Pride - Real Deal USA - 21st October - **SPOILERS**

Raider

Raider

Raider

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,576
Location
Leamington Spa / Oxford
Well Pride's first US show is shaping up quite nicely so far. Only four official matches so far (there will be 9 in total):

Fedor Emelianenko VS. Mark Coleman

Kevin Randleman VS. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

Josh Barnett vs Pawel Nastula

Mark Hunt vs Eric ‘Butterbean’ Esch

But also scheduled to appear are:
Kazuhiro Nakamura
Kazuyuki Fujita
Mirko Cro-Cop

So far it's looking like an awesome PPV. The last match between Feder and Coleman ended quite quickly when Fedor caught Coleman in an arm-bar, so it would be good to see a longer exhibition of each fighter's different ground-and-pound technique. Still think Fedor is the clear favourite though!

Randleman vs Rua should be good as well. Shogun has to be the favourite, but Randleman is always great to watch. He's damn fast for a bulky wrestler, and his knock-out of Cro-Cop in their match a couple of years ago showed that you can never count him out completely. Also let's not forget that insane piledriver that he pulled on Fedor.

Hunt vs Butterbeam could be an excellent fight. Both can hit hard, and both can take a punch. So I wouldn't expect too much ground work. Mark Hunt likely to win that one though.

It'll be interesting to see how the US audience responds to the PPV. The inclusion of Coleman and Randleman means that UFC fans will have some familiar faces. And the best talents in Pride (Fedor / Shogun / CroCop) should impress any MMA fan. Plus the inclusion of some of the best Japanese fighters is good. The talent roster on this PPV alone outweighs UFC's decent fighters 2:1, so hopefully the US audience will be won over. Although all those fans that prefer hype / star personalities rather than the best fighters will probably never convert.
 
Mr Nice said:
Shaping to be a very good card indeed. But no Wanderlei Silva?
Click to expand...

Well he was knocked out pretty badly by CroCop, and so I doubt he'll be cleared to fight for at least 6 weeks. Sad, as it would have built up the potential of a Liddell / Silva fight if he put in a strong performance on US soil.
 
Raider said:
Well he was knocked out pretty badly by CroCop, and so I doubt he'll be cleared to fight for at least 6 weeks. Sad, as it would have built up the potential of a Liddell / Silva fight if he put in a strong performance on US soil.
Click to expand...

That was an awesome KO by Cro Cop and surprising to see the Axe Murderer taken apart like that.

Does look like a superb PPV and good too see Fedor back in action, I think that he'll KO Coleman.
 
I will watch it just to see butterbean fight :p I remember not so long ago when he was running his mouth about becoming the next world heavyweight boxing champion.......
 
Looks good and it has to be since in the US.

It's a PPV that will bring Pride to new levels and hopefully grab the US people big time.

This is good for the UFC imo as they will know that its got real competition on its hands and will need to up their level of quality fighters.

I wonder if Bravo will be showing this? :p I doubt it.
 
Im really surprised at these matchups, I'm sure they could have come up with something better for there big US showing. I can't see modern UFC fans caring/remembering the two team hammerhouse fighters really. The only guys they seem to know are Chuck, Randy and Tito...

All the matches seem abit one sided, Fedor, Shogun and Barnett should walk through those fights. I suppose you never know though. Coleman and Randleman have zero sub defence so I'd expect them to be dealt with inside five minutes. Nastula is a fantastic Judoka, but an mma noob and should get it handed to him by Barnett.

The Hunt vs Butterbean matchup might be a good laugh but I can't imagine it being anything more than that.

I really hope there are some other good fighters like CroCop on show. Can't imagine Wandy being on the card after the bludgeoning he took. Hopefully Gomi/Henderson/Baroni/Hansen will be there.
 
Last edited:
Well tonight is the night!
There's been a few changes so the card now looks like:

-Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mark Coleman
-Mauricio "Shogun" Rua vs. Kevin Randleman
-Josh Barnett vs. Pawel Nastula
-Dan Henderson vs. Vitor Belfort
-Kazuhiro Nakamura vs. Travis Galbraith
-Joey Villasenor vs. Robbie Lawler
-Phil Baroni vs. Yosuke Nishijima
-Sean O'Haire vs. Eric "Butterbean" Esch

It's a real shame Pride couldn't display a few more of their better fighters, namely Cro Cop, Silva, Nogeuira (either of them!), but hey ho! :p
 
** SPOILER **

Average enough event tbh and thank god for fast forward.

Coleman was awful I thought and only wanted to old Fedor's leg. I'll give him a bit of credit when he put Fedor on his back but did nothing and ended up tapping out.

Kevin Randleman came out like a bull and ended up a puppy. He never tried to get out of the ankle lock and could have did the same to Shogun. Boring and again and another Shogun poor fight to watch.

Josh Barnett wasn't having a good fight and out of nothing won with the ankle lock. Looked nothing like the man at the prix.

I had to laugh at Butterbean which made the show entertaining. The right fighter would punish him but he came out swinging and easily won against a very poor Sean O'Haire.

Overall the Dan Henderson v Vitor Belfort and Joey Villasenor v Robbie Lawler matches were the ones that stood out.

It should have been an excellent event and needed to be due to it being held in the US but it wasn't impressive.

They will have to come back and try again.
 
*More Spoilers*

I thought it was fairly exciting, although poorly matched fighters made it so-so overall. Barnett/Nastula was good.

The Hammerhouse boys should either give-up or learn submissions.
I knew it was a bad idea to put them into the main events. Perhaps they were just there to show how americans are easily crushed by their foriegn fighters, dunno, perhaps. Always good to see Fedor and Shogun though at least.

They could have easily made a card that would have eclipsed anything by the UFC, but chose to hold back, there must be some reasoning behind this.

I did enjoy Wandy coming out and calling out Chuck, saying he was running, etc.

I think they're really not that bothered about the US in truth, mma-wise it's a very small market compared to Japan, plus the rules you have to adhere to in the US really suck. I'm not trying to have a go at the UFC, but it's fast becoming elbow wrestling.
 
I thought it was an alright event, I've seen a lot worse, the fights weren't particularly impressive, but quite tense and exciting in parts.
I thought there might be a chance that Fedor would have to get a couple of fights in before he was up to speed again, but no such luck, Cro Cop is in for the toughest test of his life.
That said, if Cro Cop is as focused as he was during the absolute tournament, then I'd say he is in with a very real chance, I still judge it 50/50.

I absolutely can't wait for that fight!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom