The Pride "SHOCKWAVE" NYE Card (thus far) Hayato Sakurai vs Takanori Gomi Murilo Bustamante vs Dan Henderson Ricardo Arona vs Wanderlei Silva Mark Hunt vs Mirko Cro Cop Fedor Emelianenko vs. 'Zuluzinho' Makoto Takimoto vs Sanae Kikuta Yuki Kondo vs Kazuhiro Nakamura Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Naoya Ogawa Possible/Probable/Rumoured Fighters: Kazushi Sakuraba is fighting, but not against Tamura like many thought originally. Noguiera bro(s) Fabricio Werdum Aleksander Emelianenko Shogun Rua James Thompson The K1 NYE Card (thus far) Kid Yamamoto vs Genki Sudo Royce Gracie vs Yoshihiro Akiyama Not sure as I don't follow K1 mma, but I think all these are rumoured still Akebono vs Bobby Ologun Ernesto Hoost vs Semmy Schilt TBA vs. The Predator Bobb Sapp vs Musashi Peter Aerts vs TBA Jerome LeBanner vs TBA Choi Hong-Man vs TBA Hideo Tokoro vs TBA So, as you can see, lots of amazing fights to watch. Make your picks... who wins? which card is better?
I would say... Gomi by dec. Hendo by KO, round 2, or dec Wandy by KO round 1 CroCop by dec. or some form of submission that will shock everyone Fedor by sub. or TKO round 1 Takimoto by boring fight leading to decision (as always) Kondo vs Nakamura is a tough call Yoshida by dec. I say Royce and Sudo take home submission wins in the K1 NYE show.
Gomi by TKO or decision in potentially the fight of the year Henderson by decision Silva by severe facial-stompage Cro cop by decision Fedor by whatever the hell he wants, possibly murder Kondo by TKO Yoshida by gi-choke The only confirmed K-1 fight I'm interested in so far is Sudo vs Yamamoto in which I'm picking Sudo by armbar I'm really looking forwards to the Pride event
I'd never count Hunt out in a fight like this - he's got a seemingly indestructible chin, crisp standup with lots of power and it's 90% certain that it's going to stay on the feet with this being a rematch from K-1 a few years ago, and Hunt also seems to do very well in matches where he's not expected to win. When he doesn't have anything to lose, he seems to pull it out. However, he hasn't fought since his controversial decision win against Wanderlei Silva last NYE, and Crocop's been active all year, fighting the best. Training and competing are very different things and there's always a bit of doubt doing the rounds that Hunt doesn't always train quite as hard as he should. I'm not counting Hunt out and won't be shocked if he wins, but don't bet the house on it either
How i hope that Cro Cop Vs Hunt stays standing . That would be a war but Cro Cop is just too smart to do that i feel. And if Wandy comes without his aggression we are getting a new champ
Why wouldn't Cro Cop stand with Hunt? He did it before in K-1 and got the best of it (I think he became the only guy to score a knockdown against him in K-1). Hunt's submission defence is really underrated: Yoshida had a hard time catching him in his MMA debut, Silva couldn't do it (Hunt slipped out of a few attempts very nicely), I don't see Cro Cop managing to tap him
Cro Cop stood with Hunt in K-1 because there was no other option Yes he kicked him good but did you notice how Hunt got up?I dont exactly remember but someonesaid that Hunt got up smiling at Mirko Silva and Yoshida had a hard time submitting him primarily because of the size difference. Why do you think anyone would want to stand up against Hunt. If a Cro Cop kick cant knock him out i dont think anything else can. And the cop knows it firsthand. Still i hope it stays standing . WAAAAAR Mirko
i also hope to see a mainly stand up fight between mirko and hunt. but somehow, maybe it's just my imagination, but i don't see the passion in mirko anymore, that something he used to have. i would watch his fights and i'd get goose bumps all over, but now...
:cry: Nope i dont think its just your imagination. I just cant help feeling that Fedor destroyed him in more ways than one. At the end of that fight he was just too broken . And then he should have come all guns firing at Josh. He seems different to me too. Which by the way is something Wandy should take care of too. As much as i like Hunt i hope he does not knock out Mirko cos that really would be disastrous . Edit: Seems like Nog Vs Werdum is on the cards. Pride is really going all out on NYE :woo:
Crocop's kick may not have knocked him out, but under MMA rules that knockdown would've most likely led to a TKO finish. I still see Mirko standing up with him, his ground game's still largely untested and in their K-1 bout he came off better in every round, not just one lucky kick. I don't know about Fedor breaking Mirko's spirit - granted, he really beat him, but Mirko fought a smart fight against Barnett - going "all guns blazing" would've led to the bigger fighter in Barnett probably taking him down and wrecking him from the top. I don't think losing to Fedor will be much of a bump in the road of Crocop's career I'm picking Kharitonov for the upset this time - I love watching that boy fight
Ok, here is the confirmed card so far, I dont think they'll add anymore fights, but who knows.... Confirmed Fights: Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Naoya Ogawa Takanori Gomi vs. Mach Sakurai (LW title) Henderson vs. Bustamente (WW title) Yuki Kondo vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura Sanae Kikuta vs. Makoto Takimoto Wanderlei Silva vs. Ricardo Arona (MW title) Emelianenko Fedor vs. Zuluzhino (non title) Mirko Crocop vs. Mark Hunt Ken Kaneko vs. Charles 'Krazy Horse' Bennett James Thompson vs. Giant Silva Pawel Nastula vs. Alexander Emelianenko Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Ikuhisa Minowa They threw a few more good ones in there, including a freakshow, Giant Silva. I think Thompson will beat Silva easily, Saku will probably win, but who knows how, with his new skills and all. I see Alex ending his fight pretty quick, Nastula is a really amazing judo guy, but I see him either trying to strike and getting KO'ed or taking it down and getting GnP'ed.
There are some tough fights there to pick.. it's a bloody awesome card! Yoshido over Ogawa Fedor over Zuluzhino (177kgs, woaah!). Alexander Emelianenko over Pawel Nastula Bennet over Kaneko (Hell, an actor's debut fight?) Arona over Silva Crocop over Hunt Sakuraba over Minowa Busta over Hendo? Sakurai over Gomi? (too big & strong) Giant Silva over James Thompson? Kondo over Nak? Kikuta over Takimoto ?
Genki Sudo over Kid Yamamoto? Royce Gracie over Yoshihiro Akiyama? Royce will have to win this from his back via sub or a sweep after he gets taken down. Ernesto Hoost over Semmy Schilt.