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PRIDE 2/24 Las Vegas card line-up
By Zach Arnold | January 22, 2007
- Takanori Gomi vs. Nick Diaz
- Frank Trigg vs. Kazuo Misaki
- Kazuhiro Nakamura vs. Travis Wiuff
- Mac Danzig vs. Hayato “Mach” Sakurai
- Middleweight Title match: Vanderlei Silva vs. Dan Henderson
Topics: All Topics, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 31 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I can’t really say as though this card is going to be a huge draw or anything…honestly its one of the weakest efforts by PRIDE in recent memory.
I hope to GOD they don’t use the shitty American production team for this event…
Card is looking very solid!
I can’t wait to see how Nick Diaz fairs in the Pride ring. Very happy to see Frank Trigg getting a shot in Pride after his fight at GFC was cancelled. Too bad they didn’t set Vanderlei up with Rogerio leaving Henderson open for Trigg.
On top of the above fights, Pride is also reporting that Aleksander Emelianenko, Ricardo Arona, Kazuyuki Fujita, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will be on the card. This is going to be awesome!
Didn’t Lil Nog already say that he was scaling back his number of fights for ’07 and that he’d just be there to corner BTT?
Unless its changed Sergei Kharitnov’s website claims he’s fighting Gilbert Yvel on the PRIDE show as well.
It’s obvious that PRIDE is going for a theme of ex-UFC vs. PRIDE (a modification of PRIDE vs. The World). Diaz and Trigg are not bad options, but I’m not sure what kind of drawing power they have.
The Gaijin, it was Big’ Nog who said he planned on scaling things back this year. Here is what he said…
“I fought five times last year and at this year I will do three or four bouts. I will keep my training rhythm and I will go to Las Vegas just to get some rest and support my brother Rogério Minotouroâ€
I’d say Trigg and Diaz are two good additions for PRIDE. Both are solid fighters with marketable personalities. I am not to keen on the signings of Travis Wiuff and Josh Neer though…
I wonder who will be doing colour commentary?
If there’s a stupid intermission again I will be pissed.
This doesn’t exactly scream PRIDE vs. ex-UFC as much as it’s PRIDE hiring what they can find of decent US fighters to face their japanese ones, and most of such fighters obviously having had UFC-experience.
Solid card so far. Diaz vs. Gomi is interesting on so many levels, plus should be a hell of a fun fight. I don’t mind the continued Nakamura-push either. I expect the remaining 2-3 fights will be MW and HW then, which should fill that open space. Hopefully they won’t wait till one week prior to announce the rest though, as they’re doing well so far with announcing well in advance for this.
Believe me, the theme in the Japanese press will be Takanori Gomi vs. “UFC star” Nick Diaz. And if Gomi beats him, it will be “Gomi beat a UFC guy, PRIDE is the strongest, PRIDE is raiding UFC.”
Frank Trigg fighting scares me the most. He is an average annoncer, but still better then anything else they can get. I fear that the telecast will be horrible.
None of these fights really excite me. They are actually dumbing down their shows for the American audience.
Of course that’ll be the spin in the media, but I still don’t see that being the obvious motivation behind signing these fighters.
What are the ticket prices for this one compared to PRIDE.32?
Zach, e-mail Mr. Josh Barnett and plead with him to do color commentary on this card.
using him would be a good move. he’s the best American fighter that PRIDE has, he’s not fighting (probably not until the middle of this year, actually), and you need to keep him involved with the product on his time off since he’s a big name. isn’t he halfway decent on commentary anyways?
(who else could they use? Mark Coleman? hah)
As os now, the show will only draw the hardest of hardcore fans. The show needs a Fedor/Rulon or Nog/Rulon to draw some mainstream interest.
Or unless there’s a hard push for American hero world-class wrestler Dan Henderson taking on the longest reigning PRIDE champion ever.
….or Fedor/Barnett.
dudes, this is PRIDE fighting. in America. they’ll never draw much mainstream interest.
