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シリーズ PRIDE武士道
主催 DSE
開催年月日 2003年10月5日
開催地 日本
埼玉県さいたま市
会場 さいたまスーパーアリーナ
開始時刻 午後4時
試合数 全11試合
放送局 フジテレビ（地上波）
入場者数 12,430人
シリーズ PRIDE武士道
主催 DSE
開催年月日 2003年10月5日
開催地 日本
埼玉県さいたま市
会場 さいたまスーパーアリーナ
開始時刻 午後4時
試合数 全11試合
放送局 フジテレビ（地上波）
入場者数 12,430人
MY FRIENDS HELLO TO YOU ALL AND ALSO GOOD DAY AND WHAT'S MORE WELCOME TO PRIDE 武士道 -其の壱-（プライド ぶしどう そのいち）WHICH IS TO SAY PURAIDO BUSHIDO SONO ICHI KNOWN TOO AS PRIDE BUSHIDO ONE AN EVENT THAT IS NOT ENTIRELY DISSIMILAR FROM THE EARLIER MMA THE BEST（エムエムエー・ザ・ベスト）SERIES WHOSE SHOWS WE RECAPULATED ALSO EXCEPT THAT THIS ONE IS FANCIER and what, at the end of the day, brings us here at all, if not our fancy? Hey before we get into it, though, might I ask if you're watching, at all, the Vice TV series Dark Side of the Cage, a mixed-fight iteration of Jason Eisener and Evan Husney's Dark Side of the Ring format? With three episodes to go in this its first season, I would describe Dark Side of the Cage so far as "okay I guess," in that it catches up with any number of familiar faces who often serve as interesting speakers on the subjects put before them, but the scripted narration often slips into oddly unidiomatic language and makes more than enough straightforward errors of fact (let alone interpretation!) to genuinely irk the nerds (I am, in this respect, of course, the irked nerds). I find it totally watchable, certainly, and if you are a reader of this our boundless volume (for which: hey thanks) I have every expectation it would suit you no less adequately than it suits me (which is fairly!). I mention all of this because Dark Side's "The Rise of PRIDE FC" and "The Fall of PRIDE FC" have both now aired, and while on the whole I guess I would have to say once more "okay, I guess," I nevertheless come to you this day in a rush because (get this!) they talked to Tadashi Tanaka! Like a whole bunch of times! Or rather I suppose they talked to him just the one time (for logistical reasons) and then of course distributed his discourse throughout various different segments of documentary television (I am not a fool). Can you even believe it, though? Tadashi Tanaka! Whomst, among(st) other notable achievements throughout his long decades of decades-long journalism (such as fatally exposing PRIDE FC's links to considerable criminality in an extraordinary 週刊現代 / Shūkan Gendai / Modern Weekly piece) authored a letter published in the August 2, 1999 issue of the venerable Wrestling Observer Newsletter under the title "OGAWA/TAKADA," an epistolary prose poem which, at the time of our first encounter with it, bore immense concord with all that we had thought and considered before, and which has shaped in no small measure all that we have thought and considered since. Remember? It really was some kind of letter! It has been reproduced in full several times throughout these our many electronic pages, and just now I came so close to hitting the ctrl+c/ctrl+shift+v (unformatted text, please) 連絡技 renraku-waza (combination technique) once more, but I have decided to show what I think we will all agree is admirable restraint in this matter, and instead I will merely point you to our PRIDE.1（プライド・ワン) 1997年10月11日 recapitulation (posted all the way back in September 2018, which seems to me at present just wild), which contains it in full; and plus also in a full-on Rise of PRIDE FC/Fall of PRIDE FC spirit, that selfsame post excerpts liberally from the invaluable work of Zach Arnold in these matters, and thus offers virtually every detail contained in either Vice TV episode (as well it should, as that post is over twenty-thousand words long [that's objectively way too long for things to be]), including notes on all of the key ヤクザ yakuza-adjacents that make up so much of the Dark Side presentation. It's all there! Owing, again, to the work of Zach Arnold, whose name I did not see in the credits of the Dark Side episodes which have spurred this reflection, but it all seemed so indebted to his work—not just in spirit but in a material way—that I even paused at the end to check. And yet nope.
WE BEGIN WITH BAS RUTTEN and beside him we find neither the longstanding Stephen Quadros nor the fleeting Damon Perry but instead, in his début, the débuting débutante Mauro Ranallo, who in the decades that followed became (and then sort of unbecame [and then kind of became again?) combat-sports ubiquitous. I will admit that neither his style nor voice are necessarily to my taste (these matters are of course entirely subjective, but here we are). The two explain in general terms a notion of 武士道 / ぶしどう / bushidō that is crudely in keeping with the views expounded in 新渡戸 稲造 Nitobe Inazō's Bushido: The Soul of Japan (1899), a fascinating text from which derive nearly all of our modern notions of this exacting code (plus its strictures!), though not uncomplicatedly: as Sato Masahiro asks upon the hundredth anniversary of the text's publication, "Why would Bushido be so well received all over the world [it is perhaps the single most widely translated post-Meiji Japanese text—ed.], and even today still be considered as required reading for anyone wishing to understand Japan? Why would Nitobe Inazo, who was trained in agricultural policy and agricultural economics, write such a book? And why would he write it in English, no less?" ("Nitobe Inazo and Bushido," Sato Masahiro, Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry, January / February 2002). Nitobe Inazō—a devout Methodist who married a Quaker, and finished his perplexingly chivalric (in the specifically Christian sense [consider here possibly C.S. Lewis' The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition {1936}]) Bushido: The Soul of Japan in Pennsylvania, of all places—was a complicated guy: a long-time friend of 嘉納 治五郎 Kanō Jigorō (seems good!), he was also a staunch proponent of Japanese colonialism (seems bad!), and wrote of Koreans in particularly dehumanizing terms (it got really, really gross). That I have read Bushido: The Soul of Japan more than once over the years probably could have been deduced or assumed, I bet, but Nitobe's name had largely slipped from my mind until, in recent years, I have had the great pleasure of teaching any number of students from 東京女子大学 Tōkyō Joshi Daigaku (which is to say Tokyo Woman's Christian University, known too as TWCU or simply 東女 Tonjo), owing to a growing relationship between that independent protestant institution and the technically-secular-yet-still-fairly-Jesuit public institution at which I often teach English literature; Nitobe, as it happens, was founder and first president of that august institution (I am learning just now that Marie Kondo went there! this is the first time I have have been on the Marie Kondo Wikipedia page, and it's got some good stuff: "She founded her organising consulting business when she was 19 and a sociology student at Tokyo Woman's Christian University.[16] In her senior year, she wrote her capstone thesis, titled 'Tidying up as seen from the perspective of gender'.[17] She spent five years as an attendant maiden at a Shinto shrine.[15] After the birth of her third child, Kondo's rigorous attitude towards tidying her home relaxed in order to make room for more personal priorities at this stage of her life.[36]"). Anyway, imagine my delight when all of this without moving moved around me into its place ("When will be that union," I had been wondering [bits of surface broken by my foot step]).
