PRIDE 27: INFERNO - 02.08.04
by Scott Christ
Yeah yeah, the Pride numbering confuses the shit out of me. Or else I should just pay more attention.
This is a really weak Pride card, but intriguing nonetheless because most of the fights mean something. The five heavyweight fights are "survival matches" where the winner gains entry into the Grand Prix, but the loser isn't necessarily disqualified from being involved either. Fedor Emelianenko and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira are already entered.
My picks for the night:
Murilo Rua (KO - 2) Alexander Otsuka
Kazuhiro Nakamura (TKO - 1) Dos Caras Jr.
Sergei Kharitonov (SUB - 1) L.A. Giant
Mark Kerr (SUB - 3) Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Dan Bobish (DEC) Igor Vovchanchyn
Gan McGee (DEC) Heath Herring
Mirko Filipovic (TKO - 1) Ron Waterman
I give Waterman a chance because Filipovic's ground game is so terrible, and I pick McGee over Herring and Bobish over Vochanchyn due to size, but hope both are wrong.
--Aired on February 8, 2004, taped on February 1, 2004, at the Osaka Castle Hall in Osaka, Japan.
--Our commentators and hosts for the evening are BAS RUTTEN and MAURO RANALLO. Praise the Lord, Damon Perry is gone. Long live Mauro Ranallo. Or bring back Stephen Quadros.
--SURVIVAL MATCH - DAN BOBISH (9-5-0) v. IGOR VOVCHANCHYN (38-7-1, Team Vochanchyn): My reason for picking Bobish combines Bobish's 130-pound weight advantage with the fact that Igor is pretty beaten up these days. Fight is underway, and after a little circling, Bobish attacks the ropes with a headbutt. Bobish keeps changing his stance from left-handed to right-handed, so I think he's been watching Rocky. I think he's also been eating even more than usual. Bobish with a double-leg, then he gets a weak slam that seems to take more out of him than he needed and more than was anywhere close to beneficial for that. Into the guard, Bobish lands a right and goes to side control. Knees to the head, and then he just stops. Bobish probably could have won the fight with more knees right there, and stopped for no reason. Ground and pound in the full mount, Igor gets a half-guard, and lands some shots to the ribs. Bobish is gassing. They're stood up after a while and get a yellow card. Bobish goes for a takedown again, Igor sprawls this time. Bobish is trying for knees, then attempts an americana, which fails. The round ends. Pride doesn't score via rounds, but I'd give the first round to Bobish.
Second round starts, Igor sprawls again. Standing up, Igor lands a nice right and Bobish spins around, the idiot. Igory with kicks and punches, now he's got a full mount. Bobish is cut, Igor is raining down strikes right now. Bobish verbally submits to the strikes and it's over. (01'45") Good for Igor. Go away, Bobish, you cow.
--SURVIVAL MATCH - LA GIANT (0-0) v. SERGEI KHARITONOV (6-0, Russian Top Team): LA Giant's real name is Cory Peterson (or Petersen), and he's about 6'11" and weighed in somewhere around 380 pounds. He has seriously weird tits. This is also his first fight, which seems pretty stupid to me, but in his interview with Bas he seemed more thankful than anything, so at least he's not a dickhead. Giant with rights, he's taken down with relative ease given the size differential here (Kharitonov is about 220). Sergei stands over him, lands some kicks to the thighs, and then attacks. Kharitonov with an armbar, Giant tries to escape, can't, and taps out. (01'23") Giant may have done way more damage to his arm than he needed to, because he should've just tapped right away. He wasn't going anywhere.
--MURILO RUA (9-3-1, Chute Box) v. ALEXANDER OTSUKA (3-12-0): If you aren't familiar with Otsuka, here is a list of name fighters he's beaten: Marco Ruas. Here is a list of name fighters he's lost to, usually badly: Egan Inoue, Renzo Gracie, Igor Vovchanchyn, Ken Shamrock, Guy Mezger (twice), Quinton Jackson, Wanderlei Silva, Anderson Silva. He's also lost to a few crappier guys, but he'll give his best all the time. And at this point, he knows what he's doing to some degree, he's just bad at it. Rua made his return on Pride's New Year's Eve show by beating Akira Shoji after a year out of the sport following losses to Ricardo Arona and Kevin Randleman. My notes for this fight: "GROIN!!," "Yellow card - Rua," and "Broken cup." The gist of this is that Rua accidentally kneed Otsuka in the groin, which broke Otsuka's cup. Even though this was taped a week ago, I get to sit through watching Otsuka writhe in pain on the mat and refuse to be taken out on a stretcher. This fight will...continue after the next fight? Well that's a new one.
--KAZUHIRO NAKAMURA (1-1-0) v. DOS CARAS JR. (3-3-0): Nakamura is most famous for knowing Yoshida, who accompanies him to the ring, and Caras is most famous for getting his face kicked in by CroCop at the Bushido show. Nakamura beat Daniel Gracie at that show, and his loss was to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, so it's not like he's bad, at least. Caras, well, he wears his mask. Nakamura gets a takedown and goes into the side mount. Out of that, there's some grappling. Caras is actually a good greco-roman wrestler so he's not worthless or anything. Nakamura blocks a takedown, as he tends to do in this fight with his fancy judo background, and gets a heel trip. Caras with a pretty decent up kick from the back, Nakamura cartwheels all Sakuraba-like, and then controls on the mat. Full mount, Nakamura goes for an armbar, Caras slams out. I'm being generous calling it a slam. Nakamura right, left, high kick. Round is over, Nakamura pretty easily. I'd like to take this opportunity to applaud Nakamura's sloppy, just-woke-up Japanese mullet with the sides shaved off, because that is truly a thing of beauty.