I like the card! Some interesting fights on there for sure. Excited to finally see Danzig, and I’m hoping to see a wild and trashtalking Diaz put up a scrap. Trigg also impressed me in his fight against Mayhem Miller … now we’ll get to see if he can actually protect his back.
However I don’t think this is a very impressive card to present to the US market. Their one real draw ace was Wanderlei Silva and they matched him up against the most bland opponent marketing wise. We already saw that Nick Diaz’s draw is nowhere near anything decent via GFC. Unless PRIDE puts together some compelling heavyweight scraps, this card could definately flounder in terms of attendance.
But I’m excited … this card is already much more interesting than The Real Deal for me.
I wish they weren’t compelled to put an American in every fight. There was a rumor going around about Sergei vs Yvel. I’d love to see Yvel get smashed in person.
To be honest fightlinker…u cant rate Diaz’s draw as the reason why GFC’s show was cancelled…those two have NOTHING to do with the other.
Thanks Scott – I knew I read it somewhere and damned if the Nog’s parents had to give twins pretty much the EXACT SAME NAME!! But you’re right, so I guess we can expect (hope) to see Lil’ Nog in action on 2/24.
Question: Does anyone know if there wouldn’t be somewhere in the US that PRIDE could run a show that would allow them to run under their own rules?? I think it would be a lot better way to showcase themselves and the org if they could do it under their true ruleset.
They could run in Indiana (right outside of Chicago) perhaps if they wanted their own rules. They could also run Massachusetts (which is now not ruled by the commission for MMA). Texas might be an easy choice, as well. Alabama and Mississippi are also definites, even if MS normally uses the unified rules.
There was a post on Sherdog from someone who had a chance conversation with a CSAC official. The CSAC official said that DSE is trying to get Japanese Pride rules accepted in California for the L.A. show in June and that DSE wants to put on two title fights at that show if they get the Japanese rules. Zuffa has gotten a waiver from Ohio on their weigh-in rules (which allow for only a 10 pound difference between weigh in day & fight day weights) for UFC 68, so I guess it’s possible that California could make some special exceptions for Pride.
If the CSAC allows PRIDE to go by their own rules, talk about showing your ass for who you really are.
Well considering they were about to allow those rules in the first place until Zuffa flew in one of their senior guys via helicopter, brought in John McCarthy and X (someone’s name whom escapes me at the time) to plead for the sanctity of the unified rules system…maybe its not that far off.
There was an article on Sherdog a while back that has the full story on the topic and basically PRIDE was on the brink of getting their rules passed until the last minute impassioned pleas.
Wouldn’t they catch the ire of the NSAC and other members of the unified rules if they operated shows in States that don’t honour said rules?
http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles.asp?n_id=2470
Sorry if this has been posted before AND I was incorrect – the UFC didn’t fly someone in via helicopter, it was commissioner Mike Carona.
If California were to adopt the Japanese Pride rules, or even a portion of them, like allowing knees to the head, but not stomps and soccer kicks, and allowing 10 minute first rounds, then Pride would likely hold all their American shows in California, which, given the explosive growth of the sport, must be enticing to the CSAC.
Yeah, I’m sure they’re excited at the possibility of being the first commission to have a fighter die from a head kick or stomp.
Yeah, there are deaths left right and centre in Pride…
Because there’s been dozens of deaths in PRIDE, the numerous IVC and Vale Tudo events across the world over the past 20 years…..oh wait….
Yoshida didn’t look too good on NYE. Of course, Sakuraba looked much worse against Smirnovas…
Nate Quarry got more messed up by Rich Franklin’s punches than any Pride fighter ever has from soccer kicks and head stomps.
fightlinker, that was the dumbest comment ever. the bodycount in pride is skyhigh, the yakuza just loves it though! sakikaraba eats endangered iguanas.
iain- are you talking about Morishita, the founder of PRIDE as one of those dead bodies?
Ninja- Absolutely, if only there had been the unified rules he might still be alive today…