jiraffejustin Watches Pride

[jiraffejustin]

For those of you who don't know, Pride was a mixed martial arts promotion from Japan. MMA is a big deal in America now thanks to the UFC, but Pride was a bigger deal in Japan than the UFC is here. In Japan, pro wrestling was greatly respected, because most of those wrestlers were legitimate tough guys. Japanese Pro wrestling wasn't the Jerry Springer sideshow that it's made out to be in the States, it was meant to be considered something close to a real sport. The matches were more closely based in realism, even if there was still that suspension of disbelief required for the most part. Guys like Antonio Inoki basically invented what is known as shootstyle. In PW terms a work is the scripted "fake" fights, and a shoot is the real deal, so shootstyle is supposed to look as real as possible. This style had some success in the late 80s through the mid-90s in various promotions. Specifically RINGS which would mix legit shoots and shootstyle matches. In order to put on a good shootstyle match, you'd have to be legitimately well-trained in some sort of grappling martial art and willing to take a pelting shot to the face. TONGO mentioned in his Pro Wrestling story guys who worked stiff just because they were sh*tty pro wrestlers, well stiffing guys in shootstyle is welcomed so long as you don't accidentally knock the poor guy out.

Then came Pancrase. Pancrase was for the most part the real deal. It was real fights using Japanese pro-wrestling rules. I know it sounds kind of wonky, but it was actually awesome. Pancrase had some worked fights, but they were so stiff and violent that it didn't really matter. Bas Rutten might be the most well known Pancrase fighter, and to my knowledge none of his fights were worked. He made the transition to UFC for two fights at the end of career, he won both including one over Kevin Randleman who was still good at that point.

With the success of the UFC and Pancrase, and a desire to match a popular Japanese pro-wrestler against a member of the Gracie family, Pride was created.

Pride, in my opinion, was the greatest MMA company to ever put on shows. So I will be watching all 68 Pride events in company history, and I'll post about each event in this thread. I don't know if this will be of any interest to anybody here, but I hope somebody here will at least follow along or talk about MMA or something.


Best Fights:

Kazushi Sakuraba vs Vernon White - Pride 2 (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz6wwt_kazushi-sakuraba-vs-vernon-white_sport)
Kazushi Sakuraba vs Carlos Newton - Pride 3 (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzpwjt_carlos-newton-vs-kazushi-sakuraba_sport)

[jiraffejustin]

I don't think this thread is going to generate much interest, but I'll keep plugging away regardless. I'll post youtube videos of the fights when I can find them, maybe that will help pique interest. Or maybe folks here just don't like watching two guys punch each other in the face as much as I do.

Anyway.

Pride 1

Kazunari Murakami vs John Dixson - Kazunari comes out in a gi and Dixson is wearing a muscle shirt while he fights. And it goes how you would expect a fight like that to go. It's not a good one, but it's funny. Dixson outweighs Kazunari by about 70 lbs, but Kazunari just dumps Dixson on his back with a judo throw and easily submits him with an armbar. Fight is over within two minutes. Nothing to see here.

Gary Goodridge vs Oleg Taktarov - This fight features two early UFC fighters. Goodridge has a 30 lb weight advantage, because nobody cared about weight classes in early MMA. The fight itself was a bit slow with neither guy wanting to commit, but when Goodridge committed he would get the upperhand every time, eventually getting a nasty one-hit KO that dropped Taktarov out cold. Not a good fight, but a nasty knock out for sure. The camera catches Goodridge saying "Carry the f*ck out on the stretcher." Indicating that he must really not like Oleg Taktarov, or he's just a jerk. I don't know which is true.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhHYBDL2-Ao

Renzo Gracie vs Akira Shojie - In order to get the Gracies to agree to fight in Pride, they basically allowed the Gracies to make their own rules for their fights. One of the rules for this fight was that there was no judge, and for some reasons kneeing to the head from the ground position was outlawed despite it being legal in all of the other fights. This led to a 30-minute draw. You get a couple of nice moments, such as Shojie purposefully going through the ropes with Gracie on his back in order to break-up a rear naked choke attempt, Shojie slipping out of an armbar, and a nice sequence where Gracie sets up a sweep attempt by going for an omoplata and when Shojie gives him too much space he just rolls into a mounted position only for shojie to roll and almost give Gracie his back but wiggle out of it. This fight would have been a lot more fun if it was only 15 minutes, but at 30 minutes it drug on far too long.