MAURO RANALLO IS SAYING THINGS VERY LOUDLY BUT HE HAS NOT YET DEVLOPED HIS TRADEMARK GREETING OF "YO YO YO AND AWAY WE GO" so let us be thankful for small mercies (I have long maintained that "what it do and how are you" would be a stronger opening in a similar idiom but very few of my ideas make it in). They've got a pretty good wind-swept fog-shrouded bamboo-grove situation happening here:
Mauro has just referred to the さいたまスーパーアリーナ Saitama Sūpā Arīna as "this wonderous edifice" (oh brother [he also refers to it as SOLD OUT even though it is like one-third full]) and Bas Rutten has followed not long thereafter with "it's straight out of a samurai movie! a Wolverine comic!" and I suppose I haven't thought about this in many years but I suppose Wolverine really did spend a bunch of time in Japan in those old comics (I actually have quite a collection of them in the basement and if you really wanted you could just have them; I feel no connection to them at this point [is it a drag how ordinary everyday comic books went from a fun youthful gateway into any number of interesting subcultures to the source material for perhaps the most vapid and infantilizing expressions of global monoculture we've yet managed? I think arguably!) and hey do you know who is another Canadian who has spent a good deal of time in Japan? That's right it's Carlos Newton, introduced here with an especially strong graphic:
He'll be on the show. And lots of other guys, too! Let's see about them!
Our first bout sees ever-credible journeyman grappler Chris Brennan make relatively short work of 光岡 映二 Mitsuoka Eiji (known well to us from the エムエムエー・ザ・ベスト [e mu e mu e ・za・ be su to] series as 金網の申し子 Kanaami no Mōshigo, "The Heaven-sent Child of the Cage"), though not without some discussion: as the two fighters are tangled in the ropes, Brennan begins to apply what looks like a very promising 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame indeed, but as the referee rushes in to disentangle things somewhat, Brennan releases the hold and walks away, his arms aloft in presumed victory. Brennan insists that Mitsuoka tapped, as does Brennan's second, and what do I know, but I have backed up the tape (or rather the "file-tape") and watched it a whole bunch of times and I see no such tap. I'm not suggesting Brennan is willfully misrepresenting his genuine impression of what happened, but I can't see Mitsuoka's free hand tapping; I just can't! I think the referee's well-intentioned intervention led to an overall situational weirdness in which nobody actually did anything wrong. This is the conclusion reached too (in whole or in part) by head referee 島田 裕二 Shimada Yūji (whom Bas first refers to as 永田 裕志 Nagata Yūji, and then he is like haha I have made this mistake before haha), and the bout continues until, soon thereafter, Brennan throws with a lovely 隅返 sumi-gaeshi from a 逆腕緘 gyaku-ude-garami grip and then finishes doggedly with a further gyaku-ude-garami/figure-four/double wristlock/Kimura/as you like it after Mitsuoka defends the 十字 juji. Great stuff! It looked like this, more or less, but with some extra stuff in the middle, and if you are perhaps wondering if that is 木村 政彦 Kimura Masahiko himself performing this stirring 連絡技 renraku-waza in animated.gif-form let me assure you it extremely is and if you are wondering if Chris Brennan remains miffed at the earlier non-stoppage in his post-fight locker-room comments let me assure you that only sort of: he remains certain that he felt Mitsuoka tap, but he fully blames himself for releasing the hold before he was instructed so to do by the referee, which is indeed an order of operations specifically designed so as to avoid confusing/confused situations such as these. He seems like a good sport here.
I have little expectation that I will have much of anything to offer you as regards our next bout, I'm afraid, as it is a contest between kickboxers Rodney Glunder (billed here as Rodney Faverus) and Chalid Arra (billed here as Chalid "Die Faust"), the former of whom has been convicted of and imprisoned for horrible crimes; I can report that he has lost a unanimous decision over two five-minute rounds (not the characteristic ten/five/five structure to which we have become accustomed). And we will move on.
