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My thoughts on Pride 12:
Overall, a pretty good event. Most of the fights went the distance and some of the one you would have thought as being more interesting fights (Mark Kerr vs Ingor Vovchanchyn) should be showed in their entirety and that fights like Fujita and Yvel would be cut. But they cut the first round out. Fujia laying on Yvel was shown completely. I just don't know. The main event with Sakuraba and Ryan Gracie was a damn shame. Here's what happened....
Guy Mezger continues to impress me. They guy comes out and is very agressive. He can grapple, sure, but he is turning into a pretty impressive striker. In this match he and Otsuka came out swinging and Otsuka (who has a pretty hard head) ended up on his butt. Then Mezger just covered him and punched the heck out of him for the quick win. Pretty exiting stuff.
Winner: Mezger by KO in 1 Minute and 54 seconds.
I was looking forward to this match but they kinda skipped over it on the broadcast. They did a little highlight reel thing for it. It looked kinda cool.
Winner: Carlos Newton by judges decision.
Winner: Ricco Rodruiguez by judges decision.
This is the highlight of the night. Both guys were going back and forth. Almeida looked really good for being his first fight. Shoji is always good. Almeida's standup ability was too much for Shoji. It was close but I would have to agree with the judges.
Winner: Almedia by judges decision.
Enson Inoue is a good fighter. He'll go out and give it his all. He has been marred by a losing streak for a while but I don't blame him. His loses go to Ingor, Mark Kerr, and now this one. He did an interview for the official Pride website that said after this loss he is retired. The fight was nothing spectacular. Herring started to get position and Inoue got cut. It was stopped because of that damn cut.
Winner: Herring but ref stoppage in the 2nd round (4:31)
This was a good fight. Back and forth. The decision was just but man, this guys were ready to fight...
Winner: Silva by judges decision.
Fujita is a grappler. He does ground and pound. Yvel is a striker. He kicks the hell out of you. The fight basically went like this...Fuji takes Yvel down and can't do anything but land a couple punches. Stand them up. Do it again. Like I said before this was the most boring match of the night and Direct Tv graciously showed every minute of it. Snooze.
Winner: Fujita by judges decision
Oh yeah! Two of the top heavywieghts in the world facing off. God bless it. This fight was so close that they had to tack on a 5 minute overtime. Ingor dominated the overtime and won a close match.
Winner: Ingor Vovchanchyn
Ryan Gracie had injured his shoulder a couple of days before the fight. His brother Renzo came out and said that the doctors told him to pospone but he wanted to fight anyway. So the fight would be half as long. 1 ten minute round. He came out with a badly bruised shoulder and showed just how ineffective a wounded fighter is against one of the best in the world. This fight was a joke. Sakuraba had said that he viewed Ryan as no threat and he proved by just playing up to the crowd and winning a decision. Sakuraba has said he doesn't do rematches. That's a pitty because I think Ryan has enough skill to take out Sakuraba if he's healthy. This fight was a wasted opportunity. Sakuraba spent the last minute of the fight sitting on Gracie, spanking him. A joke.
Winner: Sakuraba by judges decision.