PRIDE FC Shockwave 2006 Review
In what had to be one of the single greatest nights of MMA action ever, PRIDE FC followed up an excellent UFC PPV with a top notch show of their own. Nine of the ten fights on this card managed, in one way or another, to live up to the tremendous hype.
Intro
The PRIDE organization is reportedly struggling now, without a TV contract. That didn’t stop them from pulling out all of the stops to put together a spectacular intro for their biggest show of the year. The lights in the Saitama Super Arena dimmed, allowing a single spotlight to shine on a tuxedo-clad Nobuhiko Takada, who was sitting at the keyboard of a Grand Piano. He hit a few simple chords, and a beautiful Japanese diva launched into a soulful version of the first couple of verses of “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.” I was blown away. Based on the main theme of the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (The Ode to Joy), this has always been my favourite hymn. It is also pretty much the last song that I’d expect a ‘dying’ promotion to use to start off a PPV. This morphed into a huge Japanese Gospel choir singing the hymn while behind them, on a gigantic video screen, PRIDE ran a highlight video of their biggest moments of the past year. Included among the highlights was the emotional video of Mirko Filipovic winning the Openweight GP. I thought this was a class move, considering that the UFC have already announced that Cro Cop will be fighting for them in the coming year.
We were then treated to the always disturbing visual of Takada in his taiko miwashi (ceremonial drumming diaper) as the fighters were introduced.
Kiyoshi “KT” Tamura vs. Ikuhisa “The Punk” Minowa
The Punk, now calls himself Minowa-man, and he had a fancy robe and an elaborate entrance to go along with his new moniker. The illusion was pretty much ruined, however, when he almost fell off of the ring post while trying to strike a dramatic pose. Sadly, the entrance was still the highlight of Minowa’s night.
He came out swinging, but Minowa was driven back with some sharp low kicks. The Punk charged right back in, but KT caught him with a powerful knee right to the ribcage. Minowa-man staggered backwards and dropped to his knees. The ref didn’t stop the fight, though, so KT was forced to throw some soccer kicks at his fallen opponent. That was enough to get the ref’s attention, and Tamura was awarded the victory by TKO in under one minute. KT seemed to be more angry about the late stoppage than happy about the win, which reminded me of how unhappy he looked after beating his mentor, Takada, in 2002. Tamura is a class act.
Shinya Aoki vs. Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen
Aoki holds black belts in both Judo and BJJ. He’d earned two impressive submission victories in two PRIDE matches prior to this fight. Hellboy is one of the world’s most exciting fighters, and he was making his much-anticipated return to a PRIDE ring after having been away since Bushido 10 in April. During his time away, Hansen had taken the time to grow a full head of red and wavy hair. For his part, Aoki continued his trend-setting ways, this time sporting rainbow-themed long pants.
Hansen opened the fight with a single low kick. Aoki caught it, and took him down immediately. The Japanese fighter worked from the guard until he caught the Norwegian’s arm. Hansen got leverage and reversed position, but Aoki quickly trapped him in a Gogoplata, which is like a triangle choke, except that Aoki’s left leg was under Hansen’s throat. Stunningly, Hansen tapped right way. Aoki got to his feet, weeping tears of joy at the upset victory. There is no question that Aoki has made a name for himself this year as a major MMA star.
Akihiro”DJ Gozma” Gouno vs. Yuki Kondo
With two incredibly fast fights already in the books, it was time for PRIDE to slow things down. Way down.
Gouno, who as added a ‘u’ to the English spelling of his name, is known for his spectacular entrances and less than spectacular fights. He lived up to his reputation in spades, as he came out wearing a huge Ronald McDonald afro, wearing a Grabaka baseball uniform, accompanied by three mask-wearing teammates. They were joined on the hanamichi by some other guy, who was presumably a star player from the Central League, or perhaps a minor Japanese celebrity in baseball drag. Their dance routine was pretty much the highlight of this fight.
As everyone knows, styles make fights. When matching up two counter-punchers, there is always the risk that both fighters will be content to circle and dodge, waiting for the other man to make the first mistake. That’s pretty much what happened here. There was some nice defensive maneuvering, but not a lot of excitement otherwise. Gouno attempted a couple of nice-looking knee strikes, and Kondo got tagged enough to get some swelling around his right eye. That was enough to earn DJ Gozma the 14th decision victory of his pro career.
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura
Kaz, the protoge of judo legend Hidehiko Yoshida, once again had dancing penguins as part of his intro. Also, he was wearing a hoody underneath his gi. Shogun was well over with the crowd in Saitama, despite the fact that pretty much everyone expected him to beat the tar out of the very popular Nakamura.
