Pride 33 (Vegas) Thread...

[MajorMike]

Are Pride and MMA or UFC or whatever the same thing? Or is this just like the 9 different belts for the same class in boxing?

[LEONARD]

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is the sports...

There are many org's or leagues...the main 2 are:

UFC - being the biggest in the US

Pride Fighting Championship (Pride FC) - being the biggest in Japan (now making it's way to the US)

Pride and UFC have their own champs at each weight class, except for 170 lbs because Pride doesn't have that division (difference mainly due to the system used, ie lbs vs kgs)

Others like:

Internaitonal Fighting League (IFL) being a new US league that's built on a team system. Fights air on FSN...

WEC (which was bought by the UFC owners and is now kind of like the UFC minor league). Fights used to air on HDNet, but are now going to Vs (used to OLN)...

Bodog's owner started BodogFight in 2006 and it's landed some big fighters for this year. Started online last year with 1 PPV and will have PPV's this year...

Exite Extreme Combat (Elite XC) is a new org that will be on Showtime this year...first card is this Saturday. (UFC will have 3 or 4 cards on HBO also)

and there are dozens and dozens of smaller org's that aren't on TV...

[LEONARD]

-Joachim Hansen (#7 LW) vs. Jason Ireland added...

http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/...articleid=3391

[LEONARD]

[LEONARD]

Pride 33 bio videos for Wand and Dan Henderson...

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?t=511476

[LEONARD]

Josh Barnett will be in the booth in the place of Trigg since he's fighting on this card...

http://www.pridefc.com/pride2005/ind...s&news_id=1001

[LEONARD]

-Wanderlei Silva (#3 LHW) vs. Dan Henderson (#6 MW)
-Takanori Gomi (#1 LW) vs. Nick Diaz (#9 WW)
-Shogun (#2 LHW) vs Overeem (#10 LHW)
-Hayato Sakurai (#2 LW) vs. Mac Danzig (from KOTC)
-Kazuo Misaki (#4 MW) vs. Frank Trigg
-Kazuhiro Nakamura (#9 LHW) vs. Travis Wiuff
-Little Nog (#5 LHW) vs. Rameau Sokoudjou (Team Quest)
-Sergei Kharitonov (#10 HW) vs Gilbert Yvel
-Joachim Hansen (#7 LW) vs. Jason Ireland
-Sergei Kharitonov (#10 HW) vs. Gilbert Yvel (dependent on NSAC granting Yvel a license, which is questionable due to Yvel's previous assault of a referee)

-Kazuyuki Fujita vs. TBA

Cung Le and Wes Sims have been removed from the "TBA" list...

I'm starting to kick myself for not going to this one...

13/20 fighters in the top 10...with 6 of them going head to head with other top 10's (2 cross-weight class). I like a lot of the matchups. I think Nog and Hansen will have easy fights and Nak-Wiuff could be fairly boring, but otherwise I think we'll have some excellent fights...

I really hope Sergei gets to fight...

[LEONARD]

Yvel rejected...
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/...articleid=3447

Hopefully they can match Sergei up with somebody...

[cornbread]

^^^That's disappointing. This could have been a very exciting match. Who could they throw at Sergei at this point???

[LEONARD]

Fujita is the only HW that was rumor'd to be on the card with no matchup...I'd be fine with that...

Paul Buentello is rumor'd too...

[cornbread]

I would love to see Buentello mix it up with Sergei.

Here's the story on the suspension of Yvel and a few others.


Friday, February 16, 2007
by Sherdog.com Staff

The Nevada State Athletic Commission Friday morning revoked, denied and suspended the licenses of several mixed martial artists, NSAC chairman Keith Kizer confirmed to Sherdog.com.

Kevin Randleman (Pictures) had his license pulled as a result of a dubious urinalysis following his loss to Mauricio Rua (Pictures) in PRIDE. The former UFC heavyweight champion, recently in the hospital with kidney troubles, provided a sample free of human hormones, which the NSAC took as Randleman providing a fake sample. For this his license was revoked. Randleman can reapply for a license any time after Oct. 21, 2007.

Dutch heavyweight Gilbert Yvel (Pictures) was denied a license to fight because of what Kizer called "inexcusable behavior" stemming for an incident in 2004 in which Yvel struck a referee in the ring. Had the the veteran fighter been granted a license, he would have likely fought on next week's PRIDE card in Las Vegas.

The NSAC handed down its fifth suspension for diuretics when welterweight Thiago Alves (Pictures) was given an eight-month penalty, the standard suspension for a positive test of this kind. Alves' suspension comes after he fought on a Dec. 30, 2006 UFC card.

Also, the commission temporarily suspended Joe Pearson (Pictures) and Kit Cope (Pictures), both losers in WEC le fights on Jan. 20, after each tested positive for banned substances.

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=6780

[Mr Dio]

[LEONARD]

I would love to see Buentello mix it up with Sergei.

