***WARNING!!! SPOILERS AHEAD!!! DO NOT scroll down if you don't want to know the results ahead of the Pride PPV premiering tomorrow night. [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Quick-Match Results -Pawel Nastula def. Edson Drago via Submission (armbar) in Round 1. -Yoshihiro Nakao def. via Lee Eun Su TKO (stoppage - swollen eye) in Round 1. -Vitor Belfort def. Yoshiki Takahashi via KO (punch) in Round 1. -Kazuhiro Nakamura def. Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos via Submission (kimura) in Round 1. -Antonio Rogerio Nogueira def. Alistair Overeem via TKO (corner throws in towel) in Round 2. -Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira def. Fabricio Werdum via Unanimous Decision after 3 Rounds. -Vanderlei Silva def. Kazuyuki Fujita via TKO (strikes) in Round 1. -Josh Barnett def. Mark Hunt via Submission (kimura) in Round 1. -Mirko CroCop def. Hidehiko Yoshida via TKO (injury - leg kicks) in Round 1. Detailed Results (I missed the airing of the Nastula/Drago fight on the Korean TV stream I watched) NOTES: -Nakao beat the other Japanese dude with knees that had dudes eye completely swollen shut. It was funny, Nakao's entrance video thing was a big set of lips, and his new nickname is "Kiss" or something. He didn't have any trouble in his PRIDE debut, winning easily. -"Old" Belfort showed up today. He blasted Takahashi out with ease. Crippled him with a huge left hook that put Takahashi directly on his ass. He was out, Belfort wins via very quick knockout. -Nakamura destroyed Cyborg. Cyborg looked mean as hell, but that's all he did. Nakamura took him down easily, ground and pounded the shit out of him because he had one of Cyborg's arms trapped. So he beat on his unprotected face for a while, almost comedically, until slapped on a tight kimura that forced the tap in round one. -Lil Nog and Overeem was fight of the night. I bet with U.S. announcing this comes off 100 times better. Even without understanding anything other than the universal fights flying, this one was AWESOME. Overeem was absolutely pummeling Lil Nog the entire fight. Destroyed him the entire first round, throwing too many high kicks to count, and punishing him to death with leg kicks. Lil Nog had some ground action on top of Overeem, but Overeem was staying busy underneath and nulling a lot of Lil Nog's action on top. Round two started off the same, Overeem beating up Lil Nog on the feet, Lil Nog not able to get anything going. BLAMO! Lil Nog lands a huge overhand right I think, f***ing destroyed Overeem ala Liddell's big bomb that stunned Overeem. Lil Nog followed in punching, landed a couple more - Overeem remained on his feet but his corner threw in the towel, and Lil Nog gets his first Nog-like win, pulling out a win from the brink of defeat (or however that cliche' is said). The shock early and throughout most the fight was how easy it was for Overeem, then the shock at the end was Lil Nog changing about 13 minutes of action or so completely around with one punch. -Big Nog and Werdum was a good fight. Werdum did better than expected, especially as the fight went on, but Big Nog was in control. Action all over the place, and since I didn't write this detailed part until after sleeping, I don't remember all the specifics. Big Nog wins via Unanimous Decision. -Vanderlei destroyed Fujita. Almost like Anderson Silva did with Leben's chin, Vanderlei came in like "oh he can take a shot? so what, I'ma hit him anyway" and did - a lot! Almost knocked him out within the first 30 seconds, knocked him down and kicked the shit out of his head like a soccer ball. I was very surprised it wasn't stopped then. Fujita recovered, got a takedown. Nothing much happens. Fight back on the feet later, the two just circled around each other for a while, before Silva dropped Fujita again with punches, then followed up with knees and kicks and it was stopped in the first round, towards the end. You had the feeling before the finish that in a lot of the exchanges the two were having on the feet, I did at least, that Fujita might connect with something and change it all up ala Lil Nog/Overeem from earlier in the night. Never happened though, very dominating performance by Vanderlei. -Barnett/Hunt was a one-sided match. Barnett bulled in quick and had Hunt down very early. They worked their way back up before much happens, and Barnett bulls at him again. Someone gets warned for a headbutt, I don't remember who. Barnett gets him down again, works side mount, traps one of Hunt's arms and squeezes on a very tight kimura to force the tap early in round one. Barnett then cut a very pro wrestling-style promo after the match. -CroCop destroyed Yoshida. He was leg kicking the shit out of him, and you could see the kicks effecting Yoshida big time. Grazed him with a high kick a few times, Yoshida mocked one of them or at least had some fun clowning around after almost eating one of them. At one point Yoshida almost Judo-threw CroCop, but CroCop out-muscled his way out of the clinch/headlock type position. CroCop kept the leg kicks coming, and they were really powerful kicks that would move Yoshida's whole body. CroCop landed I believe an uppercut that dropped Yoshida, and Yoshida seemed out, but the ref. stopped CroCop from coming in and restarted it. I don't remember why, but it wasn't complete bullshit - just kinda seemed like a second chance for Yoshida. Yoshida slowly gets back up, and CroCop drops him again with a vicious leg kick. Yoshida curls up, ref says "GIVE UP?...Yoshida, GIVE UP?" to him just laying there from taking a leg-kick. Yoshida waves his glove, fight is stopped. CroCop had a look on his face like "come on man, stop it he don't wanna fight" that time. He was apparently right. Photo Gallery of the action can be found here: http://69.46.29.2:8080/absoluteig/gallery.asp?categoryid=703 [/FONT]
Many thanks my brother. I love MMA more and more everyday it seems. FIGHTING. The PRIDE fighters so rule the UFC ones. I don't know that any of the UFC top fighters would fare all that well in PRIDE. By way of comparison, I could name at least 10 fighters in PRIDE that could make the transition to UFC and rule with ease.