And it is Серге́й Вале́рьевич Харито́нов (which is to say Sergéj Valér'jevich Kharitónov [which is to say further Sergei Valerievich Kharitonov] onto whomst we move, and his bout against New Zealand's Jason Suttie, billed here as Jason Nobunaga, a kickboxer making his lone mixed-fight appearance. Kharitonov, who I believe to be at least Russian Top Team adjacent, is a sambist with whom we will ultimately spend a good deal of time (should we be spared), but will anything that emerges from his appearances here offer us as much delight as this fact just now gleaned (by me; I am the gleaner in this instance) from his Wikipedia page that "Kharitonov graduated from a high school with a specialization in music (accordion)"? Unlikely, I would argue, but, at the same time, there is much to recommend the 内股 uchi-mata to 大内刈 ouchi-gari to 横四方固 yoko-shiho-gatame to 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame to 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame sequence with which he ends the bout in but two minutes and twenty-five seconds, so much so that I am almost willing to overlook the hitting that took place along the way. That this match did not appear in the main-line of the English-language presentation is mysterious to me (not in the sense of spookiness; it is not a spooky mystery), as it was a brief and action-oriented contest, but we are fortunate that the immense torrent (of information) that has brought us so much to consider over these several years includes too the Japanese-language broadcast of this tidy little match.
In my folly, I have not yet mentioned that this event is themed around a five-bout series betwixt TEAM GRACIE and TEAM JAPAN—which, even by late 2003, already feels lightly dated, but still a reasonable thing to do—and that, perplexingly-yet-no-doubt-super-radly-for-Carlos-Newton-and-his-feelings-ly, Newmarket/Pickering's Carlos Newton has been included on Team Japan. Imagine his enthusiasm for this strange turn of events! You don't call yourself "The Ronin" and plus also write down "Dragon Ball Jiu-Jitsu" (would you tell me the truth?) on the part of the form that says "fighting style" if you are not a guy who is going to welcome an appointment to a Team Japan for the purposes of a five-on-five かちぬきせん kachinukisen 【 勝ち抜き戦 】contest oh wait I am being a fool once more in that this is not かちぬきせん kachinukisen 【 勝ち抜き戦 】in that it is not a "winner stays" format; please forgive me. Nevertheless! Imagine how stoked! Of a guy he must be! His opponent, we learn, is to be Renzo Gracie, widely understood at that time to be the least objectionable of the fighting Gracies, although I would argue that, even then, this was a fairly radical reading of the text, given, for instance, the extent to which he spit all over 大山 峻護 Ōyama Shungo whilst losing to him that one time. There is no way to position that as the move of a chill guy, regardless of how affably one comports oneself in a pre-fight pre-taped interaction with Bas Rutten (there was one just now, is why I mention it).
Anyway. I remember this as a good match. Will it prove to be so? These many years after a lightly-bootlegged disc of this event first arrived to me by post? I would be surprised if not! This bout, we are told, will consist of one ten-minute round, followed by a single five-minute one. Mere moments in, Gracie plants Newton pretty firmly with the minor outer hook of 小外掛 kosoto-gake, and, as he is unable to advance his position for a little bit, we are reminded that in these Bushido events, referees are instructed to be very liberal indeed with yellow cards for stalling. That's not what happens here, though, as Gracie finds his way soon enough to Newton's back after a standing pass, and threatens briefly with the naked strangle of 裸絞 hadaka-jime before Newton slips out and goes chest-to-back against Gracie's turtly-turtle (not a diss: the turtle is vital, and the turtlier the better) before Gracie rolls through in the hopes of establishing guard, but finds himself lightly squisheled in a relatively high 横四方固 yoko-shiho-gatame. Great stuff! Also it is perhaps worth noting (let us thus note it [thus]) that the canvas is a handsomely offset rising sun motif; when the sun is offset, of course, even in the absence of streaming rays, it cannot help but recall the 旭日旗 Kyokujitsu-ki still flown by the Japanese navy, though not uncomplicatedly, as it is a symbol still closely (and understandably) associated with the wartime atrocities of Imperial Japan by many in the Asia-Pacific region. Nice canvas, though.
Is Gracie looking, in a preliminary sense, for the 足三角絡み ashi-sankaku-garami Bas Rutten speculates, or is this maybe more of a a rolling-through-for-the 膝十字 hiza-juji knee-bar that he is angling for (by literally angling off to the side a little ["it's not a 'tri'-right-in-front-of-him," as one of my longstandingest pals says about the triangle choke of 三角絞 sankaku-jime, which is not strictly speaking on topic just now but I do really like it when he says that])? Hard to say, but he's up to something, that sly boots. Ah ha! I was nearly correct, in that Gracie does indeed roll through, but it is with an eye towards 足取り絡み ashi-dori-garami rather than 膝十字 hiza-juji, a "toe-hold" (in truth an ankle-lock) rather than a knee-bar. For more, why not consult the charmingly drawn figures in Ma Méthode de Judo, Mikinosuke Kawaishi (1956)?
In the ensuing scramble, Newton ends up on top (in 横四方固 yoko-shiho-gatame, specifically) and hastens to hit, largely to the body. Gracie turns in and turtles, surely with further hopes of rolling through or standing, but he looks tired, and is getting hit a bunch. Okay now he's rolled through, but is unable to secure guard, and, now plainly a tired guy for all to see, is 横四方固 yoko-shiho-gatame'd once more.
As the second and indeed final round begins, we are offered a particularly striking view of the handsome canvas upon which we reflected earlier; here it is:
HOLY MOLY a huge 出足払 de-ashi-barai that was so deep that it had aspects of 支釣込足 sasae-tsurikomi-ashi (a little something for all you 足技 ashi-waza sickos out there) has Carlos Newton very much on top, Renzo Gracie very much on bottom, Hidehiko Yoshida very much delighted, and the audience then delighting in Yoshida's delight when it is delightfully exhibited for all to see. Neat!
To his credit, Gracie keeps coming, and after another fairly thorough pinning, works back up to his feet and doggedly attempts a single-leg 朽木倒 kuchiki-taioshi that does not come. As the round nears its end, Gracie attacks with the particular 前裸絞 mae-hadaka-jime front choke we often refer to as the arm-in guillotine, but Newton pops his head out like *boop*, and that's pretty much it. In the end, everybody is pals, and Newton takes the split decision. Great stuff!