Here's the story on the suspension of Yvel and a few others.

That would definitely be entertaining...

I think Randleman is done...a yr suspension at his age with all of his health problems?? Has anybody fought tougher compe ion in their career than Randleman??

Loss Shogun
Loss Kazuhiro Nakamura
Loss Mirko Filipovic
Loss Ron Waterman
Loss Fedor Emelianenko
Win Mirko Filipovic
Loss Kazushi Sakuraba
Loss Quinton Jackson
Win Murilo Rua
Win Renato Sobral
Loss Chuck Liddell
Loss Randy Couture
Win Pedro Rizzo
Win Pete Williams
Loss Bas Rutten
Win Maurice Smith

He certainly doesn't back down from tough matchups...

Preview by Stephen Quadros...
http://www.budovideos.com/shop/custo....php?pageid=88

[LEONARD]

Countdown to Pride 33...

Part 1
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...24734443920310
Part 2
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...30279272759916
Part 3
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...99433674447244

and rumor is that Sergei's opponent will be "Warpath"...
http://www.sherdog.com/fightfinder/f...FighterID=8310

he sucks, but he'll take a fight on short notice, and he'll take a beating. Oh well, it's better than Sergei not getting to fight I suppose...

Trigg will go to the booth after his fight...
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/...articleid=3457

What if he's too busted up to talk? I'm curious to see how Joshi Barnetto does...

[IX_Equilibrium]

Warpath?

Oh Lord, that guy???

[LEONARD]

Damn...I won 4 tickets to Pride 33...can I figure out a way to get there??? hmmmmmmmm

Wand and Hendo on Beatdown Radio...
http://www.sherdog.com/news/radio.asp?id=135

And Sergei vs Warpath is off...so only 8 fights now...

The NSAC really s Pride around big-time...

[LEONARD]

I plugged in some different combo's at UNLVTickets.com and it doesn't look like it's going too well. Keep in mind, these are for groups of tickets together, not just scattered in that price range...

Tried 1 ticket ($67 - corner balccony) - yes
Tried 2 tickets ($67) - no

Tried 1 tickets ($147 - balcony) - yes
Tried 2 tickets ($147) - yes
Tried 4 tickets ($147) - yes
Tried 8 tickets ($147) - yes
Tried 12 tickets ($147) - yes
Tried 20 tickets ($147) - no

Tried 2 tickets ($347 - corner/end plaza) - yes
Tried 4 tickets ($347) - yes
Tried 8 tickets ($347) - yes
Tried 12 tickets ($347) - yes
Tried 20 tickets ($347) - yes
Tried 30 tickets ($347) - yes
Tried 40 tickets ($347) - no

Tried 1 ticket ($697 - courtside/center plaza) - yes
Tried 2 tickets ($697) - yes
Tried 4 tickets ($697) - yes
Tried 8 tickets ($697) - yes
Tried 12 tickets ($697) - yes
Tried 20 tickets ($697) - no

Tried 1 ticket ($697 - floor) - no

It's ashame that Pride US isn't doing much to market their events. I think this will be the last Pride US event even though 2 more are already scheduled.

I'd like to attend more events, so it would suck if that were the case. However, from a pure fighting aspect I'd rather see them fight in Japan with full rules. It's really watered down too much when they fight here. I really don't like the idea of le fights here without Pride rules...

I guess we'll see what happens...

For now, I can't wait for this weekend's PPV...

[LEONARD]

Kazuhiro Nakamura vs Travis Wiuff off due to an injury for Nak. Hopefully they can find a fill-in for Travis for a ninth fight at least...

and Sergei is on, against this guy...
http://www.sherdog.com/fightfinder/f...ighterID=20552

Well, at least Sergei will gain some new fans with a HL reel KO of that guy. How is it that the NSAC refected Fujita vs Wes Simms, but allows Sergei to fight this dude???

[IX_Equilibrium]

So are you going or not, Leonard?

[desflood]

Take my husband with you. Get him out of my hair for a day or two

[LEONARD]

LOL...

Nah, too much $hit going on right now...I'll be PPV'ing it...

[LEONARD]

Looks like we get a ninth fight afterall...

James Lee will take Nak's spot at the last minute...
http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=6796
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/...articleid=3479

Trigg video interview
http://www.sherdog.com/videos/videos.asp?v_id=1086

Gomi - Diaz promo video...Gomi didn't do much at his public training session yesterday. Rumor is that he has a broken finger but will still fight.
http://www.prideofficial.com/events/pride33/special/

[cornbread]

If Trigg beats Misaki is does that mean Trigg is "back"? Coming off the victory over Mayhem, this would be huge for him.

[LEONARD]

I think so...Misaki is no joke, although his "WW Grand Prix" le from 2006 is a little misleading in my opinion. Paul Filho completely dominated him but couldn't continue for the final fight due to his knee injury...so Misaki got to face an injured Kang who would probably win that fight most of the time...