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PRIDE 31 in Saitama
By Zach Arnold | January 13, 2006
The show is on February 26th at Saitama Super Arena. Tickets go on sale to the general public this weekend. List of workers being advertised: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Kevin Randleman, Mauricio Shogun, Sergey Kharitonov, Mark Coleman, and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Mario Sperry of BTT is also expected to booked on the show, along with Yosuke Nishijima.
The most intriguing booking perhaps to come may be Josh Barnett. Barnett was promoted to appear at or be associated with a submission wrestling clinic with Yoshiaki Fujiwara in Los Angeles on 2/25 & 2/26, the same day as the PRIDE 31 show. There may be interest now on DSE’s behalf to book Mr. Barnett on the PRIDE 31 event.
After the 2/26 Saitama show, DSE will run a Bushido event and then the 2006 GP tournament on 5/5 at the Osaka Dome. A lot of the time in between shows will be filled by promoting Hustle events.
Update: Burning Spirit has translated this post into Japanese.
Update II: Add James Thompson & Pedro Rizzo to the PRIDE 31 card line-up. Matches yet to be announced.
Topics: MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Interesting to see randleman and coleman still getting fights.Had heard some rumors of them both going to ufc.
Coleman hasn’t lost to a non top level fighter since Nobuhiko Takada at PRIDE 5 (if you want to count his ‘fight’ as a legit win). Sure he’s gone 3-3 since the 2000 PRIDE Openweight GP, but his losses were to the top fighters of the next era (Fedor, Nogueira & Filipovic).
Randleman still getting fights in PRIDE, especially after having to decision his last opponent (Fatih Kocamis) at Bushido Europe is pretty shocking, though. When he’s on, he can provide anyone a very good to great fight. Unfortunately, in recent times the only noteworthy items were probably the Cro Cop upset KO and the Fedor slam/suplex of death, both a year and a half ago, at least.
Personally i do not have much interest in coleman vs anyone that is not in the top 5 in pride as i believe he would easily win.If they feed him a can or 2 at this point perhaps they can build him up again.You are right about Randleman
his take downs in bushido europe impressed me but his offence afterwards was a joke.
Personally, I think that they should book Mark Coleman vs. James Thompson as an eliminator for the 2006 HW/OW GP to set up Coleman for a second chance at trying to become a two time Grand Prix champion. Although Thompson is not better than a low to mid level B fighter, he’s a solid enough opponent to be a decent test to the aging Coleman and an OK win with his recent record padding. Plus, he’s reasonably exciting, win or lose (especially in his brutal KO loss to Aleksander Emelianenko).
Personally,lol u could be right.
Thompson is english so i have to support him as my countryman,would be an awesome matchup.
I wonder who rampage will be fighting?