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Latest Man Festival card line-up
By Zach Arnold | December 17, 2006
- Josh Barnett vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
- Yuki Kondo vs. Akihiro Gono
- PRIDE Heavyweight Title match: Emelianenko Fedor vs. Mark Hunt
- Takanori Gomi vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida
- Kazuhiro Nakamura vs. Mauricio Shogun
- Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Gilbert Melendez
- Shin’ya Aoki vs. Joachim Hansen
- Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Ikuhisa Minowa
Topics: All Topics, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 27 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
It’s good to see Kondo back. The poor guy hasn’t had the best luck in Pride.
Gono’s entrance will be entertaining as always.
Rad card. Too bad K-1 didn’t step up and put one like this together.
Looking at it, this is like an MMA org. best-of mix. You’ve got top quality Shooto match ups with Ishida/Gomi, Kawajiri/Melendez, Aoki/Hansen, great Pride showdowns with Nog/Barnett, Fedor/Hunt, and Nakamura/Shogun, a rematch of a really exciting DEEP fight with Tamura/Minowa, then a Pancrase rematch I’ve been dying to see with Gono/Kondo.
Wow, looking good… Fedor’s still there… Should be a fantastic card. If I only had the time and money to see it live, history in the making, the end of pride…
Mind you, when it changed managerial hands back in the early days it came back bigger and better… here’s hoping…
This will be Kondo’s fifth fight this year, and his last fight was a week ago (12/10). I’d be hard-pressed to pick him here.
Nogueira’s fighting for his career as far as being a top-echelon fighter in PRIDE in terms of marketing and politics. If he beats Barnett, he forces PRIDE into a corner to where they have to book him soon against Fedor or perhaps Silva. If he loses, Nogueira’s in bad shape politically with the various Japanese power brokers.
And BTW, to the goofs in this Sherdog thread, Barnett never said that he was taking NYE off. As clearly stated in our audio interview with him two weeks ago, he said that he wanted to fight on NYE but wasn’t given an offer at that point. He expressed his interest in a re-match with Nogueira if it meant closing the chapter on that feud. Barnett/Nogueira II is easily the best match on this card in terms of competitiveness and overall star-power.
Call me negative, but I am not too excited for this card.
Nogueira/Barnett, Kondo/Gono, & Minowa/Tamura are all rematches. The last 2 really are pointless rematches.
Mauricio Rua is facing his 3rd pointless “Middleweight” of the year. When are they going to give this guy a legit fight again?
I love the 3 Lightweight Fights, but the rest of the card smells of something awful.
Re-matches are hard to sell unless the first match was so close that it warrants a return. Barnett/Nogueira does, so that match is completely justifiable.
Kondo vs. Gono… 4 or 5 years ago, that was a pretty good mid-card feud. Now? I’m not too interested.
Minowa/Tamura… it could be a real good or a real bad fight, but I fall on the positive for this one. I’m just not sure if it’s the right way to use Tamura (it’s difficult to book him now correctly). I would have rather seen PRIDE pull out the U-STYLE Axis rules gimmick and essentially declare a UWF-style match, which would be just as effective if not more entertaining.
Without TV, it’s hard to book a lot of fights with continuity or context. Of course, K-1 is doing their damndest to prove that even with TV, you can massively screw things up.
Where’s Silva???? He’s a NYE staple.
This card turned out good after all. I don’t think it is as good as some past New Year’s Eve shows. That is disappointing in and of itself because I love how NYE was a fighting Holiday in Japan. I always watch the Pride shows then grab the K-1 and Pride Japanese shows from the Japanese video store the next week.
In my opinion Pride has the three most interesting NYE fights right now. Fedor/Hunt is great. Too bad Hunt lost to Josh because it takes a little shine off this fight but Hunt is challenging style matchup for Fedor.
Barnett/Nog was awesome. Literally a pick ’em decision in the GP Semis. Can’t wait to see them have 3 rounds.
Shogun/Nakamura will likely see Nak getting killed worse than Silva beat him. But it should be entertaining.
All three of those fights are better than Tito/Chuck II. Maybe Tito/Chuck ties Shogun/Nak.
After that you’ve got Arlovski/Pe de Pano which could be a showcase for AA or could as I fear be a terribly boring 3 round snorefest. And I’m looking forward to seeing the Saku fight in K-1 but I also fear seeing Saku get murdered after his last go round.
Gono/Kondo could be very ineteresting. Could end up match of the night.
Rating Shogun vs. Nakamura ahead of Liddell vs. Ortiz is a near laughable argument. Not that I’m a big fan of either man, but that match will have much more heat and probably more action than Nakamura (can’t wait for those fans to boo him for dragging down a fight). The only action in the Shogun fight will be him decimating Nakamura quickly, unless Nakamura finds a way to drag it to an unfortunate decision.
I’m really uninterested in the Kondo/Gono fight… never really thought much of Kondo. But the rest of the card is very interesting. Even Tamura/Minowa has my attention (heaven help me, but I love Minowa).
Am a bit surprised to see Fedor still on the card. If he did indeed break his toe (as was reported on his website), I can’t imagine him being able to fight. But then I shriek girlishly whenever I get a hangnail, so Fedor may be made of tougher stuff.
I think Chuck/Tito will be over in under two minutes. If that. Tito has nothing for Chuck, it is a terrible style matchup for him. I don’t see how intelligent fans are that geared up for this fight. Sure it will have a ton of heat, mainly from TUF-era noobs who think it’s a good matchup, but is that what makes a fight good? I have to turn down the volume on Mike Goldberg so I might not even hear the crowd reaction on this one.
Shogun and Liddell are the two best fighters in the world at 205. Both are booked in squash matches. I rate them the same. I think the Shogun finish will be more spectacular.
