Anyone else catch this on PPV the other day? It was on same-day delay from Japan. The show had eight fights, all of them elimination matches for the heavyweight grand prix tournament. If you are interested in mixed martial arts, this was probably one of the best PPVs I've seen (better than most UFC shows and way better than K-1 shows) since the craze started in the early 90s. The biggest surprise of the night was American Kevin Randleman absolutely destroying Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic in about two minutes. Cro-Cop was heavily favored to make it to the final four of the tournament, if not to win the whole thing. The two were going toe-to-toe (bad place to be if you're fighting Cro-Cop, whose kicks are devastating) and Randleman landed a solid straight left that put Cro-Cop down, then he pounded Cro-Cop in the face about 20 times on the ground before the ref stopped it. Filipovic had never been knocked out in a mixed martial arts match before (but he did tap out to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira last November). Other good fights included Nogueira's submission win over former Japanese Olympic judoka Yokoi, current Pride heavyweight champ Fedor Emelianenko submitting former UFC champ Mark Coleman (the last guy to win a Pride heavyweight grand prix), and former Russian spetznatz soldier Sergei Kharitonov beating Murilo Ninja Rua of Brazil's Chute Box academy (same place light heavyweight grand prix champion Wanderlei Silva trains). One match that looked to be a freak show was 7-2 Giant Silva (a former Brazilian Olympic basketball player who's been dabbling in martial arts for a few years now) vs. the most famous American sumo not from Hawaii, Henry Miller (known in sumo as Sentoryu) from St. Louis, MO. It's hard to get past how much that Brazilian guy looks like Andre the Giant. But these two had a pretty interesting match that the Brazilian giant won by submission with an inside keylock. I totally did not expect that outcome. They're going to re-seed all the remaining competitors for the next round of eliminations, which will be part of a PPV in June.
I am actually starting to get into this whole fighting thing. Their isnt taht much info on teh web, but I have been looking at the K-1 site, and it is pretty good. If I am correct Battle at the Bellagio II is this Friday? I cant watch it, I will be at a Yankee game, but it looks pretty good. Any websites you can recommend would be great. What is the best, UFC, K-1 Pride?
I like the pure mixed martial arts that include groundwork, so I prefer UFC and Pride. Pride's light heavyweight grand prix tournament last year was some of the best stuff I've seen since this stuff really took off in the early 90s. K-1 has some really good kickboxers, but they have a penchant for having one or two completely bogus freakshow matches on every card. Other than perhaps seeing what Tyson might do on this Friday's PPV, there's not much of interest. For just reading up on this kind of stuff, I'd recommend either the Wrestling Observer newsletter (comes out in hard copy only; mostly about pro wrestling but also has the best info weekly about mixed martial arts) or Jeff Sherwood's site, www.sherdog.com, which has links to lots of commentary about the fights and to the promotions' official sites.
SHerdog is actually one of the first sites I stumbled upon. Pretty good, at least for supplying links to fighters individual sites, etc. Are the fighters tied to a certain "league" or can they bounce from competiting league to competiting league? (ie Pride to UFC, etc)
Some are, some aren't. Depends on the length of their contracts (some fighters only sign one-match deals with promotions). In one rare instance, UFC let one of their fighters under contract (Chuck Liddell) fight in the Pride grand prix last year. Also, a few fighters under contract to K-1 have fought in Pride (including Alistair Overeem, Bob Sapp, and Mirko Cro-Cop before he signed with Pride full time last year). And some Pancrase fighters have participated in Pride and UFC before. But typically fighters sign exclusive multi-match deals with promotions.