The fight went three rounds, and Shogun was in control for the vast majority of it, but this was about as exciting as a one-sided decision can possibly be. Rua used his superior strength and ferocity to keep pressing the action, but Nakamura used his speed and technique to counter almost everything that the Chute Box star threw at him.
After some early clinching, Rua took Nakamura down, moved quickly into side mount, and then full mount… but Nakamura rolled out! Back up, Kaz tried a hip toss, but Shogun sprawled out, took Nak down, and ended up in side control… only for Nakamura to escape again! This series of events was repeated regularly throughout the 20 minutes of almost non-stop action that made up this fight. Towards the end of the first round, the judoka even managed to escape a fully applied Rear Naked Choke. In the second round, Nakamura managed to score a picture perfect judo takedown, but otherwise it was mainly Rua in control but unable to inflict any real damage. In the third, Rua seemed to get frustrated by his inability to sink a submission on Nakamura, and he instead tried to stomp Kaz’ head through the mat. Somehow maintaining a clear head, the judoka managed to avoid getting hurt and ended the round on his feet, throwing wild strikes at the Brazilian. It was no surprise that the judges rewarded Rua’s dominating performance with a unanimous decision, but Nakamura looked about a hundred times more impressive in losing valiantly than Gouno did in winning carefully.
Tatsuya “Crusher” Kawajiri vs. Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez
Kawajiri is a powerfully built wrestler who is the current SHOOTO Welterweight champion. Melendez is a wrestler and BJJ expert with awesome Joe Cocker/Sideshow Carlito hair.
This match ended up being the third in a row to go to decision on this card. While Gouno vs. Kondo was slow-paced and relatively even, and Nakamura vs. Rua was action packed but one-sided, this match was the best of both world: a non-stop slugfest with tons of back-n-forth action. Both men came out swinging right from the bell. Kawajiri tagged Melendez with a pretty good one in the early going, but wasn’t able to take advantage. Late in the round, Melendez returned the favour, but Kawajiri ended up taking the advantage on the mat. They ended the round going toe to toe and mostly missing with wild swings. Surprisingly, considering that this was touted as a Wrestling vs. Jiu Jitsu type of battle, they spent most of the second round on their feet. Technique wise, they looked more like a couple of young truckers in a tough man contest than like a pair of well-trained pros, but it was still a lot of fun to watch them throwing bombs at one another. It was also surprising that Melendez got the unanimous nod from the judges. More often than not, in a close fight in Japan, it’s the native fighter who takes the decision.
Kazuyki “Iron Head” Fujita vs. Eldari “Some Guy” Kurtanidze
Fujita came out to Jimi Hendrix’ Purple Haze. His victim was a two-time Olympic bronze medalist in Freestyle Wrestling from the Republic of Georgia. Kurtanidze was wearing a red and black wrestling singlet, and he has an amazingly sharp Eastern European hook in his nose.
The Georgian had a very individual fighting stance. He held his left arm almost straight out, while his right was cocked back by his face. He held his chin straight up, almost begging Iron Head to hit him on the button. This unorthodox stance frustrated Fujita for almost a minute. The former IWGP champion soon made it past the Gentleman Jim Corbett style defense, however, and crashed a huge right uppercut into the Kutanidze’s chin. Some Guy grabbed his mouth, turned around, and dove to the mat. The bell rang, but Fujita kept trying to stomp him until the ref ran in and pushed him away. Fujita is a bad man.
That Lengthy PRIDE FC Break Period
My personal highlight: Fedor, bored, playing cards backstage while wearing a “CYKAN” t-shirt. In Czech, “cikan” is a racial slur that is directed at Romany people. I thought for a moment that “cykan” might have meant the same thing in Russian, but apparently it’s the name of a Korean video game company that is now a major PRIDE sponsor. OK then.
“The Fireball Kid” Takanori Gomi vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida
Gomi, the PRIDE Lightweight champion, got choked out by Marcus Aurielo in a non-title match at Bushido 10. This rightly put Aurielo in line for a title shot, but the Brazilian went on to lose to Mitsuhiro Ishida by unanimous decision at Bushido 11. Gomi then got his win back on Aurelio in a very dull match at Bushido 13. A lot of people, myself included, were puzzled that this was not scheduled to be a title match.
Gomi, I suppose, was motivated to show everyone why he is the champ. He caught Ishida with a left early in the fight, then just dove on top of the wrestler, laying in the hammer fists and soccer kicks until the ref had no choice but to end the carnage.
Hidehiko Yoshida vs. James “Colossus” Thompson
PRIDE outdid themselves with the music video intro to this fight. First, they played Hey Jude while showing clips of Thompson destroying people, then they went into a Yoshida interview with the caption (in English) reading, “Hey Judo.” Colossus had apparently been to Heath Herring’s barber, and the hair sculpture really isn’t a good look for him. Yoshida decided to go without his gi for this one, instead sporting black board shorts.
