Great night of fights! Randleman knocked Crocop TFO!
Anyone watch it?
http://mmaweekly.com/images/PrideGP/Randleman_Victory17PrideWs.jpg
I saw it. I liked it. A lot of people I know didn’t though.
I can’t wait for the next one.
Only the randleman win was a surprise to me. But I always knew this guy can knock anyone out and take anyone down, he just needs to get it together and let it fly.
Really good show. Together with the Klitschko fight Sat might, it was a great weekend of fighting.
Pro wrestling websites in Japoan and here are abuzz with the theory that Ogawa vs Leko was a work, since all of Ogawa’s victories have been fishy and he’s a popular pro wrestler. Plus, Leko is world KB champion, and he barely put up a fight.
Silva’s match is suspicious as well.
But if it was legit, it was amazing that he and Schillt won by sunbmission. 7+ guys wining by submission? WTF??
Randleman is so damn inconsistent, he knocks out Crocop but taps easily to Sakuraba and Ninja(?). I feel he got lucky with that punch, throwing it perfectly and hitting the perfect spot.
Crocop’s fault though: he is very cautious at the beginning of all his matches, and barely threw a strike.
Yokoi was PHENOMENAL in going toe to toe for 10 minutes, on the ground, with a 2x time World JiuJitsu Champion, escaping numerous times, sometimes easily,
from submissions. BUt his striking is horrible, and he showed no submission ability.
Lot of work ahead of him
Cro Cop normally keeps his hands hand in K1, but pretty low in MMA to guard the takedown. Fighting Randleman you’ld be looking for the takedown. Randleman fought real smart, fake shot to left hook was nice, and just went ballistic with the hammerfists.
You’re right JP, he set it up perfectly but I still think he got lucky and hit the Sunday punch right on the button.
THen, the roid rage kicked in and it was all over; )
THose hammerfists were just the icing on the cake, Crocop was out COLD.
ANd how f’n lame was Henry Miller? THe guy is training wih Sakuraba and that’s all he had to offer?
ANd why is he in the Grand Prix along with Silva?
Probably just because of Inoki’s fondness for freaks!
There are def 2 other good hwts that could be plugged in. Oh well
http://members.home.nl/kevin.chin/Pride%20GP%202004%20-%20CroCop%20vs%20Randleman.WMV
found this link to the whole (short) fight. i like the ref cam thing.
Didn’t see the fight but watched the highlights.
Over at sherdog a thread illustrates what happened in a series of stills.
Crocop looks to throw his trademark left roundhouse as randleman drops his right hand.
Then as Mirko slighly hesitates and lifts his rear leg, BANG randleman nails him with a stupendous left hook.
Lights out. Kickboxers often drop their hands before throwing a kick and this is why crocop came a cropper.
I don’t think it was a fluke but excellent timing of kevins most dangerous strike, his left hook.
So Fedor vs Nogeira in the finals it seems. I pick Fedor by TKO.
–Today’s poll on who will be the eventual winner of the Pride Grand Prix:
Heath Herring 5.3%
Sergei Kharitonov 0.9% – this guy is seriously underrated
Giant Silva 8.8% – That’s the percentage of pranksters and people who need their visual skills tested
Semmy Schilt 0.0%
Naoya Ogawa 4.4%
Kevin Randleman 7.9%
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 43.0%
Fedor Emelianenko 29.8%
The only thing I see as messing up that final up is if someone gets hurt in one of the quarterfinal matches. Otherwise I’m thinking Fedor by decision, unless Nogueira tries to duke it out and then it’s Fedor by face-breakage.
just watched some of it on tape.
I really liked that reverse arm triangle that Nogieura pulled. I am gonig have to try and incorporate it into my game.
The armbar by that guy who fought Coleman was also sweet. It was so smooth, he just spun right into it. Thats how it should be done.
anton
I enjoyed the show, the fights ended a litle too quick, but I do prefer finishes over decisions.
I don't think any of the fights were works. Leko is suffering from a herniated disc and was concerned with defending the takedown, so he was vulnerable to strikes and once the fight hit the ground he stood no chance against a judo olympic silver medalist such as Ogawa. On top of that the strike he received was on the temple. Moreover, the energy of the strike would have travelled down his vertebral column making the punch that much more significant to his back injury. As far as Silva vs. Sentoryu, both have next to no skill, so Sentoryu not knowing how to defend the kimura is understandable.
I think Sergei, other than Fedor and Mino is the one to watch. In fact I'm going to go out on a limb and predict a Sergei victory if he faces anybody but Fedor.
Fights were great, except for Ninja getting KO’d, but he always is exciting to watch, he gives 110% everytime
Minotauro will win the GP