Pride 10/31/04 (w/Rulon Gardner news...) [R]

Discussion in 'Other Sports' started by BlueMeanie, Nov 1, 2004.

  1. BlueMeanie

    BlueMeanie New Member

    Apr 1, 2002
    EastSIIIIDE
    Not sure if anyone else ordered this PPV last night; I taped it and have only watched the last two matches so far.

    Anyway, for Americans, the "big" news is that they brought out 2000 Olympic Gold medalist Greco-Roman wrestler Rulon Gardner, and announced that he'll be taking up shootfighting (kind of a surprise, I had read that WWE was throwing some serious offers at him). His debut will be on the 12/31 show (PPV 1/2/05 in US), against 1992 Olympic Gold medalist judoka Hidehiko Yoshida. Yoshida goes around 220 for fights, so he's MUCH smaller than Gardner, but he's got a few Pride matches under his belt (including a win over Royce Gracie), and he's lightning quick at both throws and applying submissions. Gardner mentioned he's been into shootfighting for a few years, because he's been friends with Dan Severn and Don Frye for a long time. He's going to train with former Olympic wrestler Dan Henderson (a Pride middleweight contender), who is bringing in grapplers, strikers and judoka for Gardner to train with. Frankly, I don't like Gardner's chances.

    Main event last night had perpetual middleweight champ Vanderlei Silva of Chute Boxe Academy in Brazil knock out Quinton Jackson of San Diego in the second round. Brutal fight, both guys got in lots of hard strikes, and the first round ended with Jackson in the mount position pounding away on a seemingly overmatched Silva. Start of second round was more of the same, but Silva slowly took over and eventually put Jackson out a flurry of punches followed by a series of 5 knees to the head with about a minute to go. This was a rematch of a great fight from last year, which Silva also won.

    PPV is repeating throughout the month, FWiW.
     
  2. SoccerNova2009

    SoccerNova2009 New Member

    Aug 19, 2000
    probably at a bar
    I just watched my tape of the PPV last night. Fairly good event (as most Pride programs are) Great main event. What a brutal KO by Silva. That right hand landed perfectly, I am surprised Quinton didn't fall over right then. But when he did fall it was with a big crash. OUT COLD!!! Blood everywhere. Silva did look to be in trouble in round 1 and was lucky the round ended when it did.

    The rest of the card didn't have too many surprises. The Cro-Cop - Josh Barnett match was dissapointing with the injury to Barnett. Henderson looks like a valid challenger to Wanderlei. Mark Hunt seems like he might be able to make the transition from K-1 to Pride. The Aleksander Emelianenko fight was great just in watching to contrast between the two fighters. Thompson looked like he was going to explode he was so pumped, while I thought Aleksander was going to start yawning he was so relexad. He did wake up just in time to KO Thompson.

    I was also surprised by the Rulon Gardner news. The match against Yoshida will be a fascinating contrast. Gold Medal Greco-Roman wrestling vs. Gold Medal Judo. But will Shockwave be available in the US? I don't think it was last year or the year before for some reason. I hope it is because it will have Fedor vs. Nogueira II

    BlueMeanie - Are King of the Cage PPV's any good? I saw they have one this month and wasn't sure if it would be worth the $$.
     
  3. BlueMeanie

    BlueMeanie New Member

    Apr 1, 2002
    EastSIIIIDE
    Yes, Bas Rutten even mentioned it on the show. The show actually takes place 12/31 in Japan, but it will air on PPV on 1/2/05 in the US. I'm also up for Fedor/Nogueira II (speaking of fights that ended in a disappointing fashion the first time around...). Another fight at Shockwave that should be awesome is Kiyoshi Tamura v. Kazushi Sakuraba, which I heard they were close to signing.
    I wouldn't pay more than $15-20 for King of the Cage. It's like a minor league UFC, and you probably won't have heard of most of the fighters. In fact, I've seen a couple of these and the only names I recognized were guys that lost in UFC, like Dan Bobish and Javier Vazquez. They usually hold these shows on Indian reservations in inland California, the only places in the state where these shows are currently legal.
     
  4. SoccerNova2009

    SoccerNova2009 New Member

    Aug 19, 2000
    probably at a bar
    OK, Thanks. I will probably spend the money on Bushido Vol. 5 instead. I have been enjoying these 'in-between' Pride events quite a bit. They usually will have one big star albeit against an over matched opponent but they are reasonably priced and serve to hype the 'major' Pride events.

    KOTC reminds me of all those MMA shows that sprouted up when UFC was running really hot. Remember "Extreme Fighting and "World Combat Championship". WCC was actually fairly good. Only one show aired as I remember but they did have some Gracies and the production value was very good.
     
  5. BlueMeanie

    BlueMeanie New Member

    Apr 1, 2002
    EastSIIIIDE
    I think one of the main reasons the Bushido shows are cheaper is that they're shown on one-month tape delay (the one airing next Friday on US PPV was taped in mid-October.
    Good MMA knowledge remembering WCC and EFC. EFC established a few of their own stars, like Conan Silveira, Igor Zinoviev and Kevin Jackson, all of whom went on to get their asses handed to them in UFC (the latter two by Frank Shamrock in VERY short fights). KOTC has similar production style to those two shows, except it's in an octagon-type cage like UFC.
     

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