I just watched my tape of the PPV last night. I agree!! One of the best MMA shows in recent memory. If you didn't see than I strongly suggest ordering one of the replays. You won't be dissapointed. Cro Cop losing was a surprise, congrats to Kevin Randleman. Fedor looked great and coming off a fairly long layoff and his injury problems and considering the opponent it just makes his win all the more impressive. The Texas Crazy Horse Heath Herring looked good as well and could be a dark horse to watch. That Silva is freakish looking. Did you see all the fighters who advanced standing in the ring at the end? He just towers over everybody. The bigger they are - the harder it is to get up when you are knocked down!! If you are new to MMA and don't want to buy each and every PPV than I would recommend Pride over UFC. Throughout history it has kind of gone back and forth between these two organizations as to which was better. Right now Pride FC is quite a bit ahead IMO. I am really enjoying their PPVs. Of course I will still order all the UFC ones as well. Pride just has better quality fighters right now. And the commentary on Pride is much better. Blow by Blow guys are about equal. But it is the color/expert commentary where Pride really shines. Pride has Bas Rutten, one of the most respected fighters in the history of modern MMA and he has been both King of Pancrase and UFC Heavyweight Champion. UFC has Fear Factor host Joe Rogen Breaking News that Silva has suffered and injury and his fight against Yuki Kondo at Bushido vol 3 could be in trouble.
Wanderlei got hurt? Or was it a flareup of an existing problem? I thought he'd beat Kondo, anyway, but anything can happen in this sport. I want to see Quinton Jackson get a rematch with Silva, but rumors are 50-50 as to who Silva would fight next (assuming he beat Kondo) between Jackson and Tito Ortiz. Did anyone watch the K-1 PPV the other night? I had been disappointed with the last couple, so thought I'd save money, but if it was good, I'd like to know while I can still order it.
I didn't order the K1 PPV either and haven't heard much about it. I was tempted because I wanted to see how Briggs and Botha would do in a K1 match. If you hear anything let me know because I may want to order the replay as well. Maybe we can set up an arrangement where we each buy every other K1 PPV and then send the tape to each other if you are interested. Silva vs. Tito would be great. As would Silva vs. Rampage rematch. Am I right in saying that Tito and Quinton are in the same stable so there is no chance they will fight each other?
According to the Observer, neither Briggs nor Botha fought, even though K-1 continued to advertise them in the preshow ads right up until the show. Sounds like it was a pretty bad show. Thanks for the offer, but at this point I doubt I'll be paying for too many K-1 shows (w/possible exception of annual Grand Prix finals). Silva sprained a knee in training. The match with Kondo is still scheduled, but obviously it's up in the air. RE: Quinton and Tito being from the same stable, that hasn't stopped people from taking matches in the past. One or the other just "leaves the stable." Like when Liddell finally stopped training with Ortiz after years of training together because he was frustrated that by training with Ortiz, his "friend" was avoiding ever having to fight him. After that, it still took him over a year to get the fight.
Remember it is Bushido Vol.3 this Sunday!!! Yes, Silva vs. Kondo won't happen as we had all hoped but it should be a good night none the less, plus at only 19.95 it is 10 bucks cheaper than normal, which will help me offset the cost of the Roy Jones vs. Tarver fight. Team Gracie vs. Team Japan Ryan Gracie ( Brazil ) vs. Ikuhisa “The Punk” Minowa ( Japan ) Ralph Gracie ( Brazil ) vs. Takanori Gomi ( Japan ) Ricardo Almeida ( USA ) vs. Ryo Chonan ( Japan ) Additional Matches: Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic ( Croatia ) vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara ( Japan ) Carlos Newton ( Canada ) vs. Daiju Takase ( Japan ) Chalid “Die Faust” Arrab ( Germany ) vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura ( Japan ) Akira Shoji ( Japan ) vs. Tamakairiki ( Japan ) Norihisa Yamamoto ( Japan ) vs. Choi Mu Bae ( Korea ) Jorge Patino Macaco ( Brazil ) Vs Kazuo Misaki ( Japan ) Nice to see "Cro-Cop" doing a quick turn around after his surprising loss in the Grand Prix opening round. Wish The Ronin was fighting one of the Gracies. You would think they would want revenge after he beat Renzo in Vol. 1.