Second round...there are some attempts. At stuff. There's a yellow card. Bas is getting annoyed. Nakamura is getting frustrated. The round is over. That was terrible. Nakamura wins the round.
Third round has Nakamura controlling and me trying to fight off falling asleep. Caras avoids an armbar, and Nakamura goes for a triangle but his legs aren't long enough. This fight is terrible. Fight's over, I give it to Nakamura easy, and all three judges agree. Unanimous decision win for Nakamura, who apologizes to the crowd afterward for the fight.
--LET US TAKE YOU BACK TO RUA-OTSUKA: Otuska has an AC/DC logo on his shorts which is pretty awesome. Rua has the back pretty quickly and he's pounding away (oh yeah). Stand them up, Otsuka goes down. Ninja stomp! Otsuka gets nothing on an attempt for a leglock, and now he's bleeding from the nose. Arm triangle by Rua, Otsuka doesn't even try to use the easy way to get out of that, and he taps. (01'25")
--The return of Mark Kerr. If you've never seen the documentary "The Smashing Machine," seriously, you should, it's very good. They plug it about 3000 times during this show. Anyway, Kerr looks the following: old, small, flabby, old, washed-up, old, flabby, tiny, retarded. It's enough to just make you feel bad for someone that used to be such an imposing physical specimen and great fighter.
--SURVIVAL MATCH - MARK KERR (13-3-0, Team Kerr) v. NORIHISA/YOSHIHISA YAMAMOTO (5-11-0): So they set Kerr up with a tomato can to hopefully get him into the Grand Prix with a win. The fight is going, and Kerr just looks sad in Thai boxing shorts and without his muscles. Yamamoto stings Kerr with a left, but Kerr recovers quickly with a nice takedown. Then Yamamoto just kind of rolls him over and punches him until the referee stops it. That's because Kerr knocked himself out with a DDT on the takedown. That's just sad. That sucks. Ah jeez. (00'40") So Yamamoto is in the Grand Prix, which is the shittiest part of all of this. I think Pride agrees, as they've put him in a fight with CroCop at the next Bushido show which seems to be made only for Yamamoto to get hurt.
--SURVIVAL MATCH - GAN MCGEE (11-2-0, Pitfight Team) v. HEATH HERRING (20-9-0, Golden Glory): This is probably the most interesting matchup of the night since both of these guys have some name recognition, at least. Herring lands a hard right and a good low kick. They're just staying in the standup here. Another low kick from Herring. Herring lands a left. Did Gan McGee learn nothing from keeping his hands down against Tim Sylvia? Single-leg takedown from Heath, McGee turns it over. Herring with a soccer kick, both back up. McGee takes the back out of a sprawl, using his size to his advantage. Herring goes for a reverse kimura but can't get it, and Heath has a bad cut under his right eye. First round is over, I'd give it to McGee but barely. One of Pride's big scoring categories is damage, so I figure they're agreeing right now. Heath's cornermen glue the cut.
Second round is pretty god awful, lots of standing up but getting nothing done. That's really all I got out of it. I also kept almost falling asleep, so I asked my friend who won the round, and he said he'd give it to Herring. So there you go.
Heath's right eye is swollen damn near shut for the third round, but he's going for the kill. There goes Gan's mouthpiece. Gan's pants keep falling down and he has no unda-wears, so the referee pulls them up for him (and for us). Heath is throwing and throwing and throwing, and rocks McGee pretty well at one point, but can't put him down. I'd give the round to Herring, and I think I'd give the fight to Herring. He managed to bloody McGee in the third which helps his cause under Pride scoring. First judge gives it to Gan McGee, which gets booed because the Japanese love crazy ass Herring's over-aggressiveness. Who can blame them? Second judge gives it to Herring. Third gives it to...Herring. Heath Herring via split decision, and he's going to the Grand Prix.
--SURVIVAL MATCH - MIRKO FILIPOVIC (7-1-2, CroCop Squad Gym) v. RON WATERMAN (10-1-2, Colorado Stars): Waterman holds his hands high right away to avoid the left high kick, which as Bas said later, made you think CroCop was just going to murder Waterman's liver in short order, but he doesn't. Waterman with a takedown, they do nothing, and it gets moved to the center of the ring. Again, Waterman is content to do absolutely nothing in the guard. He doesn't go for an arm, he doesn't try to use some ground and pound, he doesn't do anything. He gets punched a few times, that's about it. CroCop is out of there, and he lands a right hand, left hand, left high kick grazes Waterman, which is enough for Waterman to fall down. CroCop with some kicks, the ref stops it. What a lame showing from Waterman. (01'37")
Right now, the Pride Grand Prix field has Fedor, Nogueira, CroCop, Herring, Kharitonov, Yamamoto and Vovchanchyn. Pride is going to make it "open weight," which probably means Sakuraba will be in. Rua wants to fight in it. I would guess Mark Coleman, who won the '00 GP, will get in. They are talking with Tim Sylvia and Wes Sims, the latter for reasons I can't understand.
Bas Rutten's English Lesson of the Night: "Inferno" means "hot."