Post-fight, Newton really pulls of quite a linguistic feat, in that he addresses the crowd in Japanese that is basic enough that I can understand it ("hey everybody! Team Japan promises to do its best! thanks so much everybody!" and so forth) but fluent enough that everyone is super charmed by it, especially Yoshida. That's a tough needle to thread!
That was all quite pleasant! I will honestly be pretty surprised if anything else on this show is able to quite match this level of pleasantness!
The first paring to try their hand at this perhaps impossible task of pleasantness-matching (arguably not their goal) consists of 三島☆ド根性ノ助 Mishima Dokonjōnosuke (né 三島睦智 Mishima Yoshitomi), a SHOOTO and DEEP (and later U-STYLE) competitor in some sense of judo broadly (though his precise rank and achievements are unknown to me [my assumption is that they are somewhat casual]), and Ralph Gracie, who, if I am remembering things correctly, has kind of been a jerk, right? Maybe more than kind of? Okay yeah here we go, and it's actually way worse than I remembered, actually—from the "Attack on Flavio Almeida" section of the Ralph Gracie Wikipedia entry: "On 15 December 2018, Gracie assaulted 5-time World Champion Flavio Almeida, Gracie Barra’s North America Executive Director, elbowing him in the face on the sidelines of the 2018 World No-Gi Championships in Anaheim.[21] According to prosecutors, after Almeida was knocked unconscious to the ground, Gracie, and one of his student Lincoln Pereira, continued to kick him in the head. Almeida reportedly suffered serious injuries as a result including a concussion and two broken teeth.[21] The attack allegedly came from Gracie not wanting Almeida to set up a Gracie Barra franchise near one of his schools.[3] Gracie fled to Brazil after the assault and a warrant from the Orange County District Attorney's office was issued for his arrest in April 2019.[22] Gracie failed to appear to four consecutive court appearances. A pretrial date was set for December 8, 2020, and a jury trial date was for 2021.[23] Gracie pleaded guilty to a felony assault charge for the unprovoked attack and he was sentenced to 180 days in jail, three years formal probation, a $50,000 fine and anger management.[21][24] He was subsequently released after serving three months of his sentence, the reason for his early release being unclear.[25] According to his court statement, Gracie felt 'tremendous remorse' for attacking Almeida.[26][27] As a consequence of the attack, and in the wake of the video evidence, Gracie received a lifetime ban from the IBJJF, the largest Brazilian jiu-jitsu organization in the world led by his uncle Carlos Gracie Jr.[28] Gracie is forbidden to compete, act as a coach, or participate in another IBJJF event for the rest of his life[29]". So that's Ralph Gracie, and what he did, and who he is, and has to bear being. Mishima, for his part, is a guy who mostly just comes out to his matches carrying a plush Snoopy, though he does not do so here. This one goes to Ralph Gracie by unanimous decision but my decision (also unanimous) is that this is not my kind of guy.
What next, then, after that thorough downer (I will note that the match itself was brisk and well fought, but on the whole I do not feel uplifted): well this won't be so bad, in that it is Daniel Gracie (né Simões)—a sixth-degree black belt (in the fullness of time; I do not believe it to be his rank at this the moment of our encounter [or rather of his encounter {with the guy he is encountering on this show}]) under Renzo Gracie who has also had a few notable moments in the most deeply obscured days of 新日本プロレスリング株式会社 Shin Nihon Puroresuringu Kabushiki-gaisha (known too as New Japan Pro-Wrestling [ask around; it is the king of sports])—and 中村和裕 Nakamura Kazuhiro, a judo player whose achievements we discussed in considerable detail when first we met at PRIDE.25（プライド・トゥウェンティファイブ）2003年3月16日. I don't see why we wouldn't be able to enjoy this one! Especially since this is the match in which Nakamura's short, tight, short-tights say TAKE TO FIGHT JUDO STYLE on the bottom! I will endeavour to get a quality screen-capture of this crucial moment in martial history as soon as possible . . . okay that didn't even take that long:
"And now, it's judo time" is Bas Rutten's note on this clinch, recalling the enthusiastic words of a great pal of mine this one time probably fifteen years ago (there's nothing more to the anecdote than that he was showing a particularly advantageous position, and said "from here, it's judo time" in way that he probably forgot about a minute later but that struck me as so charming that it has been with me with me ever since [so far!]). And yet it is not, as the clinch is soon broken, and there is some tentative striking from these two tentative strikers. What a sport, in which two pretty interesting grapplers can get together and box tentatively! Maybe let's just mostly watch movies instead! But no, we will stick it out, we TK Scissorists, because sometimes neat things happen in this sport we are largely mistaken to have ever enjoyed; sometimes there are things to ponder. The movies will abide. We will watch them later.
