Having just watched the first round of the Open weight Pride Grand Prix I have put pen to paper and put together a list of random ramblings regarding the Pride Grand Prix show that took place on the 25th of April. One big upset mixed in with a mixed bag of fights that included fighters that had no business in the Pride Grand Prix came off with well…Mixed results. On the plus side was Sergei Kharatonov vs Murilo Rua which is the early front runner for fight of the year, even though it only lasted half of the first round it packed enough action to fill a twenty minute contest. On the minus side, Sentoryu vs. Giant Silva, two people that don’t even use their real names, mixing it up in a less then impressive fashion Surely it is a shame that either of these fighters will be moving on when Mirko Filipovic, and Mark Coleman will be sitting on the sidelines.

Contrary to what many people believed, one member of the Hammer house will be moving on in the next round of the Heavyweight grand prix and representing Ohio in the biggest tournament of it’s kind in the world. In the upset of the night Kevin Randleman, coming off of two consecutive losses to Quinton Jackson and Kazushi Sakuraba, ( who lost to Filipovic in the past), shocked the MMA world by defeating “Cro Cop”, and defeating him soundly. Not only did he win the fight, he knocked him out on the feet and finished the job on the ground early in the first round. Surely this is a turn of events that few save his direct family could have predicted. The Hammer house is represented and represented well in the next round, if Randleman is hot he has shown that he can compete at the highest level. “The Monster” has taken over the mantle of “Dark Horse” in this tournament and in the meantime his stock, as well as his rankings in the top ten rise in turn. Congratulations to Randleman, he will have his hands full in the next round, but he has put himself back in the mix, a concept that was fleeting only a few short months ago. 

Fedor Emelianenko impressed with the slick transition off his back into the fight ending armbar, an armbar that few including Mark Coleman saw coming. An armbar that was almost as shocking as Randleman’s Cro Cop Crushing haymaker to end all haymakers. Emelianenko proved that his ground and pound attack, an attack that was ushered in by Coleman in the early days of the UFC, was not the lone tool in his dangerous skill set. Win impressively he did, and he moves on as the early favorite to take home the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix belt to match the Heavyweight belt that currently sits on his mantleplace. Now that Filipovic is out of the picture, his most dangerous rival looks to be Rodrigo Nogueira, a man whom he has already defeated soundly in the past. Some people had been wondering how his transition from the Russian Top Team to the Red Devil team would affect him, but at this point he looks like the same, calm, dangerous, expressionless self. On paper it looks like his tournament to lose.

Coleman looked solid in the fight but ran into a fighter that was just too good at too many things, but having seen him compete, it is not out of the question to see him back competing at a high level. He was competitive until the fight ending submission and even had Emelianenko’s back at one point, and for all intents and purposes took down the Russian at will. I feel that a few adjustments could put him back in the mix, but can an old dog learn new tricks? No-one knows how much longer his body will hold up either, he has been though many wars and if he does indeed call it a career he should be applauded as one of the true pioneers of the sport of MMA and a man that ushered in a new wave of fighters into MMA.

I don’t know if it was just me but I did not feel that Rodrigo Nogueira looked like he was at the top of his game against Hirotaka Yokoi. I don’t know if it was because Yokoi was that good and better then anyone expected, or because Nogueira knew that he had the easier road to the next round and relaxed a little bit in his training. In any case I feel that he will need to kick it up a notch if he is interested in defeating Emelianenko if the two juggernauts meet up at some point in the Grand Prix. The formerly undefeated Yokoi did show some impressive skills, including solid submission defense, but cardio was his enemy. If it is any consolation to him, he will go down in history as the first person to be caught in the “Reverse Arm Triangle” in Pride, if not everywhere. In a day and age where Pride is doing everything it can to usher in quality new Japanese blood you have to wonder if Pride is squandering a quality Japanese fighter who looks like he should be fighting in the Middleweight tournament and not the open weight tournament. With the proper adjustments he could be a force as a middleweight (light heavyweight) in the future. As far as Nogueira goes, although he didn’t look as sharp as he has in the past, you have to be impressed by his interesting submission, you can be sure that the Jiu Jitsu gyms around the world will have a new technique to show off to the up and coming practitioners of the future. Congratulations to Nogueira who pulled off THE submission of the year to date.

One of the early candidates for fight of the year is in the books and Sergei Kharatonov and Murilo Rua left it all in the ring. I feel that the size and reach advantage worked heavily in the favor of the tough Russian fighter and he did just what he needed to do to win the fight. He used his size and reach advantage to knock out the always entertaining Rua, but not before getting smacked in the face several times for his efforts. Rua showed the heart of a champ and although he came up short on this day, I am sure he will find his way back to his more natural Light Heavyweight division and into the mix once again. I feel that the extra weight worked against him and he didn’t look as spry as he has in the past. In any case there is no shame in this loss and hopefully we will see him soon.

All in all the Pride event was a solid one but I didn’t feel it had as many compelling matchups as the Pride Middleweight tournament of last year. The strongest fight of the night was easily the Kharatonov / Rua fight, a fight where Kharatonov went a long way in legitimizing himself in the minds of the fans who have yet to see him in active competition. At this point it is looking like a 5 horse race with Kharatonov, Herring, Nogueira, Emelianenko, and Randleman looking like the early favorites, but anything can happen. The matchups that will round out the next round will play a huge role in who will advance, but Semmy Schilt, Giant Silva, and Ogawa have to be considered the heavy underdogs at this point. Schilt has already lost to Fedor, and Nogueira in the recent past. Ogawa has never fought or beaten a credible opponent in MMA ever and some of the wins he currently has have been called into question. Silva has only two fights to his name and lost to fellow cardmate Heath Herring only four months ago.Any which way the brackets fall I think it is fair to say everyone is waiting in anticipation for the next round. -MMARR-

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