*** S P O I L E R S page 2 ***

Round 2: Critical Countdown

Round 1 was Total Elimination and there's an older thread that I started on the event. The FIGHTCARD for Round 2, in the order they will fought, follows:

Sergei Kharitonov (Russia) vs. Pedro Rizzo (Brazil)
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (Brazil) vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (Brazil) *
Igor Vovchanchyn (Ukraine) vs. Alistair Overeem (Holland) *
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (Croatia) vs. Ibragim Magomedov (Russia)
Makoto Takimoto (Japan) vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (Japan)
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Brazil) vs. Pawel Nastula (Poland)
Kazushi Sakuraba (Japan) vs. Ricardo Arona (Brazil) *
Wanderlei Silva (Brazil) vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura (Japan) *

* Tournament matches are still subject to change
Segei
against Pedro

Shogun
against Minotoro

Ice Cold
against Demolition Man

Cro Cop
against Ibragim

Takimoto
X Tamura

Minotauro
X Pawel

Gracie Hunter
X Arona

Axe Murderer
X Nakamura

***Place your predictions/choices here!!!***

I cant wait to watch this. These are my predictions (a couple of them are bit wishful)

Winner Sergei Kharitonov (Russia) vs. Pedro Rizzo (Brazil)
WinnerMauricio “Shogun” Rua (Brazil) vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (Brazil)
WinnerIgor Vovchanchyn (Ukraine) vs. Alistair Overeem (Holland)
WinnerMirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (Croatia) vs. Ibragim Magomedov (Russia)
WinnerMakoto Takimoto (Japan) vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (Japan)
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Brazil) vs. WinnerPawel Nastula (Poland)
WinnerKazushi Sakuraba (Japan) vs. Ricardo Arona (Brazil)
Wanderlei Silva (Brazil) vs. WinnerKazuhiro Nakamura (Japan)

Who are the judokas in the lineup?

Sergei Kharitonov (Russia) vs. Pedro Rizzo (Brazil):
Rizzo is awesome, but he's had his time. He's a bit older now, bound to be a bit slower, and we know from previous fights that the guy bleeds if you breathe on him. Kharitonov by TKO (ref stoppage)

Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (Brazil) vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (Brazil):
Fight of the night, no doubt in my mind. It's got to be a war-the two schools are competing for bragging rights. I have a little more faith in Chute Boxe's ability to
train guys for the big fights, though. We know Shogun has hands, and while little Nog's hands are certainly to be respected, I give the edge to Shogun on the feet. On the ground, though I give little Nog the advantage, I don't think it'll be enough advantage to win by sub. IMO, the best chance against Shogun would not be to play the sub game, but to work the takedown ALL DAY and ground and pound from above. I don't see Nog doing that, so I predict Shogun by UD.

Igor Vovchanchyn (Ukraine) vs. Alistair Overeem (Holland):
Another brilliant match. THANK YOU DSE! This will be a war on the feet. Vov is a monster, and Overeem is a freakishly big phenom. I'm afraid to even call this fight. In the end, I'll call this my upset. Overeem by TKO. My reasoning is this: Overeem has a much longer reach, and definite knockout power. I don't see Vov being able to be quite as effective as such a short guy. Again, I think the gameplan for Vov would have to be ground and pound in order to win, and I don't see him doing that.

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (Croatia) vs. Ibragim Magomedov (Russia):
Crocop by brutal highlight reel KO. Next.
Makoto Takimoto (Japan) vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (Japan)
Tamura by decision. Sleeper fight. Tamura is better than people give him credit for.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Brazil) vs. Pawel Nastula (Poland)
Nog by decision. I expect nothing short of an awesome ground game, but you're not gonna catch either in a sub, and I know that Nog has hands. He just simply has more tools to get the job done. This is not the way to throw judo into the mix.

Kazushi Sakuraba (Japan) vs. Ricardo Arona (Brazil)
Arona is too methodical for Saku's antics to work. Arona is a whiz on the ground, has a good takedown, and is younger and faster. Sak has been beaten to a pulp over the last few years, and I expect those old injuries to take some wind out of his sails. Arona by split decision (because Sak is still loved in Japan, I expect the judges to still throw him a bone)

Wanderlei Silva (Brazil) vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura (Japan):
Why are we carrying Silva? He showed last year he's 100% capable of taking care of himself. He'll KO Nakamura, but he could also beat anybody else in this tournament. Let's challenge the guy a bit, and shake up his image as a guy who only fights cans.

