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| Pride 19 and 20 |
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| Written by Administrator | |
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PRIDE 19: BAD BLOOD
The DVD opens with footage of in-ring interviews conducted two days earlier when Ken Shamrock and Don Frye almost came to blows in the ring over their differences. Tom Erikson v Tim Catalfo Erikson opened the fight with a big slam on Catalfo and never looked back as he forced the tap out within three minutes with a rear naked choke. Alex Stiebling v Wallid Ismail This was a decent fight which started well but went the distance largely due to periods of inactivity. Pele v Carlos Newton This fight appeared livelier than the previous two in the opening minutes and the fight really came to life a few minutes in when Newton locked in a very tight armbar but Pele somehow escaped and levelled Newton with a soccer kick. Neither looked particularly in control of the other but Newton picked up the win when another armbar attempt was more successful. Heath Herring v Igor Vovchanchyn This fight started off as an action packed encounter as both men pummelled the other as they traded spells of dominance in the first round, although the second and third rounds were contested at a slower pace as the fight went the distance. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira v Enson Inoue This was an interesting battle between two of the top fighters in Pride at the time and the groundwork from both men was impressive, with both of them throwing bombs while on the deck. Inoue successfully escaped several submission attempts from Nogueira but a very tight triangle choke eventually earned Nogueira the victory. Wanderlei Silva v Kiyoshi Tamura Silva dominated a mediocre ground based opening round. The second round started lively with an exchange of punches and kicks. After spending a minute or so on the ground, they returned to their feet and Silva KO’d Tamura with a beautiful right hook. Ken Shamrock v Don Frye Prior to this match, a replay of the aforementioned interviews was shown. New footage of interviews of each man was shown and the event was aptly named as there was clearly a lot of bad blood between them. Frye seemed to surprise Shamrock early with his power as he landed a lot of hard body shots on Shamrock. After treading shots for minutes, Shamrock took down Frye and locked the foot. Shamrock tried in vein to get the leverage needed to earn the submission victory and while lesser men would have tapped, Frye made it to the bell. There was little worth mentioning in the second round but the third round started superbly as both men threw punches until Frye knocked down Shamrock and Frye followed Shamrock to the mat to pound on him. Shamrock wriggled free and locked in a heel lock to try and win by submission but once again, Frye was too stubborn to tap and the outcome was handed to the judges. Despite all of the animosity between the pair of them, Shamrock and Frye embraced before the decision. PRIDE 20: ARMED & READY Pride 20 opened with a segment featuring commentators Bas Rutten & Stephen Quadros which I assume was a spoof on The Matrix. Quadros actually did a great version of Agent Smith. It was a different way of analysing the fights and probably shouldn’t have worked but it actually did, for me at least. When they broke character to promote Rutten’s DVD, Bas showed his comedy side. Bob Sapp v Norihisa Yamamoto Sapp started well with a good uppercut and nailed Yamamoto with another big uppercut moments later. A couple of minutes and several hard shots later, Sapp was declared the winner by KO after a flurry of punches. Quinton Jackson v Masaaki Satake This fight showed Jackson’s trademark slams as he took Satake to the canvas within a couple of minutes and followed up with some hard knee shots on the deck. Jackson dominated on the ground and when Satake struggled back to his feet, Jackson executed a pro wrestling german suplex which kept Satake down and the referee called for the bell on the seven minute mark. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira v Yusuke Imamura Nogueira quickly locked in a guillotine and earned the tap out victory after 35 seconds. Ricardo Arona v Dan Henderson This was a good fight that went the distance. There was nothing spectacular about the fight but there was little inactivity throughout. Murilo ‘Ninja’ Rua v Mario Sperry Sanae Kikuta v Alexander Otsuka Two of the top fighters in the world went at it in a long and eventful battle. The fight was contested for five 3 minute rounds instead of Pride’s usual round structure. CroCop nailed Silva with a devastating kick which sparked Silva into life and both fighters and the crowd exploded. The second round started as quickly and aggressively as the fight’s opener as two of the best strikers in mixed martial arts went toe to toe. As the rounds went on, neither the style nor the pace changed too much as the crowd got behind every punch and kick. Summary: Pride 19 was not short of it’s highlights but Pride 20 is where your money is well spent in this double DVD release. Nogueira v Enson Inoue and, to a lesser extent, Pele v Carlos Newton were the best fights for me on Pride 19. There was a great deal of emotion in the main event between Frye and Shamrock but I think there were better fights on the card. Pride 20 had Quentin Jackson at his best with a couple of amazing slams and it showcased four entertaining fights that went the distance, including the amazing Ninja v Sperry war and the battle of two of the world’s best between Wanderlei Silva and Mirko CroCop. The longer fights don’t compromise quality for quantity like so many other MMA fights that go the distance tend to do. A recommended buy at £14.99 for six hours worth of footage, most of which is exciting and action packed.
Product ID: PRIDEDB010 CLICK HERE TO BUY THIS DVD @ SILVERVISON NOW Reviewed by Paul Fahey |
