Nobuhiko Takada's opponent for his return match on PRIDE.11 will be Igor Vovchanchyn. I'm surprised to see this match made now because Takada needs to be rebuilt if he's going to mean much at the gate, but this is yet another fight he no chance of winning. It's also surprising because Takada doesn't like getting his good looks messed up, and you know Igor is going to be pounding him in the face all night unless Takada is able to negotiate one of those agreements again. Takada says the match is because he's faced fighters of other styles in his previous PRIDE matches, so now he wants to face a strongman. Igor beat Severn in the semifinals of the PRIDE Grand Prix tournament, so Takada would be getting revenge for Takada Dojo if he won, although that would take a major miracle or Igor "needing to feed his family."

Yoshiaki Yatsu supposedly tried shooting for the first time on his own SPWF show today, beating Tachihikari, who has been destroyed in PRIDE, with an udehishigigyakujujigatame at 3:12 of the first round.

There seems to be some trouble getting another Gracie to fight Kazushi Sakuraba on 10/31, as they are talking about getting an amateur wrestling gold medalist from the Atlanta Olympics instead. They already have Marc Coleman & Naoya Ogawa from the Barcelona Olympics and Yoshiaki Yatsu from the Montreal Olympics.

Antonio Inoki is urging Tokimitsu Ishizawa to compete in PRIDE again. He can't do any worse...
Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Marc Coleman is supposed to take place on PRIDE.12 in December, so Fujita is looking to wrestle on a major New Japan show in the interim.

Nobuhiko Takada is having his PRIDE "comeback" fight on the 10/31 PRIDE.11 show at Osaka Jo Hall. In light of the Royce Gracie disaster, they need to give Takada an incredibly easy opponent if they want to keep using him because anyone even half assed will take him out and then he'll be worthless when they need him for a big (miss)match. It looks like he might fight his friend Terao, who is a 37-year-old sumo wrestler. I don't know anything about this guy, but if his background is sumo then he probably is more clueless on the mat than Takada.

Yoshiaki Yatsu announced that he'd fight on PRIDE.11 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his pro debut. Yatsu was a great amateur wrestler, representing Japan in the Olympics in 1976 (placed 8th in freestyle wrestling 90 kg division) & 80 (country boycotted). He even went back after he was making good money as a professional and won a Japanese championship in '86. The thing is, he's 44-years-old now and that's awfully old to be doing your first shoot. It will get his dying SPWF promotion some publicity though. Yatsu's opponent for the 10/31 shoot is supposed to be announced next week.

Kazuyuki Fujita may appear in an upcoming UFC. Although Fujita is a big star for DSE and hasn't fought for any other companies since he began shooting this January, it appears that he no longer wants DSE to be his only battle field. The thing is Fujita's name still doesn't mean much in the US and UFC is below subsistence level, so it's a big risk for little reward. If there's one specific guy that he wants to fight then it could start making a lot more sense because UFC contracts don't allow their guys to come to PRIDE, where it would be a much bigger deal, and fight. Fujita is off to Brazil to train for a little while in a judo academy operated by the Gracie family.

Since Kazushi Sakuraba has defeated 3 of Rickson Gracie's family members in a row, DSE would like to make that match for the beginning of next year. The thing they have in their favor is that Rickson takes a lot of pride in the family name, which Sakuraba has seriously blemished of late. There are several things against them though. Rickson has a big payoff on the table next year against Naoya Ogawa, a much larger opponent, but one whose skill doesn't rate in comparison to Sakuraba's and whose vale tudo experience is less than or equal to that of Kendo Kashin, who was just crushed by family member Ryan. Furthermore, Rickson has only been fighting, at most, once a year and never fights any highly ranked fighters (Funaki was highly ranked in Pancrase rules during the early to mid 90's, but was pretty well burnt out by the time he started fighting vale tudo matches).