I think RITF has summed up my thoughts and predictions perfectly, with the exception of Rua/Nog. I'm picking Little Nog to take the slight upset via sub in the second.

I'd love to see Igor win too. I think if he can rock Alistair with a solid shot the fight will be his. It remains to be seen how much age has weeried Mr Ice Cold.

If I were to place bets, I'd go with those names in bold:

Sergei Kharitonov (Russia) vs. Pedro Rizzo (Brazil)
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (Brazil) vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (Brazil) *
Igor "Ice Cold" Vovchanchyn (Ukraine) vs. Alistair Overeem (Holland) *
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (Croatia) vs. Ibragim Magomedov (Russia)
Makoto Takimoto (Japan) vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (Japan)
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Brazil) vs. Pawel Nastula (Poland)
Kazushi Sakuraba (Japan) vs. Ricardo Arona (Brazil) *
Wanderlei Silva (Brazil) vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura (Japan) *

In short, everybody on the left, except for Arona. However, the fighters I'll be cheering are different from the above, obviously.

Support the Judo Information site! 自他共栄 JudoBJJKid

I'll go with ALL your bold picks JudoBJJKid! I'm with you on every one. I really want Nastula to win but think it won't even be close. The wild card for me is Sakuraba but agree with RITF that he is held together by pins and screws.

he's been through the Brazilian meat grinder a few too many times. Silva ruined him.

No kidding! Silva's got his number from the very 1st fight. I think Nak will be a "better" challenge for Silva ... not holding my breath since Wand has such a wealth of experience against all types of fighters, whether tomato cans or elites. I'm still cheering Pawel, Nak, and Sak!!!

Me too, hoping for the judo guys but they are in tough.

Their base MA are as follows:

Submission wrestler Kiyoshi Tamura of the U-File Camp meets Olympic judoka Makoto Takimoto of Yoshida Dojo.

Submission wrestler Kazushi Sakuraba of Takada Dojo confronts BJJ black belt Ricardo Arona of the Brazilian Top Team.

Alistair Overeem of Team Golden Glory tangles with freelance Combat Sambo fighter Igor Vovchanchyn.

Sergei Kharitonov of the Russian Top Team rumbles with Brazilian Muay Thai fighter Pedro Rizzo of the Ruas Vale Tudo Team.

Muay Thai fighter Mauricio Rua of the Chute Boxe Academy goes toe-to-toe with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira of the Brazilian Top Team.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira of the Brazilian Top Team challenges Olympic Judo Gold Medalist and Polish sensation Pawel Nastula.

Chute Boxe fighter and current PFC middleweight champion Wanderlei Silva takes on judoka Kazuhiro Nakamura of the Yoshida Dojo.

Croatian kickboxer Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic of Team Cro Cop battles Russian striker Ibragim Magomedov of the Red Devil Fight Club.

Support the Judo Information site! 自他共栄 JudoBJJKid

Agree with these choices.

Nakamura might pull out a surprise. Overeem can hurt Igor. And Lil Nog, like Big Nog, is always looking to end the fight by strikes or subs. This card destroys the last UFC!!!!! Simply awesome!!!!

Sak owns as usual


Support the Judo Information site! 自他共栄 JudoBJJKid

To our forum brothers in Japan:

What free TV channel will it be broadcasted?
Channel J, Fuji TV, Impress TV, Tandm TV, IIV Channel ... ???

Thanks!!!

Support the Judo Information site! 自他共栄 JudoBJJKid

TTT for forum members in Japan!

Sak is so ripped!!!



From various MMA sites:

After the weigh-in Sakuraba showed his confidence for this fight the entire time. As he behave so, he told us he’s 400 percent ready for this fight. He weighed in at 87-kg., which is way less than the limit of this tournament. But he explained about this weight, “I didn’t mean to cut my weight this much. I didn’t try to cut weight. I just lost [weight] by my hard training.”

“I want to finish this by Ippon (submission),” he answered. “Or maybe knockout.”

Support the Judo Information site! 自他共栄 JudoBJJKid

Just spoke with an aunt, it's on Fuji TV, 22:00 !!!

I'm gonna keep my mouth shut intill it's over and when it's over ive got a few fourm members i'm gonna make sure they eat crow when it's over.

You can't because you can only do that after you've given your own predictions/opinions! So which ones are you choosing? Hindsight is 20/20.

