PRIDE: 'Critical Countdown 2005'

[DUCE]

PRIDE: 'Critical Countdown 2005'
June 26th, 2005
Saitama Super Arena
Saitama, Japan

Below is the developing line-up for the PRIDE GP card on June 26th. At least two more single matchups are still expected to be announced:


Single matchups (official)
Rodrigo 'Minotauro' Nogueira vs. Pawel Nastula
Pedro Rizzo vs. Sergei Kharitonov

Single matchups (unofficial):
Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipovic vs. Ibrahim Magomedov
Hidehiko Yoshida vs. TBA

PRIDE middleweight GP quarterfinals (official):
Vanderlei Silva vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura
Ricardo Arona vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua vs. Rogerio 'Minotoro' Nogueira
Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Alistair Overeem

[Tim Dalton]

I'm pretty sure the Cro Cop match is a go. Should be a fantastic show.

The talk of a similar tournament for the Bushido fighters would be loaded as well.

[Magog]

duce said:

PRIDE: 'Critical Countdown 2005'
June 26th, 2005
Saitama Super Arena
Saitama, Japan

Below is the developing line-up for the PRIDE GP card on June 26th. At least two more single matchups are still expected to be announced:


Single matchups (official)
Rodrigo 'Minotauro' Nogueira vs. Pawel Nastula
Pedro Rizzo vs. Sergei Kharitonov

Single matchups (unofficial):
Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipovic vs. Ibrahim Magomedov
Hidehiko Yoshida vs. TBA

PRIDE middleweight GP quarterfinals (official):
Vanderlei Silva vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura
Ricardo Arona vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua vs. Rogerio 'Minotoro' Nogueira
Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Alistair Overeem

If nothing else I wanna see Igor Vovchanchyn advance ot the finals to face Vanerlei Silvia (as its a pretty safe bet that Vanderlei will be there). I'm wishing nothing but the best for Pedro Rizzo and I hope his win/lose record improves.

[DUCE]

To bad that didn't happen... I would like to see Igor get more milage in Pride but that doesn't seem likely unless he can rack up some more wins.

Thanks by the way for coming on here and talking to me. Not alot of people here seem to care about MMA to much. MMA is really what wrestling wishes to give its illusion as. The harsh reality is that we are all human and time and time again MMA teaches us this. Kevin Randleman's excellent KO over Cro Cop last year was a good example of this.

[Tim Dalton]

Nothing overly surprising in the results. I thought Igor would win, but Overeem has really improved his ground game in the last year. Will be interesting to see how they bracket the final four.

[Magog]

"Kevin Randleman's excellent KO over Cro Cop last year was a good example of this. "
Yeah that tape just came out recently. first pride DVD I've ever bought (has a video store with all the old pride crap from 2002 and back so you might see why I favor UFC). That was an excellent fight, but every time I see Kevin, he always seems to be missing that certain something that's keeping him away from being above the rest. Do you think it's the camp he's with (In other words do you think he might do better with team quest or something).

[DUCE]

Blah, your just marked cause you like the reality TV show. If you truely love MMA you'll give Pride a fare shake. You've got a lazy discipline Mr. Magog. I can stomach the horrible production values and lack of backstory for most of the 8$ shows like KOTC, IFC, & anything produced out of Goboba. I'll tell you with all the truth in me heart that your missing out if you don't watch Pride. Chuck knocking out Guy Mezger, Heath Herring vs. Monotauro, and 99.9% of the rest that they produce is top shelf shite and should be viewed as the best the sport has to offer whether you think UFC is superior in any aspect to it or not.

[Magog]

I am giving Pride a fair shake, Hell now that the product is being released in areas (Cold furry 3 is coming out at Sun Coast soon) where I can pick it up I've broken down and bought a few. Know why? Hell MMA doesn't grow on trees that’s why. I enjoy the sport (speaking of which I peaked in at K-1 a week ago trying to find BJ Penn but no luck yet).
Marking out for the reality show? Tut, I'd favor UFC with, or with out it I just defend the reality show because I feel it’s a good thing for the sport. You’re a Pride fan slick, and it kind of puts us at ends like a red socks fan and Yankee's fan (I'll be cool and say I'm the equivalent of the yankees's fan if it makes you feel better) I just prefer UFC brand because I found UFC first. It felt more American. A while back when I was writing a column for wrestling 411 on MMA i use to sware up and down I'd never cover Pride because the first couple tapes.. wore on my patients.... granted the show has improved severally and after a while I heard enough feed back to the point where I eventually broke down and peered back into Pride. They both have, my favoritism for UFC comes in the fact management seems to be wiring there fighters to be more strike orientated. Now this is just personal believe, but if Nick Dias would have started in Pride instead of the UFC there's a fairly good chance he might have gotten lost in the shuffle as another Grappler (Ju jitsu, you get the idea). Hell Carlos the heat is showing some nice stand up skills in his last outing in the UFC, because I get the feeling Dana White is dropping little hints here and there to fighters that fans like stand up more. It happens in Pride, I'm not saying it doesn't, but I kinda like the fact that UFC is almost willing to go that extra mile to see that fights are more about striking. I don't mind a scientific fight, but the last thing I want to see is every fight on a card end in a submission or a decision.

[DUCE]

UFC 2 on VHS was my first experience with MMA. I had already started my UFC federation in 1993 and soon I was addicted to both. Pride awnsered the questions. Mark Kerr, Enson Inoue, Oleg, Don Fyre,all were awnsered. If you remember watching UFC on PPV seeing Don Fyre and Brian Johnston being hyped as the best in the sport before the PPV started. Something called an Ultimate Ultimate? They should really consider doing one of those a year...

[MAgog]

duce said:

UFC 2 on VHS was my first experience with MMA. I had already started my UFC federation in 1993 and soon I was addicted to both. Pride awnsered the questions. Mark Kerr, Enson Inoue, Oleg, Don Fyre,all were awnsered. If you remember watching UFC on PPV seeing Don Fyre and Brian Johnston being hyped as the best in the sport before the PPV started. Something called an Ultimate Ultimate? They should really consider doing one of those a year...

Duce, they haven't done ultimate, ultimates in foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Truth is I kinda like the idea that UFC got away from the whole tournament scene. Its disheartening to see fighters becoming fatigued (I like how Pride runs there tournaments on different shows so they don't have to run a mad gauntlet all in one day to champ).
Hell Tank Abbot almost beat Don Frye in one of those Ultimate Ultimates, he was winning the stand up battle and he slipped and Don jumped in and tapped him out. Heh, I remember thinking, "Tank Abbot UFC champ.. that would be the day."
I think Oleg's jump to pride was a poor decision (thanks to Big Daddy Good Rich handing him his backside). Ultimate, Ultimates have kinda run there course and gone the way of the do, do, I think UFC isn't the right place for Tournaments. Hell I think it was the last thing I liked about pro wrestling before I got out of it was when they put on a tournament, a tournament seems to be the path that robs people out of seeing dream matches because.. well this is real and quite frankly anything can happen. LIke Chuck facing Silvia in Pride, it would been alot better if they just had the fight between the two, for the fans, and not leave it to chance.
I think there's one more Pride tape coming out this month as well, I'll probrably pick that up to.