After a big tangle bouncing in and off the ropes, Daniel Gracie lands on top of Nakamura, surprising everyone a little, not least Gracie himself, who is probably not feeling too bad about being in the 二重絡み niju-garami / double-entanglement of Nakamura's half-guard. It is interesting to me that Nakamura is content with the overhook on the near-side (he has a far-side "under"), rather than trying to squooch that arm into an underhook (through a squooch squooch squooching motion) as though to make a frame and maybe even elbow-post en route to standing right up (just the other night I was helping a promising young yellow-belt [who is also a really nice guy] work on the *squooch* underhook to *boop* elbow-post to *whoop-a-doop* up-you-go [he got it right away]). This is not a mistake or anything! It just suggests that he is feeling like hanging out here is fairly okay; it indicates that he doesn't even super mind that he is pretty much flat on his back right now, rather than more actively/sweepingly on his side. This particular half-guard overhook is the hook of a guy who is unbothered, is all I mean to say, and this aligns with everything we know and will come to know about Kazuhiro Nakamura. Do we dwell excessively on the implications of under/overhook choices from the double-entanglement of 二重絡み niju-garami here at TK SCISSORS: A BLOG OF RINGS? Or are we the only BLOG OF RINGS with the courage so to dwell? Big questions with potentially uncomfortable answers for other RINGSblogs, and, more troublingly still, for other RINGSbloggeurs. But we press on! On we press! And I am delighted to see that our choice to go hard on underhook/overhook talk is rewarded almost immediately, as Nakamura's near-side overhook has Gracie understandably thinking this is a good time to hop up into 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame AND YET NOPE as Nakamura sweeps to that same near-side, aided by his far-side underhook in a sweept from the bottom that nevertheless recalls in execution nothing so much as the inner thigh throw of 内股 uchi-mata (low, scrambly version). That was choice.
Nakamura, on top now, is punching somewhat, as Gracie tries to tie up his right/punchingmost arm and schooch his hips towards an 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame that does not come (it could well have though! it's a good idea to try!). Nakamura stands up out of Gracie's guard and punches his way back into it a couple times, and both Bas and Mauro are baffled at this course of action, thinking it would be much better to kick the legs, or try to get to the side, but Nakamura is pretty clearly winning with his present approach, and has Gracie's face looking suboptimal (VLADIMIR: Where was I . . . How's your foot? ESTRAGON: Swelling visibly). Gracie manages a few up-kicks here and there, and although I would want absolutely no part of them, Nakamura seems unfazed, if not unwary. Nakamura has hopped over Gracie's "knee shield" setup and finds his way to 二重絡み niju-garami for a few interesting moments before the round ends with both fighters back on their feet to end the ten-minute first round. Pretty good stuff!
"Look at this! Two ground fighters playing the stand-up game!" is how Bas Rutten characterizes the first half of round two, which is how we would characterize it also, except for how he means that it's good. Nakamura is getting the best of it, but it is not conventionally attractive. Gracie seems way more tired, and he certainly has great big muscles that are probably really into being oxygenated. His arm-in guillotine of a 前裸絞 mae-hadaka-jime sees Nakamura's slippery head slip its way out without any real trouble, and that's pretty much that, aside from fairly mysterious yellow cards issued to both fighters with less than a minute to go. Clear decision win for Nakamura? Yes, a clear (unanimous) decision win for Nakamura. Everyone, happily, is pals.
Nakamura points at Yoshida like "this guy! this guy!" before jumping into his arms; also hey it is three-time (well only two-time at that time [as opposed to our present time]) Olympic judo champion (-60kg) 野村 忠宏 Nomura Tadahiro!
You may remember Nomura from being the only athlete to win three-straight Olympic championships in judo, or for being Teddy Riner's favourite player, or from presenting Keanu Reeves—or rather ジョン・ウィック John Wick, as the inscription on the belt itself reads—with an honourary black belt in 2017, as seen here:
Neither Ranallo nor Rutten recognize Nomura, but to Ranallo's considerable credit, he is willing to admit his ignorance in order to do a good job: "And we've seen this gentleman twice on camera, unfortunately maybe I could . . . gold medalist in the Olympics in judo? Judoka? That his name is Tadahiro Nomura? So, he is also, I'm sure, very pleased that another judo specialist, Kazuhiro Nakamura [. . . .]". Good for him. Thank you, Mauro.
Next we have Rodrigo Gracie, who picked up a win over 松井 大二郎 Matsui Daijirō at PRIDE.19, against 高瀬 大樹 Takase Daiju, who is wearing Sakuraba-reminiscent shorts with "DT" stylized in the way we would expect "KS" to appear (it's a strong look). You will perhaps recall Takase most recently from his picture-perfect 表三角絞 omote-sankaku-jime win from 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame over Anderson Silva, of all people (though, to be fair, he was not yet quite "Anderson Silva" [but even so!]). This fairly unremarkable bout—remarkable so far only for Takase's intermittent use of a form of the "rubber" guard (it used to be a thing, but is no longer really a thing [though just like in chess, everything, of course, remains playable at the club level]) is going well enough for Rodrigo, working away inside Takase's guard, when we hear Renzo Gracie's unmistakable voice: "They only stop when the Japanese is on top, that's why we don't stop. So make sure. You're fighting against the fighter and the referee. So make sure. Do something." He says all of this in English, rather than the Portuguese with which he otherwise counsels his cousin, so it is clear he wants these particular complaints (couched as coaching) to be heard and understood by a wider audience. It's quite a way to carry on. Gracie takes the well-earned unanimous decision win in a closely contested bout (of fighting).
Bas is shown backstage earlier in the evening speaking with Royce Gracie, who argues that Hidehiko Yoshida is "a liar" who "can't sleep at night." I am of course not privy to Yoshida's sleeping habits, nor with how he truthfully he conducts his personal affairs, but I would argue that these are not things Royce Gracie is in a great position to hold forth on either, and here I am simply speaking in terms of the kind of information he would have access to; I am not even approaching this from a "glass houses" perspective (you could go that way if you wanted to, though, and you could start from this section of his well-sourced Wikipedia page, or even this one [you could even click through to the impressively succinct Phil Jones article that covers the latter situation in considerable detail] but this is all well-established and there's no reason to dwell on it).
Alright, in the last of this five-fight series, we've got 浜中 和宏 Hamanaka Kazuhiro, whose decision win over Nino Schembri we will recall from PRIDE.26, against Ryan Gracie. Gracie has Hamanaka's back for just about all of this bout's seven minutes, barks "no!" over and over to the referee's instructions, and ends it with a flurry of kicks at 7:37 after Hamanaka's knee buckles. And at last we are free. Running out of steam here, guys! Running out of steam.