Support the Judo Information site! 自他共栄 JudoBJJKid

ok..."Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Brazil) vs. WinnerPawel Nastula (Poland)"


thats just down right insane... Pawel have never been in a fight..Judo and MMA are two different things but hey forgive me if i'm not your run of the mill "I'm gonna pick him because he does Judo just like i do " type of guy i go by Fight History.

You forgot to read the part about ...


You can hardly make him eat crow based on your logic and sequence of posts

So, who else are you picking? This time, choose for all the matches.

kid is correct! at logic lessons from a 12-year old.

So what are your predictions and why? Nice analysis by RITF although I'd go with Judokid and jedi.

Sergei Kharitonov (Russia) vs. Pedro Rizzo (Brazil)
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (Brazil) vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (Brazil) *
Igor Vovchanchyn (Ukraine) vs. Alistair Overeem (Holland) *
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (Croatia) vs. Ibragim Magomedov (Russia)
Makoto Takimoto (Japan) vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (Japan)
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Brazil) vs. Pawel Nastula (Poland)
Kazushi Sakuraba (Japan) vs. Ricardo Arona (Brazil) *
Wanderlei Silva (Brazil) vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura (Japan) *

I'm going for the underdog in Nakamura. Crocop and Nog (vs Nastula) should both be horrible beatdowns.

Overall it looks like a great card on paper. Hopefully it will turn out better than Round 1.

Can't wait!!! I'm cheering for all the Judokas even with the overwhelming odds.

Support the Judo Information site! 自他共栄 JudoBJJKid

About 7 more hours!

Fight #1: Sergei Kharitonov over Pedro Rizzo - TKO Round 1

Kharitonov controlled the entire fight from the top, landing knees, punches, then outboxes Pedro, rocking him, and following him to the ground for the TKO ref stoppage.

Fight #2: Shogun Rua over Rogerio Nogeira - UD

Action-packed with both guys doing damage in all rounds.

Fight #3: Igor taps to Overeem's guillotine! WTF?!?

Nice pre fight commentary by JudoBjjKid thanks.

Same deal as the Vitor fight. Looks like Overeem has the second best Guillotine in the world. (First being Pequeno)


PRIDE GRAND PRIX!!!!!!

See why you should listen to my picks? ALWAYS LISTEN TO RITF's PICKS!!!

Bloody hell, looks like Nakamura got taken out by Silva, while he was trying to take his gi off in the middle of the fight?

Definitely much better than your previous predictions.

Upsets happen. No big deal. I'm better at Pride predictions, anyway.

i just seen the fight between Nastula and Nogueira... i was right. Nogueira won. Nastula didn´t had a strategie and was overun by a well fit and cold Nogueira.

Nastula looked like a wrestler trying to go to a double leg... he should see more fights of Fedor and Karo to see how to use Judo in MMA.

Nogueira in my opinion could had won in great style by finalizing Nastula. When he got the mount, and start pounding, Nastula was with the arm straight up and was totally exausted... it was almost shouting with that arm up: DO ME A JUJI-GATAME!

This is my opinion...

So how he finished him. Was it a Juji Gatame?

Ref stoppage, TKO.

Don't forget that Nogueira is ALSO a judo blackbelt. He even won the Pan-Ams.

It's not that he is clueless about judo. So, Nastula had probably to change his game a little bit and try some "more surprising" stuff.

While Nastula was still fresh, there is no way Nog could have catched him with a juji-gatame. He tried some "kimuras" from the guard and they all failed.

Too bad Nastula had NO cardio...he did really well on the ground but he got completely gassed. Then, Nog took the mount and pounded him till referee stoppage.

so much for everyone thinking Nog would get arm bared..

So much for a judoka getting his arm BARED by the #2 HW and elite grappler !!!

Actually only one predicted Pawel will win, and he mentioned it was "wishful" thinking. That is hardly "everyone" and nobody predicted Pawel will win by armbar. He did better than most MMA fans were predicting.

Support the Judo Information site! 自他共栄 JudoBJJKid

i've read a few times that pride likes to put new fighters against seasoned MMA pros, especially it seems newbies from judo. is there a reason for this? is it so that there'll be the possibility of a rocky type upset? it seems that in the UFC you only get to fight the toughest guys after you've proven yourself with other fighters. do the newbie underdogs often win against the badasses in pride?

