Did anybody else watch the Pride fights?

[Archaea]

There were some brutal submissions, but not as much slugging as in UFC.

The 1996 Judo champion from Poland got whupped from a some US wrestler.

[RockyBalboa]

Originally Posted by Archaea

There were some brutal submissions, but not as much slugging as in UFC.

The 1996 Judo champion from Poland got whupped from a some US wrestler.

Didn't Rulon Gardner fight in that? I saw something brief over the weekend while switching channels and he was throwing a beat down on some Japanese guy. Afterwards Jay Glazer and the other commentator were mentioning at how shocked they were that Gardner handled that veteran with such ease.

[Archaea]

I don't believe it was Rulon, but a lighter wrestler.

[Surfah]

Originally Posted by RockyBalboa

Didn't Rulon Gardner fight in that? I saw something brief over the weekend while switching channels and he was throwing a beat down on some Japanese guy. Afterwards Jay Glazer and the other commentator were mentioning at how shocked they were that Gardner handled that veteran with such ease.

I know Rulon fought some time ago in Japan in an MMA event. Not sure if it was Pride or what but he beat up a Japanese fighter pretty good. IIRC, that was his one and only MMA fight.

[Surfah]

This is from MMAweekly.com last week:

Pride actually spent several months earlier this year trying to come to an agreement with Gardner to fight Fedor Emelianenko in the main event of the Pride USA show, with the belief that the fight would be a big draw in the United States, Japan, and Russia. When negotiations with Gardner didn't progress after several months, Pride started to look for other possible opponents to face Emelianenko in the main event, and eventually Mark Coleman was signed as Emelianenko's opponent.

Even though Gardner is not fighting on this particular card, just the fact that Pride appeared to have come to financial terms with Gardner is a likely indicator that we'll be seeing Gardner compete in at least one more Pride fight in the future. With that in mind, it's a safe bet that at some point Pride will begin to push hard once again to put together a match-up between Gardner and Fedor Emelianenko.

Gardner has one MMA fight under his belt, a decision victory over Hidehiko Yoshida on December 31st, 2004 in a Pride fight in which Yoshida suffered a broken foot.

Gardner showed no interest in having anymore MMA fights after that, partially because he said he didn't feel comfortable in MMA and partially because he given two yellow cards during the Yoshida fight, which took away 20 percent of his pay.