Thompson, of course, charged straight in and tried to throw a knee at Yoshida. The judoka calmly locked him up and tripped him into side control. Thompson’s arm got caught, but he simply slammed his way out of trouble. Yoshida grabbed a leg. With no cage to hold onto Thompson got rotated into trouble, but he quickly broke free. Back on their feet, Yoshida started whaling on Thompson, landing blow after blow. Yoshida was imposing his will on the larger man, landing strikes and using beautiful judo takedowns. Yoshida very nearly ended the fight with a Kimura, but Thompson used his knees to break free. Back standing, this time it was the Brit who landed the big punch. Yoshida went down, but got hold of a leg, only for Thompson to reverse the hold. They stood again, and Thompson pushed Yoshida out through the ropes. The judo legend looked to be hurt, but the ref restarted the action without giving him a chance to rest. Thompson took over completely, laying in big punches and devastating knees. They fell to the ground and got tangled in the ropes. Yoshida clearly looked to be finished, but the ref once again restarted the fight in the middle of the ring with Colossus in side control. He quickly took full mount, and began to rain down heavy punches. Yoshida’s face was a mess, he wasn’t even trying to defend himself, and the ref finally had to call for the bell.
It felt a lot like a latter-day Kazushi Sakuraba fight, with the ref unwilling to call a stoppage against a Japanese hero until the punishment had gone too far. Yoshida was carried out on a stretcher.
Josh “The Babyface Assassin” Barnett vs. Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira
Nogueira was on a quest to avenge his loss to Barnett in the Openweight tournament semi-finals. The Brazilian looked to be in great shape and ready to go, whereas Barnett was a little soft around the middle again. Rumour had it that Josh was feeling a little burnt out after all of his great fights in 2006.
The two men stood and traded for the first few minutes of the bout. They got tied up in the corner, and Josh lifted Minotauro off of his feet and drove him into the mat with a shoot Northern Lights Bomb. A similar maneuver had been used at Cage Rage 19, marking twice in one month that the craziest possible takedown was used in a professional MMA bout. Josh hit the stunned Nogueira with some huge knees, but Minotauro kept his head, reversed position, and handed out some big receipts. The Brazilian seemed content to work his G&P, as he didn’t even try to sink any submissions on his supine opponent. Josh finally worked his way free with about fifteen seconds left in the round.
Barnett’s nose looked to be broken, and the blood flowed freely from it for the rest of the bout. Nogueira went right after his opponent’s weak point with quick and accurate punches and knees. Apparently hurt, Barnett spent most of the last two rounds on the defensive while Big Nog picked him apart. With about three minutes left in the third round Nog tagged Josh and the fight looked close to finished, but Barnett grabbed a desperation guillotine and fell back to sink it in. The crowd was going crazy, but Nogueira broke the hold. Barnett also nearly got a Kimura in the final moments, but seemingly didn’t have the energy to keep the pressure on.
Minotauro got his revenge in the form of a unanimous victory. With Cro Cop out of the picture, another Nogueira title shot seems inevitable in 2007.
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mark Hunt
I always find the playing of national anthems before a title fight to be a nice touch.
Fedor showed respect for Hunt’s punching power in the very early going, hanging back and looking to counter. At the first opening, however, the champion took the challenger down from the clinch. Fedor worked relentlessly for the arm bar, and it looked like it was going to be a quick end to the fight when he sunk it in. Hunt, however, surprised everyone watching by working his hips over and rolling out of it. Hunt was caught in Fedor’s guard, but quickly moved himself into side control. Clearly, he’d been working hard on his ground game. Fedor was unable to escape, but Hunt didn’t seem to have the G&P experience to do any real damage from on top. Fedor finally moved to escape, and Hunt caught him with what looked like an illegal punch to the back of the head. Back standing, Hunt went after Fedor and ended up eating some punches before stunning us all again by taking Fedor down into side control. Hunt continued to dish out the surprises, as he almost tapped Emelianenko with a very nice looking Americana. He couldn’t quite sink it in either of his two attempts, but it was amazing that he got so close. Hunt moved to full mount, but Fedor got free before any real harm was done. Back on their feet, the men alternated between trading strikes and attempting takedowns. Fedor eventually won that battle, ending up in Hunt’s half guard, where he worked relentlessly for a Kimura. Slipping his leg free, Fedor got some serious leverage on the arm, and Hunt was forced to tap.
Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year!
The Inside Pulse
2006 has obviously been a tough year for PRIDE, business wise, but it is clear that they are still more than capable of putting on a great night of MMA action.