Koji Kitao vs Nathan Jones - If you closely followed pro-wrestling you would recognize Nathan Jones. He had a cup of tea in the WWE. Nathan Jones had no idea what he was doing out there. Kitao submitted him right away.

Branko Cikatic vs Ralph White - Kickboxing match. Branko is a douche. He immediately comes with a spinning back kick while they are touching gloves, which is a cheap shot. It's legal, but cheap. Branko knocks Ralph White down and then kicks him right in the head. Being a kickboxing bout, that's not legal. Ralph White gets this:

https://fightrankings.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/ralph-white-head.jpg

The fight is ruled a no contest. It probably should have been ruled in favor of Ralph White via disqualification.

Kimo Leopoldo vs Dan Severn - On paper, this should be a fun fight. In reality...not so much. Kimo really doesn't have much technique and would usually just try to get on top of his opponents and maul them and Severn isn't a striker. For some reason these guys opted to box each other, but they are really crappy boxers. This fight would have been fun if these guys went to the ground and had a sloppy mauling contest complete with takedown stuffs, sprawls, and scrappy ground and pound. Instead we get 30 minutes of two guys who aren't qualified to box boxing. Then throw in some half-hearted, telegraphed take down attempts. Not good.

Rickson Gracie vs Nobuhiko Takada - Nobuhiko Takada is a pro-wrestler in Japan, he was in some pretty good matches in the UWF vs NJPW feud in the late 80s. I don't really know anything about him as far as MMA goes, other than that he caught Mark Coleman with a heel hook and scored a huge upset victory. The whole reason Pride got started up is because of this fight though, so I am thankful for that even though the first Pride event sucked. This fight wasn't much either. Rickson just stalked Takada. Took Takada down. Mounted Takada. Took Takada's arm. Takada tapped. The night is over.


Pride 1 wasn't a great show, but it laid the groundwork for the Gracie vs Sakuraba feud and future Pride events. It wasn't a total loss, but you don't really need to see this event.

[The Gunslinger45]

I don't know if it was the same UFC, but I think in the early days wasn't UFC just a bunch of no holds fights of people who did different martial arts? Lke a guy who does Tae Kwon Do vs a Judo master? Or am I thinking of a different event?

[jiraffejustin]

It was kind of the same way in that nobody was all that well rounded and some guys fought in both Pride and UFC, but Pride wasn't built on the "battle of the martial arts style" type of thing UFC was. The exception being Japanese pro-wrestlers wanting to prove they were legit tough guys, so they would fight Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu guys.

[The Gunslinger45]

Gotcha. Yeah I saw a few of the early stuff and don't care for the current stuff.

[jiraffejustin]

Yeah, sadly MMA isn't as great as it used to be. There used to be a bunch of guys who fought exciting fights and brought something new to each fight, now most guys just try to get the decision win via lay and pray.

[jiraffejustin]

I lost everything I typed up for Pride 2. :shrug:

The gist of it: Not a good event outside of a great fight between Kazushi Sakuraba and Vernon White. They took to the mat and showed that groundwork can be very exciting. Sakuraba is so slick. He kept slipping out of Vernon White's choke attempts, he had some inventive armbar takedowns, and his sweeps and rolls are all the stuff of beauty. Vernon White was no slouch, but he is nowhere near as flashy as Sakuraba. A modern audience might not appreciate the lack of striking in the fight, but I don't mind at all. This was a fantastic fight and by far the best fight of the first two pride events.

That fight: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz6wwt_kazushi-sakuraba-vs-vernon-white_sport

The main event was of note, because Branko Cikatic, the guy who head kicked Ralph White and put that mouse on his head while he was on the ground at the first Pride event, got disqualified and nearly started a riot. He was fighting Mark Kerr, an excellent wrestler, and Kerr shot in on him twice and Cikatic just illegally held onto the ropes to avoid being taken down. This would be one thing, but Cikatic also threw a bunch of illegal elbows to the back of Kerr's head while this was happening.

Pride gets better, but these first two shows have been eyesores.

[donniedarko]

I have a bunch of early Pride DVDs, and there was a period where I would watch them. Always a ton of fun, listening to Bas Ruttens commentaries and watching some of the ridiculous fights. I have lost my interest in MMA, but perhaps I'd still enjoy these.

[donniedarko]

Oh yes, Branko Cikatic. In the coming events there will be one more of his little episodes.

[jiraffejustin]

Bas Rutten is my favorite commentator of any sport ever. I love that guy. Have you seen any of his Pancrase fights?

