This is Pride's first show on FSN. So I expect it to introduce most of the fighters that are going to be active at their August 28th PPV.

Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Mirko Crocop

Hosts are Damon Perry and Bas Rutten

Round 1:

Igor jabs and kicks at Crocop for the early goings. Crocop KOs Igor with a high kick at the 1:30 mark. Nothing match. 0 for 1.

WINNER: Mirko Crocop by KO 1:30 into Round 1

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Kazuyuki Fujita

Hosts are Stephen Quadres, Bas Rutten and Quinton Jackson

Round 1:

This is kind of like watching a nerd fight one of the jocks. The nerd might land a few shots but you know he's living on borrowed time. Fedor comes out looking for a quick KO but they clinch. Fujita tries to get a takedown but it's just not happening for him. Fujita gets a few shots in and even manages to rock Fedor once. Fujita finally manages to get Fedor down and it's guard time. Fujita really doesn't do anything on the ground and Fedor manages to fight to his feet. Fujita gets another takedown that leads nowhere. Fedor sends Fujita to the mat with a kick and a choke finishes it at 4:15. Ok match. Not really sure it's worth a point though. I'll be generous though. 1 for 2.

WINNER: Fedor Emelianenko by submission 4:15 into Round 1

Chuck Liddell vs. Quinton Jackson

Hosts are Damon Perry, Bas Rutten and Dana White

Round 1:

This is what we call a burial job on the other company's champion. Round 1 looks mostly like a boxing match with a few kicks thrown in. The first 5 minutes sees Liddell hitting a series of shots on Jackson and Jackson responding with his own stuff. Liddell slowly gases as the round goes on and Jackson starts hitting some uncontested series of shots. Chuck looks really gased during the last minute and Jackson gets a good takedown and a really weak takedown to end the round.

Round 2:

A lot of clinching to start this round off. Jackson floors Liddell with an uppercut. Back up and Jackson hits another shot and a takedown. At some point Liddell was KOd but I'm not sure where. Round ends 2:00 in. Decent fight though there were some really slow parts. 2 for 3.

WINNER: Quinton Jackson by KO 2:00 into Round 2

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Wanderlei Silva

Hosts are Damon Perry, Bas Rutten and Quinton Jackson

Round 1:

This is basically five minutes of waiting for Silva to connect the big shot that KOs Sakuraba. Sakuraba charges in right away with a few decent shots and Silva responds in the same way. Silva eats a knee after charging in again. Silva gets a takedown after blocking a Sakuraba kick. Sakuraba goes for his own takedown but can't get Silva down. Sakuraba eats some knees from Silva. A long period of jabbing and circling followed by some corner clinching. Silva ends it with a right at 5:00. Would've been better had there actually been some suspense as to who the winner was. 2 for 4.

WINNER: Wanderlei Silva by KO 5:00 into Round 1

Overall:

This was not the way for Pride to try and introduce itself on free tv. The constant "we have the best fighters in the world" statements make them sound like they have an inferiority complex. The Chuck Liddell burial took up 3 segments of the show. With that same time you could've introduced Shogun and Arona who will actually be competing on the PPV this show is trying to sell. Bas Rutten is also a muttering marble mouthed ass and I can't stand him doing commentary. You're lucky if you can understand every third word out of his mouth. Jackson is equally as useless when he's announcing.

They also fucked up big time on introducing someone new to Pride. They at no time tried to explain the Pride rules on the show. Someone new would've been completely lost at times. They also gave you zero reason to care about anyone. Every introduction was "he's the best in the world" or "he has finishing power." Hey, how about something like "this guy has 28 KOs in his career" or "this guy's our heavyweight champion." Actually tell us why they're your best don't just use generic buzz words.

At least it's more free MMA on tv. Though I wish FSN wouldn't edit the shows and actually give them a weekly or at least monthly show.

Whoa, Pride's on FSN? What day/time?

They've got the same deal as the UFC where they get an hour show every 3-4 months. It should be on a lot the rest of this week.

