Reportedly Olympic greco-roman wrestling gold medalist Rulon Gardner has signed a two year deal with PrideFC, and his first fight could be as soon as the 12/31 show. Gardner made headlines at the 2000 Olympics when he defeated the seemingly unbeatable Alexander Kareline to take the gold medal, and made the news again last year after being trapped in the wilderness and losing a toe to frostbite. I want to see him fight Yoshida.
If he's been training strikes, submissions, submission defence etc, I see him doing pretty well with some brutal GnP wins, but please Pride, NEVER let him fight Fedor - we'll have the cold war all over again!
He did the right thing there, if that's true. That's, what, three Olympic-class wrestlers on that squad now? If he's training with those guys, I reckon he'll do well
Yuki said something about this a while back, but I thought it was just a rumor. That should be pretty interesting, especially if he's training with Couture (after all, Couture is probably the best person to teach him to apply his greco-roman to MMA) and the rest of Team Quest.
After the fights last night they announced he was coming to Pride. He will be fighting at Shockwave on Jan. 2. His first - and possible last opponent - Hidehiko Yoshida! Two Olympic gold medalist. Should be fun. Money is on Yoshida though.
That'll be an interesting match. I think Yoshida will have his hands full with Gardner, but I won't count him out. Reckon he'll wear his gi?
But Rulon will only have two months of striking and submission training. Will he be able to get away from the mentallity on not getting your back on the floor, etc.
Well I'm guessing Rulon will get the takedown. After that, I'm guessing Rulon will try to GnP and Yoshida will go for a sub... I don't know how good the guys at TQ are at subs, but there are better people he could learn to defend against subs from. I'm still giving the fight to Rulon...he's awesome at wrestling, has a weight advantage (probably strength advantage, too), and he's training with a bunch of good fighters.
He also seems very tough, look at the situations hes been through, great mental focus, of course these things also likely apply to yoshida, after all they are gold medalists lol
im backing yoshida. more experience in the ring and more experience with submissions. for all we know, rulon might have a glass jaw.
Gardner is a tank. If he can hurt Yoshida early, say under five minutes, he wins. Any longer than that and I see him gassing and being armbarred.
Garnder certainly has some weight behind him It should be an interesting match! I always love it when new talents enter the MMA world