I read the same thing and heard that the David X Goliath or Underdog X Seasoned fighter is particularly attrative to the biggest Pride fans, the Japanese. I suppose this is a cultural thing/preference ... to see a huge upset.

Something similar is putting an admired/respected and seasoned, but past his prime fighter, like Sakuraba, who has fought and beaten some of the best in his prime, against tougher and/or younger and/or bigger opponents (Wand, Crocop, Arona, etc.) Fans know he will get hurt, bad, and yet Pride feeds him to insanely better fighters ... at least relative to his current physical condition.

I personally kept hoping Arona wouldn't hurt him irreversibly, but it looks pretty close based on how effed up Sak's face looked like after the match.

TTT for our Japanese forum members to provide a better understanding of the Japanese psyche.

ah yeah, sak needs to stop fighting. the guy's achieved enough and fought bravely against enough badasses. it would really suck if after facing literally the world's hardest hitters and strongest fighters, he has one too many fights and ends up permanently screwed.
i've been wondering what exactly it is about him that makes him such a legend. he's a great fighter and fought bigger guys, showing a lot of heart. but it's more than that, isn't it. is it his funny, emotionless face? his crazy outfits? he never jumps around and shouts 'I'm the man!!' or whatever like some MMA fighters do, at least from what i've seen. he wears the funniest costumes (favourite was the mario one) yet doesn't smile let alone laugh. i suppose he's a bit of a mystery, cos how can someone be so silly, like with those drawn on muscles in the photos, with a blank face, and then go and kick the asses of bigger and great fighters, always in an exciting fashion.
i don't think we'll ever see anyone quite like him again.

as for the japanese liking an underdog winning, i think everyone likes that. after all, all the best underdog movies come from the US. but trying to force something like that to happen is silly. it should just happen, out of the blue. the point is that the underdog isn't supposed to win! not that some guys at pride HQ think 'it would be cool to have an underdog win, so let's set up someone weak/inexperienced/old with a killer'. so i think it's a bad thing about pride.

He (Pawel) did better and worse that I thought he would:

He did good with the ground techniques.
He was stable in the grappling game, but very conservative with his Judo throws - which was a mistake. Noguiera was smart enough not to let him have it anyway.
Instead of risking any ground surprises he (Minotauro) went for a striking victory which worked for him very well.

Nastula did terrible with his strategy and preparation.
I was diappointed that he was so unprepared for this type of MMA match. What was he thinking?
It is like he did not have a coach, but just went straight from Judo tournaments into Pride - using the same "short" match strategy, and being unprepared for what came onto him. Eastern Europe has a good a boxing schools, and kick boxing base, so he could have spent some more time exploring what the MMA is all about, and training for it.

He does look like a fighter material so who knows - he may survive in Pride.

Yep, part of the savvy developed by a seasoned fighter. Also, apparently the show was broadcast on Polish free TV ...

Pawel X Big Nog
Igor X Alistair
Mirko X Ibragim

Support the Judo Information site! 自他共栄 JudoBJJKid

Anybody?

ttt

Pawel did well, but his condition can be problem. He propably was prepared ok but he is old man.


http://www.cyber-sport.us/zalaczniki/rzut_966.gif

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I wanted to shed some light on what i thought of the fight. Pawel looked good for the first five mins of the fight but i see he makes the same mistake a lot of judoka make when rolling with Bjjers.

First. Pawel is useing WAY too much Power and is burning Gas faster than you can say his Name if you look at Nog he seems cool and relaxed and is takeing his time after all it is one 10min round 2ed is 5 min so why the hurry?

2ed he spent too much time on Newaza for this fight he should have spent more time on his stand up...example Frank Shamrock said that he stoped submission wrestling for 9 weeks to train kickboxing he reason was he spent a number of years in this system so he would not hurt him if he took a brake and worked on other things. Pawel could have worked on boxing or muay thai the for the time being and gave nog hell on the feet.

3. Behond Sakuraba Takada Dojo is a joke...it is a submission school yes but for the most part a pro-wrestling gym, Pawel could have came to Red Devil in Russa (fedor and alex gym) they would have helped him with his No-gi judo or the USA with Team Quest they would have helped him set up strikes form the clench then work his throws from there.


Only thing he did do Right was LEAVE HIS GI AT HOME... sorry folks this is NOT Judo or bjj (god look what happend to Nakamura when he wore his Gi with Silva)

So does anyone have time to give a quick summary of all the fights?