DUDE!!!! Wandy looked fucking amazing.....I cant believe he busted Fujita up like that....ALSO, my god, one of the latest stoppages in the history of MMA....Fujita took about 15 unanswered BOMBS, with the ref just watching .... long story short, Wandy looked great Cro Cop fucked Yoshida up with leg kicks.....bad Barnet domiated Nog looked ok Belfort landed one good punch and the fight got stopped...I would go as far to call this guy the "belfort of old".....
I think a Silva/Belfort rematch should be on the horizon. Silva needs to avenge his humiliating loss from many years before.
re fujita/silva the ref. took an APPALLINGLY long time to stop the fight. bordering on negligence. maybe he was in disbelief of what Wand was doing to Fujita, the rapid destruction. one glaring example was when Fujita was down on all fours, head down, oblivious and silva was lining him up and fanned a low kick shy of his head: there was NO RESPONSE / NO ATTEMPT to defend. Fujita didn't even look up. maybe he was hoping Wand would break his foot on the iron head. yet the ref. let it continue. i think he seriously wanted to see Fujita recover and not go out so quickly, on behalf of Fujita but also for the Japanese audience.
I can't wait for the final round. Silva, Nog, CroCop, and Barnett. I hope we get Silva/Barnett and CroCop/Nog. Although Silva against any of those guys would be cool. He fought Cro to a draw 4 years ago, but damn, did you see Silva's lats and ribs after his fight with Crocop? Phew!
yep....twice that fight could have been stopped...If it wouldnt have been stopped the second time, wandy would have killed fujita eventually
i ordered the PPV Barnett beat Hunt EASY...damn barnett is a dork though if you take Hunt down..he is toast Cro Crop was IMPRESSIVE.....he worked that judo's guy's leg hard....cro crop has a great take down defense..i laughed at the end...the judo dude was like cmon hit me in the face..so cro crop smacked him in the leg and the guy dropped like he had been shot..AWSOME silva was an ANIMAL...but that jap guy can take a punch Big NOG was unimpressive as hell..boring ass fight IMO....he looks very very beatable the twin nog was more impressive because of the punishment he can take...overeem was great 2...its amazing...he just gassed out after totally dominating....maybe if he is gonna gas like this he should just go ALL out in the first 10 minutes this cyborg guy got his fuckin ass kicked in impressive fashion..that japanese guy was good..nice to see the smaller guy dominate like that
you're right, cro cop was impressive, esp in his takedown defense...BUT thats against a guy with ZERO striking ability Silva was an animal, and yes that jap guy can take a punch....Fujita has about the hardest head in the world, and Silva somehow managed to crack it
I just hope Barnett doesn't rematch Crocop because the second fight was kind of lackluster. Crocop Nog 2 is intriguing, and Barnett would be an interesting fight with Vanderlei.
barnett has a serious weight advantage on silva...barnett also has a good groundgame i think barnett is gonna beat silva
Fujita also had a serious weight advantage and good takedown skills, but he couldnt best Wandy....Also, Josh has been baited into striking battles before, and could be again.... I think that they'll match Cro and Barnett simply for the idea of Cro, Wandy OR Nog being in the finals, at least getting two of them in there.....I think the worst thing that can happen is a Barnett -v- Nog showdown in the finals, as far as ratings go....
yeah but fujita was at least eye level with silva...barnett is much taller then sliva... yo...when i watched the PPV they already said they were matching up Barnett vs Silva and Cro vs Nog? was i mistaken?
I have NO clue...I watched the Japanese telecast, so I didnt really catch what was said:jester: I'm suprised if thats the lineup, as the top 2 remaining guys in the tourney are matched together and eye level or not, Fujita is about as tough as fighters get....If Silva could stop him, he can stop anyone in my opinion
crocop has fought silva, barnett and nog before. losing to nog and fighting silva to a draw and beating barnett twice. either way, i don't mind who he fights. nog/silva or nog/barnett is fine with me too.
true, they've fought twice, but mirko's second win wasn't conclusive: that strange one where barnett suffered some weird shoulder injury AFTER taking mirko down, i.e. WHILE IN mirko's half guard. he's been running his mouth after beating alexsander and then hunt, so seeing him eat one of those left high kicks would be nice. and it'd settle the score between them two once and for all. and where does fedor come in to play. he's still recouping from hand surgery, right? that's why silva manned up so does he just fight the winner of the absolute tournament?
Fedor will fight the tournament winner on New Year's Eve UNLESS he reinjures his hand when he fights in the U.S. Pride PPV this coming autumn.
did you guys see this after the shogun broken arm thing. backstage confrontation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4C_TPDJyks
no he's trying to apologise and silva is speaking english angry saying "you kicked me in the face, and you too pointing at baroni and rampage.