Alright, cool. Very nice review too. You still planning on reviewing college football games?

Yeah, at some point. I just need to actually sit down, pick a game and do it.

Use the Iowa/LSU bowl game from last season. It's a classic.

When was the Liddell fight? I thought he was some badass who never lost, so I'm a little confused. Nice review, by the way. :)

You may be confusing Liddell with Vanderlei Silva, or maybe you haven't seen much MMA. A lot of people new to MMA think Chuck's as bad as it gets, and then you watch Pride and see Silva, Jackson, CroCop, etc. and think Chuck's a pussy.

The Liddell fight was 2 years ago. It was actually the semis so he went through 2 guys to get to that point. Liddell's hot streak didn't start till late 2003/early 2004.

I haven't seen much MMA, so I'm not familiar with some people. I saw some crappy UFC stuff on the Sunshine Network about a year ago, and rented the first 13-14 UFC tapes from 1995-97. I just go by word of mouth when it comes to the top fighters these days.

I loved watching Rampage beat the crap out of Lidell. That fight was never close, and Jackson never really went with his strength, which is wrestling.

I have no problem with the guys Pride chose to spotlight, and I guess they just had to find short fights so that it could fit in an hour-long show. Anyone who saw Sakuraba and Silva's first fight (Cold Fury I believe?) knows what a great fight that was. I guess it's OK to bury Sakuraba at this point as he is kinda getting over the hill, and yes, I do buy into Silva being the baddest man on the planet right now.

I think highlighting Rampage was a bad idea because he's trending downward. I would've showed off Shogun.

I finally got to my DVR'd version of this show yesterday. I must say that I think they did a decent enough job in picking the matches as I think they wanted fights that were action packed and straight to the point. I felt all of the ones that they showed could accomplish this. Although I think they spent too much time on the Lidell/Jackson fight to bury the UFC (although I don't think it would come across as a total burial because of Dana White being on commentary) and they did promote their PPV coming up, but didn't hype up the fights enough for it as they didn't show any kind of list of the fights on the show.

I must say that watching Crocop is a fucking treat. He's one of the few fighters from PRIDE that I've seen before. He's about as badass as they come and he KO'd the fuck out of Igor in this one.

I was also lovin the Fedor/Kazuyuki Fujita fight as I have a hatred of Fujita since he's turned into New Japan's goldboy or whatever. BUT, that's pro wrestling and I was very interested to see Fujita in all his MMA glory. Fedor is another fighter that I'm familiar with (I've seen him in MMA before) and for my money..........he's the best fighter in the world. I know people always bring up Silva and I know they are in different weight classes, but I think Fedor's a total badass. Fujita got in a few nice shots and Fedor was busted open but it was awesome seeing Fedor make the comeback and get the submission. WOW.



I was also curious to see the Sakuraba/Silva fight as I've read some recent stuff in the observer about the history of Sakuraba in MMA. I've never seen Silva before and I also was interested to see what the fuss is about with him. He's a damn good fighter and he of course hit the knockout that I was expecting.

I would have to agree with MD on the thought that it was a weird way to introduce fans to their product. Of course I enjoyed the fights they showed, but there never was one explaination of their rules compared to rules of other MMA companies. I do think from everything I've read and seen that PRIDE is probably the best MMA company in the world. Although I would probably say that I could see UFC being MUCH MUCH bigger in the US, but the best fighters all around are in PRIDE.

A few years ago, Sakuraba was basically untouchable. It was kind of sad for me to see Silva beat him for the first time, though it was a nice little war. Since then Silva has been completely unbeatable.

MD, I do agree that Rampage has been exposed as being an ordinary fighter, but he's a great personality. He'll still win more than he loses, but even in losses, people are gonna want to see him.

I will say this...........Rampage has been on the PPH (it's a radio show on puroresu power where the primary subjects are MMA and Puro) and he's a damn funny guy. He definately comes off as one of the most charasmatic MMA guys in the business.