What all can be left? Well, there's young Maurício "Shogun" Rua, who bests (through stomping) the spirited but overmatched 小路晃 Shoji Akira; then there's Александр Владимирович Емельяненко / Aleksandr Vladimirovich Emel'janenko / Alexander Vladimirovich Emelianenko (Fedor's brother, convicted of and imprisoned for horrible crimes), who takes a decision win over eventual PANCRASE heavyweight champion Assuério Silva; and finally Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović, who kicks DOS CARAS JR. (known too as Alberto Del Rio [né José Alberto Rodríguez Chucuan]) in the head almost immediately.
I would note here, in closing, that Alberto is the only fighter on this card whose visit to the King of Donair on Quinpool (after an appearance earliler that evening at the Spryfield Lions Rink and Rec Centre) can be confirmed by photographic evidence (he is seen here in the company of Saraya-Jade Bevis [known too as "Paige"] to whom he was then affianced [it did not work out]):
ET VOILÀ! I would say this show peaked very early for me, and then kind of wore me down for several subsequent hours? And yet we have endured, and have arrived here, at its end, together. Let us turn before our parting towards WHAT DAVE MELTZER HAD TO SAY:
October 13, 2003:
"The Mirko Cro Cop (Mirko Filipovic) program with pro wrestlers led to another high profile victim in AAA’s Dos Caras Jr. (Jose Rodriguez Jr.) In the main event of the 10/5 Pride Bushido event at the Saitama Super Arena.
Cro Cop knocked out Caras Jr., in just 46 seconds. It continued the list of victims of Cro Cop, nicknamed “The Pro Wrestler Hunter,” that now includes Kazuyuki Fujita (twice), Bob Sapp, Yuji Nagata, Ryushi Yanagisawa and Kazushi Sakuraba. It also solidifies him in many people’s eyes as the most dangerous unarmed man walking the planet, going into his Pride world heavyweight title match against Fedor Emelianenko on 11/9 at the Tokyo Dome.
The crowd of 12,340, about half of what the promotion usually draws in the building (and one-third of the turn away crowd on 8/10 for what many considered the biggest show in MMA history) was not unexpected for what was considered a “B” level show. The Cro Cop vs. Caras Jr. match wasn’t announced until just days before the event, as the company was unable to find a Japanese pro wrestler who would face the real-life Croatian Sensation. The show was built around a Team Gracie, managed by Royce, against Team Japan, managed by Hidehiko Yoshida best-of-five series. Yoshida also apparently gave among the worst interviews in history to promote his upcoming match with Vanderlei Silva. Yoshida had been heavily praised in the Japanese press for being a man and giving the fans what they want while putting himself at great risk, since the story is that he personally selected Silva, who the Japanese considered to be the toughest of the four left (others being Chuck Liddell and Quinton Jackson) in the middleweight tournament, as his first round opponent. He looked disinterested in doing his promo, with nothing more than a stone-faced, “I look forward to the fight. Thank you.” [No way anybody would want to see Silva/Yoshida now! there wasn't a good enough interview for it!—ed.]
Team Gracie took the honors, 3-2, when Ryan Gracie was awarded the win in 7:37 when former amateur wrestling star Kazuhiro Hamanaka of the Takada dojo was unable to continue after blowing out his knee.
The 11-match show was considered overall a disappointment to the fans. The show, which airs on 12/21 in the U.S. on PPV, was said to only have two exciting matches, Carlos Newton’s decision win over Renzo Gracie, and Ralph Gracie’s decision win over Dokonjonsuke Mishima.
There were other format changes. Because of so many matches, the fights were cut to two rounds, a ten minute and a five minute round. This resulted in four of the five Team Japan vs. Team Gracie matches going the time limit. In addition, at the rules meeting, fighters were told because of the shorter time limits, there would be zero tolerance for stalling. Even if someone was on the ground in an advantageous position, if they weren’t making an attempt to finish, they would be stood up, or given a stalling yellow card. Cards were given with what I was told was ridiculous frequency. Most fans, who weren’t aware of the speech at the rules meeting, were surprised at what they thought were trigger-happy refs, and the fighters, who lost 10% of their pay for each call, likely weren’t thrilled either.
The idea of the show was to get Cro Cop a big win to build for his title fight, plus introduce new stars for major shows. The two biggest were younger brothers of established stars, Alexander Emelianenko, the bigger and stronger younger brother of the current champ, and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, the younger brother of Murilo Ninja. While both won and looked good, neither came out of it as a breakthrough star. The strong points remained the overall production. There were well produced video packages of all the fighters except those in the three prelim matches, making everyone to the PPV audience appear to be a superstar. We’ll have more on the key matches and overall thoughts on the show next week after seeing the event on video.
1. Chris Brennan beat Eiji Matsuoka with a armbar in 4:31. Earlier in the match, Brennan got an armbar, and Matsuoka let out a loud scream. Brennan let it go as a sportsman, fearing he’d ripped apart Matsuoka’s elbow joint. However, Matsuoka hadn’t tapped and the ref ruled the match to continue. In hindsight, this set a very bad precedent although there may have been no other option.
2. Chalid “Die Faust” Arrab won a unanimous decision after 15:00 over Rodney Faverus in a battle of two young strikers from Holland that didn’t live up to its billing.
3. Sergei Kharitonov beat Jason Nobunaga with an armbar in 2:25. Kharitonov was a member of the Russian Top Team (submission experts) while Nobunaga was a kickboxer from New Zealand and the fight went as expected.