[donniedarko]

Kind of, mainly highlights, and his Shamrock fight. I'm familiar with his brutal techniques. Fun fighter for sure.

[jiraffejustin]

There is a fight in Pancrase where a guy he was fighting kept complaining to the ref that Bas was doing something illegal, I can't remember what it was, so the ref stepped in and separated them twice for this. That pissed Bas off, so the next time they got close Bas just blasted the dude HARD right in the liver and dropped him. It's one of my favorite MMA moments. So awesome.

[jiraffejustin]

Pride 3

Akira Shoji vs Daijiro Matsui - Not bad for a 40 minute fight. There was never a significant amount of down time as both guys seemed to be constantly doing something. The only thing keeping this from being a great fight is the lack of a real threat of the fight being finished by either guy. I am excited about seeing what both these guys might do in "future" fights.

Daiju Takase vs Emmanuel Yarborough - Ahhh early MMA. A guy that weighs 169 lbs fighting a dude that weighs over 600 lbs. Yarborough is the fat guy, Takase is the little guy. An entertaining fight due to the weight disparity and the tactics used by Takase. He circled Yarborough for awhile to wear him out, and it actually kind of worked. Yarborough worked up a pretty intense sweat just by turning with Takase. Eventually the ref gave Takase a yellow card for inactivity. The infraction inspires Takase to go for an ill-advised takedown attempt on the man that looks like a boss in Shadow of the Colossus. This lead to Stephen Quadros, commentator, referencing Jaws as Yarborough climbed his way up Takase's body while trying to smother the much smaller man. An apt comparison because the shark and Yarborough seem to be of similar size. Takase fighting for his life punched Yarborough anywhere he could. He punched him in the face, he punched his arm, his knee, his calf. Eventually Takase slipped out and Yarborough was too fat to defend himself. Takase punched him in the head until he quit. Fun fight.

Carlos Newton vs Kazushi Sakuraba - I love Sakuraba. Carlos Newton is an exciting fighter as well. When you watch this fight you know why wrestlers and jiu-jitsu guys call it "rolling" on the mat. Newton and Sakuraba roll all over the ring with a bunch of crazy transitions, escapes, and submission attempts. This fight had more striking than the Sakuraba/White fight from the previous Pride and is a little better overall. At this point in Pride's short history there had only been two great fights, and Sakuraba was in and won both.

Video of Sakuraba vs Newton: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzpwjt_carlos-newton-vs-kazushi-sakuraba_sport

Gary Goodridge vs Amir Rahnavardi - Bas and Stephen setup the fight by telling us Amir took this fight on one day's notice. I agree with them, Amir Rahnavardi might be insane for accepting this fight. Goodridge trained for a fight with Kimo, but Kimo blew out his knee. That's too bad, because I would have loved seeing Goodridge blast him into the ether. Instead I'll settle for Amir Rahnavardi taking his place. At one point, the two dudes are on the ground, with Amir on the bottom, and Amir punches Goodridge. You can hear Goodridge tell him "that's a sissy punch," to which Amir just laughs. Then later in the fight Amir punches from the bottom and Goodridge yells "CHILD'S PLAY! WOO! AGAIN!" and let Amir punch him several times. Then Goodridge knocks Amir out from the guard with some really powerful punches. Out cold. I am glad it was Amir and not Kimo, it probably lead to a much more exciting fight. Gary Goodridge is a douche though.

Mark Kerr vs Pedro Otavio - I know of Mark Kerr's reputation as being the guy that caused some changes to the MMA rule book because of how dangerous his knees to the head from the ground were, but I haven't actually seen many of his fights. In this fight he quickly takes Pedro down and shortly after he gets him in a reverse kimura and Pedro yells in pain. The referee stops the fight and Pedro is upset because he never taps. He put the ref in a tough spot with his yelling though, and the ref probably thought Pedro had a broken arm. Pedro is angry. But what are ya gonna do?

Kyle Sturgeon vs Nobuhiko Takada - Takada is a pretty famous pro wrestler in Japan, and I guess his reputation took a hit after he lost to Rickson Gracie at the first Pride event. I guess he thought the best way to save his reputation was to put himself in a fight that was fixed. This fight was pretty obviously fixed with Takada overselling some of Sturgeon's offense. I've read that all of Takada's wins in Pride were all works. Including a fight with Mark Coleman. Which is upsetting, but Coleman probably got a big paycheck out of it.

It took 3 shows, but Pride finally put on a good one. Most of the fights were at least good, and Sakuraba vs Newton was fantastic.