Pride 13 took place on March 25th 2001.
This whole show was a jaw dropper. After about 4 fights we saw a total of 12 minutes of in ring action. Lots of fast paced fights here and a whole bunch of upsets. Lets check it out.
Special Note: The pictures under the results are from Pride, taken by Susumo Nagao. You should check out more pictures of the event on his site, http://come.to/susumu
VS 
Before this fight I picked Belfort by a washout. Since losing to Randy Coulture in the UFC Belfort forgot how to punch and became a boring ground and pound fighter. In this fight he took Southworth down and ended up getting him in a choke. He looked good as a grappler here. Put that with some great punching that I know he's capable of and we could see a major contender out of him. To his credit Southworth looked good. If I had my say I would put him in the next Pride against someone else to see if he has what it takes to be a name in this sport. I am glad they didn't skip over belforts fight like they did in pride 10.
Winner: Belfort by Submission, Round 1
VS 
My pick for this one was Mezger. The guy has been pretty tough lately and ranks up there on my list of the best middleweights in the world. He is a pretty good striker and all I know of Egan is his brother is Enson Inoue and he's a grappler. That means the puncher will take out the grappler or the grappler will take a while to take down and submit the puncher. Mezger is too good at grappling to be taken down and tapped out without knowing your punching. Mezger ended up pushing off Egan a couple of times and then caught up to him with a good punch that took Egan out. Pretty quick fight.
Winner: Mezger by KO, Round 1
Winner: Herring by submission, Round 1
I was kinda rooting for Renzo in this one. I wanted to see him come back from his loss to Sakuraba. But I know Henderson is a really tough puncher and a skilled ground fighter. The fight itself was a little less than competitive. Scoring the first real shock of the night Renzo shot in on Henderson and it looks like Henderson's hand bumped Renzo's chin and Renzo may have bumped his head on the mat because he was out. Out cold. Henderson by Ko without really getting good. Very suprising. Maybe they'll put these two together again so that we can see a real fight. If you watch the replay in slow motion you can maybe see what happned but Renzo was jelly, man. He was out.
Winner: Henderson by KO, Round 1
Winner: Coleman by KO, Round 1
Winner: Tadao Yasuda by Judges Decision
Winner Tra Telligman by Judges Decision
Winner: Silva by KO, Round 1
Heath Herring Vs. Sobolev Denis
VS. 
Herring is one of fastest and impressive up and comers and nobody ever heard of Denis. Wanna guess who I picked? Denis got smeared. Herring came out with punches and knees and took Denis down where he slammed on a rather painful looking keylock. The whole thing was done in about 20 seconds. Herring is a freakin' monster.
Renzo Gracie Vs. Dan Henderson
VS. 
Mark Coleman Vs. Allan Goes
VS 
Coleman is a heavyweight, he's about 230. Goes is a middleweight, he's about 200. Why they put this one together is beyond me. Coleman seemed kinda wasted here but he came out to throw down. Word has it that Goes did also. Coleman is just a little too much right now. Goes came out like a man ready to be taken out. He threw a couple of showy jump kicks before Coleman took him down and got the mount. Coleman started his ground and pound routine and was able to gain access to the head. He used Prides new rules of kneeing on the ground to knock Goes out cold. Goes then comes to and starts to attack Coleman, no realizing he was ever out. Kinda funny and pretty darn suprising. Normally you don't see to many people get knocked out cold in the same night.
Masaaki Satake Vs. Tadao Yasuda
VS 
This fight is for the Japanese fans. Satake sucks and Yasuda is a professional wrestler that never stepped into a legit ring in his lifetime. This fight was one of the two decisions and wins the award for the most boring fight of the night. Yasuda pinned Satake against the ropes and punched him. Satake didn't really punch back. That was the whole fight right there. Just against the ropes....boring. Yasuda wins the decision. The best thing about this fight is that it was not the work, this was too boring to be faked. Yasuda does show promise but he isn't someone who should be fighting in the best mma show in the world. Not till he gets better.
Igor Vovchanchyn Vs. Tra Telligman
VS 
This fight was supposed to be a joke. Igor wailing away on a pathetic American fighter. Instead Telligman showed up and was able to weather your typical Igor barage to win a decision. He took the beating in the beginning and then got igor to the ground were he pounded him for the rest of the fight. Igor looked tired as hell after about 5 minutes. It definately looks like he took this fight for granted. Telligman (filling in for Ken Shamrock) did not and came to play. Maybe now Shamrock can match up with Igor in the next Pride and give us the fight we wanted to see here. Igor's stock seems to be dropping as he was made to look bad by a nobody. I have every confidence that this will piss Igor off enough to get him training and working hard again to get back on top. The top heavyweight in the world is now considered by many to be Coleman.
Kazushi Sakuraba Vs. Vanderlei Silva
VS 
Vanderlei can kick like hell and Sakuraba is pretty durable. This is Sak's first real non-Gracie threat. He was getting his butt kicked by Renzo but got lucky with a good hold, he out-waited Royce, and beat a one armed Ryan. Now he comes in against an intense kick boxer from Brazil. Quite simply this fight was a massacre. Silva slaughtered Sakuraba with a barrage of knees and punches and kicks. He even at one point pushed Sak's head down and kicked him in the side of the head over and over (a new rule by Pride makes that legal). Sak was a bloody mess afterwards and Silva was barely sweating. I think Pride should take a note from this and take away the kicking on the ground rule. I like the knees there. You cannot hide on the ground anymore, but the kicking seems a bit extreme. That's just my opinion. Word already has it that Sak will not be in the next Pride because this fight and a case of the flue put him in the hospitol. I don't know about Silva. He looks good to go. The other number one in his weight division falls in the same event and the same night. Amazing.