4. Carlos Newton beat Renzo Gracie via decision in the match of the night. The two mostly worked on the ground with lots of movement and a few near submission attempts, including a few by Gracie that looked to be the finish. Gracie got tired toward the end. In a great display of sportsmanship, since this was a close fight and a split decision, both Royce and Renzo picked Newton up after the verdict was announced and carried him on their shoulders. Newton thanked the fans, in Japanese, and has become a huge favorite.
5. Ralph Gracie beat Dokonjonsuke Mishima via unanimous decision. This was a surprise since Gracie (the brother of Renzo and Ryan) hasn’t done a match since the early days of MMA, while Mishima is a veteran of the modern updated form. Mishima was reported as winning the first round, but Gracie looked great in the second.
6. Kazuhiro Nakamura won a unanimous decision over Daniel Gracie (Daniel Simoes). Nakamura, who is Yoshida’s top judo protege, managed to control Gracie on the ground and deliver a lot of punches.
7. Rodrigo Gracie beat Daijyu Takase via unanimous decision. Said to be a boring match. It was supposed to be an exciting ground battle, but Gracie overpowered Takase, who got almost nothing in.
8. Ryan Gracie beat Kazuhiro Hamanaka in 7:37. The bout was mainly on the ground. Gracie appeared to have the edge overall, before Hamanaka’s knee went out, perhaps trying to shoot for a takedown. After Hamanaka backed off, but before the ref officially stopped the fight, Gracie clocked Hamanaka with a hard punch.
9. Mauricio Shogun (Mauricio Rua) defeated Akira Shoji via knockout in 3:47 after a hard punch. Shogun, who is 21, has been considered one of Brazil’s rising stars.
10. Alexander Emelianenko won a split decision over Ausserio Silva. Emelianenko was bigger and stronger than Silva, considered top heavyweight at the Chute Box Academy. Emelianenko looked good at first, using a combination of power, good judo takedowns and hard punches on the ground, but got tired in the second round. The feeling was that Emelianenko has potential to be better than his older brother [an absolutely wild assessment, and not just in hindsight—ed.], because he’s bigger and stronger, but needs better conditioning.
11. Mirko Cro Cop beat Dos Caras Jr. in :46. Caras was wearing a mask with most of his face exposed, with the idea of respecting the family (his uncle, Mil Mascaras, is legitimately one of the Japan’s all-time wrestling legends) and Lucha Libre mask tradition. He cut the sides as to not curtail his peripheral vision, which would be death against Cro Cop. Well, it was death either way and I guess he chose death with honor. Cro Cop knocked Caras Jr. silly with a high kick, and Caras was bleeding from the side of the head immediately. He ended up needing five stitches after the match. Before the ref could get in, Cro Cop apparently paused, waited and cracked the already knocked out Caras Jr. with a vicious punch to the head. There was some controversy over this punch."
October 27, 2003:
"On the Pride side, it was announced that due to Emelianenko suffering a broken thumb, he would be unable to fight on 11/9 against Cro Cop. Nobuhiko Takada and Nobuyuki Sakakibara announced that Cro Cop would face Nogueira (who Emelianenko beat for the championship) to determine an interim champion, a similar deal as what UFC did with Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz. The tentative plan is to have Emelianenko face the winner to clear up the title controversy on 2/1 at the Osaka Dome, but that is a tentative date due to Emelianenko’s thumb. The Russian fighter broke his thumb in his last match, on 8/10 against Gary Goodridge. He was said to have aggravated the injury on 9/15 in training, and it hasn’t shown improvement since then. Because there had been speculation for weeks that Emelianenko was not signing for the planned match, Takada and Sakakibara came to the press conference with an X-ray, which showed a broken thumb that would need three months to heal. Still, because of Emelianenko being in the process of changing teams, the prior rumors of him not wanting the fight, and that these injuries were being made public for the first time even though the Goodridge fight was two months ago, suspicion has been aroused.
This changes the dynamic for what still should be regarded as the most important, from a sports standpoint (as opposed to a drawing card spectacle standpoint) heavyweight fight in the history of the promotion. Cro Cop is the best striker ever in MMA. Nogueira is considered the best heavyweight ever at submissions. Emelianenko, on the other hand, has vicious ground and pound skills, and has better takedown skills than Nogueira. While Cro Cop is lauded for his takedown defense, as he’s avoided takedowns in recent matches with both Heath Herring and Kazuyuki Fujita, who have good wrestling skills, he was also taken down by much smaller Kazushi Sakuraba, smaller Vanderlei Silva and unskilled Takada, none of whom are as good with takedowns as Emelianenko, or as good at hurting someone once he got them there. If Emelianenko could take Cro Cop down and control him, he could give him a beating, although since nobody has seen Cro Cop take a beating, it’s theoretical. Nogueira will try and pull Cro Cop down in a guard, but as far as finishing a fight on the ground, Nogueira’s submissions are excellent and Cro Cop would be in trouble for sure if he can’t keep it standing. While Emelianenko is a stronger puncher standing than Nogueira, when it comes to matching up with Cro Cop, that’s irrelevant because in a stand-up battle, Cro Cop would hurt either of them. [Oh would he!—ed.]
But it does eliminate what was truly the ultimate hardcore fan dream match of heavyweights, which most likely would have determined the shootfighter of the year award this year, and some have said, even the Thesz/Flair award in a year with no obvious winner."
and
"In a sign that tickets aren’t selling as well as hoped for, Pride announced that Kazushi Sakuraba would face Kevin Randleman on 11/9 at the Tokyo Dome. The original plan was to give Sakuraba until February to rest up from all his injuries. This is a bad match for Sakuraba, because he’s facing another natural (okay, natural not being the right word) 215-220 pound guy who cuts weight to 205 when Sakuraba should be facing natural 180 pounders like himself, no matter how much he’s bulked up of late. Not that he might not win, but this is stupid booking. A bad loss and they’ll cross the line that people will no longer want to watch him, because it’s no fun to see a national hero take beatings time-after-time."