I don’t want it seem like I’m against new fans. I’m not. The sport needs them, the more fans the merrier. The more fans, the more money, the better the level of athlete attracted to compete in MMA. But I am against people new to the sport telling me things like Tito/Chuck II is the fight of the year and Tito/Griffin could go either way, etc.
Gaijin they will probably save Silva due to him being the star draw for the LV show in Feb. Cant have him getting KO or accidently hurt right before that show.
Tito/Chuck is going to be same as last time. Tito, stiff as a board, face tensed up like he’s going to cry, forearms covering his big head, waiting for Chuck to twist his hips and beer belly and toss a sloppy, but effective and powerful, looping punch. Oh, and a thumb to the eye is likely as well. Personally, like the previous poster, I’d rather watch Nakamura/Shogun. Sure, it could be a stall-fest from Nak, but there’s a chance it will be more exciting than Tito/Chuck.
That said, I’m still a savage who will be ordering both events.
I actually think Shogun/Nakamura could be a solid fight. Nakamura improved his striking and aggression with his last fight. And Shogun? When was the last time he was in a boring match. He was actually able to make Arona exciting (and unconscious).
Shogun will win, of course. But this fight will be more entertaining than people are thinking…
MMAWeekly.com has confirmed that Wanderlei Silva will not be competing at Shockwave.
IF Arona couldnt drag down a fight and turn it into a boring stall-fest…theres no way Nakamura can.
I really like this card. Nog v Barnett 1 is my fight of the year hopefully the rematch can settle the score once and for all. I am scared Josh is coming to this out of shape though…
The lightweight fights are fantastic. Gomi v Ishida not for the title is the DUMBEST thing ever though. Hopefully gomi can comeback to his his hyper-exciting style. MELENDEZ, HANSEN, KAWAJIRI, AOKI. THESE ARE ALL POTENTIAL CHAMPIONS ON ANY GIVEN NIGHT!
I guess I am the only Nakamura fan out there? I feel bad though, pride is really not trying to build him that much. This WILL be a competitive match up.
Tamura v Minowa sounds alright. Hearing the pro wrestling backround makes it more interesting for me. Like someone said this will be the most or least fun fight out of the bunch.
Fedor fighting is always great.
Kondo v Gono is the most meh out of the bunch. Gono is always cool though. Kondo is legit and is in a make or break situation. Could be a great fight.
Overall this is a WAY better overall card than Ortiz-Liddel. However the ortiz-liddel fight has WAY more heat than this card. I will be spending cash on both because I am addicted to mma!
Nakamura has a lot of grit, and some serious skills, his fight with Shogun will be a lot closer than people think.
Kondo/Gono is interesting to me because 4-5 years ago Kondo smacked the shit out of Gono, but now Kondo is in a slump and Gono has been putting on some os his most inspired performances. I’m curious to see how it all plays out.
Now, Ortiz/Liddel has the best build-up and most drama of any fight this NYE, but I think the fight itself will be a dud, along with most of the card. But again, I’m ordering the ppv anyways (and god help me, I’ll be downloading that awful K-1 card the second it’s on bittorrent).
If you look at some of the most marquee fights ever on NYE, they usually aren’t the greatest. There was the savage beating Takayama took a few years ago, there was Akebono/Sapp, and there was that strange positioning of Rogerio vs. Sakuraba. Fedor vs. Nogueira drew a 20% rating for what was a pretty good fight, though.
I thought Sapp/Akebono was AWESOME. To me in many ways, that’s what New Year’s Eve is all about. And what fighting is all about. Sure, neither guy is one of the best in the world. But it’s a 6’5″ 350lb guy vs a 6’8″ 450lb guy. Be honest, who doesn’t want to see that? I like what Josh said on the last radio show about how he likes those fights too. Same thing for Giant Silva vs Henry Miller. What happens when a Giant fights a fat bastard?
I’d pay $100 to see a Polar Bear fight a Silverback Gorrilla or two Polar Bears vs three Siberian Tigers on a hockey rink, or and alligator vs a nurse shark in 3 feet of clear water. I like fights. I like clashes of styles. I want to know what happens when x fights y.
It drives me nuts when someone says, “oh well it doesn’t reflect on the top 10.” That doesn’t mean it’s not interesting. Frank Shamrock and Renzo doesn’t reflect on the top 10 and I’d watch that. I’d watch Frank vs Royce or Bas vs Mark Coleman or Militech vs Randy. A well matched fight is a well matched fight and if it’s interesting I’ll watch it. Shonie Carter vs the Irish Steroid Guy doesn’t have any bearing on any rankings but that’s on TV. And I was interested in that fight. Turned out it sucked, oh well they got me.
I want something freaky this NYE. I’m disapointed that Giant Silva vs Akebono is as freak showy as things are going to get this NYE. We all know these two are boring in the ring, killing the “holy shit, these guys are freaks, lets see’em brawl” excitment that it should have. Getting Andy instead of Bobby versus Kaneko doesn’t help things either.
“I thought Sapp/Akebono was AWESOME. To me in many ways, that’s what New Year’s Eve is all about. And what fighting is all about”
**sound of everything crashing to a halt**
Wha?
Still interested to see who Hong-Man Choi’s going to be fighting (if not Mirko)
Saku vs Lil Nog was an entertaining intense fight. It was very competitive. Sapp vs Bono however was pretty sad, what with Akebono’s wife and kids crying away in the audience. Akebono had no chance in that one.
This card is not very compelling so far…. i’d rather see some match’s like this
Fedor vs yoshida
Coleman vs silva
Hunt vs Fujita
Ninja vs Chonen
Busta vs Gono or Tamura
Broni vs Soluev
[…] It’s nice to finally see this but it also makes me sad looking back at Pride at its peak not so long ago compared to what we will have this New Year’s Eve. […]