, Horn twice and Mezger (a controversial decision) and only one career loss, out of his weight class, to Pride world heavyweight champ Emelianenko Fedor on December 22, 2000, in RINGS which was out of his weight class. But he had trouble with Mezger, whose takedown defense was good, but not on the level of Jackson.

Kiyoshi Tamura was a great fighter for his size in his day, but he’s way out of his size range and injuries have put him past his prime. He’s won his last two fights, one against highly touted Ikuhisa Minowa, where he looked great, and the other his knockout of Nobuhiko Takada, the legendary pro wrestler who never won a legit match, at the last Pride Tokyo Dome show on November 24, 2002. But Tamura lost five matches in a row before that. His problem has been the people who booked him have almost always put him against much larger opponents, most notably his match with Bob Sapp that went 11 seconds that led many to think he was a tomato can. In actuality, Tamura has only lost once within his weight class, to Silva, and held his own before getting knocked out. He has wins over Renzo Gracie and Jeremy Horn (who has beaten Liddell) as well as former UFC champs Pat Miletich, Maurice Smith and Dave Menne and went to a legendary 30:00 draw with Frank Shamrock when Shamrock was at his peak and held the UFC title. Sakuraba has the same size disadvantage, even though he’s says he’s coming in at 200 pounds, but he’s still a natural 180 pound man fighting against natural 220 pounders who are dieting down. Sakuraba has also lost four of his last six fights, two to Silva, one to Mirko Cro Cop and one to Nino Schembri which he was handily winning until he got careless. The added weight also figures to work against him in the stamina department, and for him to do well, he’s going to need all the speed and stamina he can muster.

PRIDE GRAND PRIX PREDICTIONS:

Vanderlei Silva vs. Kazushi Sakuraba: Don Frye-Silva; Bas Rutten-Silva; Frank Shamrock-Silva; Dave Meltzer-Silva; Dan Henderson-Silva; Joe Silva-Silva

Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Kiyoshi Tamura: Don Frye-Yoshida; Bas Rutten-Yoshida; Frank Shamrock-Tamura; Dave Meltzer-Yoshida; Dan Henderson-Yoshida; Joe Silva-Yoshida

Quinton Jackson vs. Ricardo Arona: Don Frye-Jackson; Bas Rutten-Jackson; Frank Shamrock-Jackson; Dave Meltzer-Jackson; Dan Henderson-Jackson; Joe Silva-Jackson

Chuck Liddell vs. Alistair Overeem: Don Frye-Liddell; Bas Rutten-Liddell; Frank Shamrock-Liddell; Dave Meltzer-Liddell; Dan Henderson-Liddell; Joe Silva-Liddell

Overall tournament winner: Don Frye-Jackson; Bas Rutten-Jackson; Frank Shamrock-Jackson; Dave Meltzer-Jackson; Dan Henderson-Jackson."

and

"Notes on new Pride announcer Damon Perry, who unless he puts on a good performance is fixing to become the MMA version of Coach for replacing the person many feel is the sport’s premiere announcer. Perry debuts on the 8/10 show replacing Stephen Quadros, in what has turned out to be a very controversial decision. Perry hosts a three-hour sports talk show in Detroit on WXYT-AM, an all-sports station. He’s worked in radio since 1994 in Seattle, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Sacramento, Detroit, Chicago, back to San Francisco and has spent the past three years back in Detroit. His only sportscasting game experience is as a sideline reporter for the Oakland Raiders."

Wow(ow), Dave sure is stoked for the Middleweight Grand Prix! Me too! I bet it will rule! Why don't we find out together when next we meet? Until then, my friends, please do take care.