Dave gets tape!
"Some notes from watching the 10/5 Pride show. The show wasn’t as bad as I’d been led to believe [I don't know about that; I sure minded it!—ed.]. It just lacked marquee names. It was a great big show feel and the ring entrances made everyone coming in appear to be a superstar. It’s too bad that Dos Caras Jr. didn’t do better, but then again, against Mirko Cro Cop it just wasn’t going to happen, as the song “Sky High” alone brings back memories among the Japanese fans of childhood and watching Mil Mascaras and they pop big for it. As for the controversial punch after the knockout kick, it came so fast that it wasn’t a cheap shot. Caras Jr. was out, and he could have shown mercy, but the mentality of fighters is to finish the fight. Really, I saw Ryan Gracie’s actions as more controversial. His opponent, Kazuhiro Hamanaka, had blown out his knee and was on the ground. Ryan started kicking his face and even after the ref pulled him off, he was trying to fight past the ref and go back to deliver more damage. Cro Cop stopped as soon as the ref got there, and the ref got there as fast as he could, it was just the knockout was so fast. The scary thing about Cro Cop is that Caras Jr. got in on him without being hit and locked up with him Greco-Roman style. That should have spelled trouble for Cro Cop since Caras Jr. was a multi-time national champion in Mexico in that sport, but Cro Cop powered him off. He’s got freaky upper body strength for how he looks which goes with his other weapons. Carlos Newton vs. Renzo Gracie wasn’t as exciting as I’d been led to believe, but Ralph Gracie vs. Dokonjonsuke Mishima was a good fight that could have gone either way. Ralph is an exciting fighter to watch and has charisma as well, and you’ve got to be impressed by a first generation guy beating a current star. Daniel Gracie (Simoes) vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura was also competitive. Mauricio Shogun is great standing up as he’s a machine with his punches and kicks, and his match with Akira Shoji to me was the best of the show. Shogun’s weakness is he’s easily taken down, as Shoji took him down many times. Alexander Emelianenko is a big dude who is well rounded and with more experience may be a real heavyweight threat. He’s got good hands. He did get tired early which made his match with Ausserio Silva a close one, but I’ve never seen Silva handled like that."
November 3, 2003:
"Kazushi Sakuraba is going to honor Hawk on the 11/9 show by dressing as a Road Warrior when he comes to the ring for his match with Kevin Randleman. He actually dressed like Animal for a match maybe a year ago. He always comes out in a pro wrestler gimmick from his childhood (I remember Vader, Mil Mascaras and Great Kabuki). It’s so funny watching the American broadcasts because Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros weren’t wrestling fans (even though Rutten made one of the best transitions to pro wrestling of any fighter) and never had a clue what he was doing. The complete line-up for the show has been finalized. The show will open with Gary Goodridge vs. Dan Bobish of WJ. Goodridge is the better striker, but Bobish is the better wrestler, and at 330-pounds, may be one of the few guys who is as strong or stronger than Goodridge. The match is very important to Bobish, because he’s being pushed as WJ’s monster. The fact he’s taking this risk in such a high profile show also shows how much trouble WJ is in, but if Goodridge should win, it’ll hurt Bobish’s career. Then they’ll do Quinton Jackson vs. Chuck Liddell. Can you imagine that is the second match on a card? Then Vanderlei Silva vs. Hidehiko Yoshida. Next is Dan Henderson vs. Murilo Bustamante. Bustamante vs. Henderson is basically an alternates match, where if the winner of the Jackson-Liddell or Silva-Yoshida matches can’t continue on, then the Bustamante-Henderson winner would go to the finals. Really, Bustamante vs. Henderson, because both are guys who should compete at 185, is a higher-class of match than even Liddell vs. Jackson, and I’d favor Bustamante but either could win. Either of them would be giving up a lot of size and strength if they were to go on, but both are super tough guys who would likely be able to go the distance and be damn competitive in the process. Bustamante hung with Jackson and made him look mortal, and that was with about a week’s worth of preparation. Next is Heath Herring vs. Norihisa Yamamoto. That should be a strong win for Herring, who apparently they are trying to rebuild. There had been a lot of talk of Herring vs. Kazuyuki Fujita, which would have been a tougher match for Herring. Next is Sakuraba vs. Randleman, followed by Mirko Cro Cop vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the Pride interim world heavyweight title. The main event will be the finals of the Grand Prix, making this perhaps the strongest MMA line-up in history. Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta, Frank Fertitta and Randy Couture from UFC are all scheduled to attend the 11/9 show. Most likely, Couture will issue a challenge to whomever wins the Grand Prix. Lorenzo hasn’t been to a Pride show since the first Silva vs. Sakuraba match soon after they bought the company."
November 10, 2003:
"John Hyams, who produced the movie “Smashing Machine,” which just came out on DVD and everyone is raving about the new footage that has been added, is trying to sell a project which would be to do a movie based on the documentary. Mark Kerr also wants to return to Pride, and is scheduled for a fight on 12/5 in New Mexico."
and
"After his loss to Ryan Gracie on 10/5, Kazuhiro Hamanaka has quit MMA and left the Takada dojo."
Okay that's that! Although this particular show may have fallen a little flat towards the end there (hoooooo boy), the next one—that is to say PRIDE GRANDPRIX 2003 決勝戦（プライドグランプリにせんさん けっしょうせん）— is famously among the best mixed fighting shows ever, and so that might be really quite a bit better? I look forward to finding out together! Until then, my friends, thank you for your time, and please take care.
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