8/27 Saitama Seibu Dome 32,919
Although this show was a big commercial failure, filling the Dome about half way after 3 1/2 months of promotion, the results did go well for the promotions.
Kazushi Sakuraba beat yet another Gracie, this time Renzo, via ref stop at 9:43 of round 2. Although Sakuraba controlled position, it was a very close fight. The finish came when Sakuraba really locked in his chickenwing arm lock. Renzo didn't submit, but his shoulder was probably dislocated from the move. Seeing this, the ref stopped it immediately and the Gracies didn't even complain, yet. Actually, Renzo tapped after the ref had stopped the match as a way of showing that he accepted the ref's decision. Brazilians Ryan Gracie & Vitor Belfort both challenged Sakuraba after the match. These matches aren't as enticing as Sakuraba's past wins over the Gracie's, but Sakuraba does mean a lot more now than than he did when he beat Royler last November. .
Ryan Gracie made short work of Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kashin), TKO'ing him at 2:16 of round one. Gracie broke Ishizawa's his front guillotine choke attempt, and punched him repeatedly until the ref stopped the fight. As expected, Ishizawa just hasn't been doing this kind of fighting close to enough to compete on this level.
Kazuyuki Fujita defeated Ken Shamrock by TKO at 6:42 when Guy Mezger threw the towel in. Fujita actually had a pretty big size advantage here, but Shamrock was doing business. Fujita wasn't able to do much of anything to him as his takedown attempts were failing, although perhaps that's not totally fair because Shamrock did grab the ropes to avoid Fujita's takedowns more than once. It only resulted in one yellow card, probably because the ref knew no one wanted it end via DQ even though that result may well have been warranted. Anyway, Ken was clocking Fujita almost at will. He hit him in the face with lefts and rights, knocking Fujita's mouth piece out with a right hook. He hit Fujita 9 times in a row, culminating with a knock down from a right uppercut. Fujita even admitted he thought he had no chance of winning at this point, and was prepared to be defeated. Fujita was able to take all the punches Shamrock hit him with though, and he started countering some. Shamrock, like Kerr, apparently just hit the wall. The difference was that Fujita didn't take over and dominate the rest of the fight here because when he backed Ken into the rope, Ken's corner saw he had nothing left and decided it was best to call it a night. After the match, Fujita demanded a fight with PRIDE Grand Prix Champion Marc Coleman.
Masaake Satake TKO'd Kazunari Murakami at 6:58 of round 1. Murakami tried to avoid Satake's strikes because that's Satake's strength and his weakness. He was able to mount Satake for a little while, but couldn't do much with the position. Satake, on the other hand, was able to reign punches until the ref stopped it. Since Murakami is Ogawa's partner, this logically sets up Satake vs. Ogawa. However, Ogawa isnt' likely to take a non work until after the Rickson match, so they'll have to give Satake a few more easy opponents in the meantime if they want to try to draw a big crowd with him.
Igor Vovchanchyn beat Enson Inoue when the doctor stopped the fight after the first round. Enson bloodied Igor under the eye with one good shot, and generally did fine during standup, but once he got taken down Igor really put a hurting on him with the strikes. Impressive win for Igor, really putting a beating on Enson in what going in appeared to be the hardest result to predict since Enson just has a way of winning.
Mark Kerr easily beat Igor Borisov, forcing him to submit to a neck lock at 2:06. Kerr took Borisov down, got the hooks in, and that was it.
Gilbert Yvel somewhat redeemed himself from last shows debacle against Vitor Belfort, knocking Gary Goodridge out with a dynamic high kick 28 seconds into the fight. This is what makes Yvel so dangerous.
Rico Rodriguez made Ochiai submit to a front choke at 6:04 of round 1. Giant was out of his league here.
Vanderlei Silva KO'd Guy Mezger at 3:45 of round 1. Guy was willing to strike with Silva because he had a big reach advantage. This worked well until Silva got in close, where he's lethal, and flurried for the KO.
Vitor Belfort won a lopsided decision over Daijiro Matsui. This was a more mature fight from Belfort, pacing himself properly rather than going for broke. He took Matsui down and used the ground and pound to grind out a 6-0 decision. Dull, but if it works you can't fault it.

Kazuyuki Fujita trained and sparred in Takada Dojo with Don Frye and Kazushi Sakuraba. Fujita is supposed to be in even better shape than usual. Brian Johnston will be Fujita's second for the 8/27 match against Ken Shamrock. Johnston lost a very one-sided bout to Shamrock in the first round of Ken's final shoot tournament, the Ultimate Ultimate '96 on 12/7/96, but Shamrock hurt his hand pounding on Johnston and wasn't able to continue, so we got the infamous Frye vs. Mark Hall semifinal instead.

Masaaki Satake's opponent will be U.F.O.'s Kazunari Murakami. Murakami's claim to fame in shooting is exposing how overrated Bart Vale was on EFC 3 10/18/96 . Vale liked to brag about all his wins, specifically one over Ken Shamrock, but they were a bunch of works that he claimed were real. Maurice Smith tore him up on the next EFC, but Inoki was looking for shooters, so he got Murakami to join up and mainly be a mediocre pro wrestler although Murakami was in the opening match of PRIDE.1. Satake has the size advantage, Murakami probably has more skill, and neither have much experience under these rules.
Satake's student Giant Ochiai will take on 22-year-old Brazilian Rico Rodriguez.

The lineup for PRIDE.10 on 8/27 is as follows:
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Renzo Gracie
Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Ken Shamrock
Tokumitsu Ishizawa (Kashin) vs. Ryan Gracie
Enson Inoue vs. Igor Vovchanchyn
Mark Kerr vs. Igor Borisov
Gilbert Yvel vs. Gary Goodridge
Victor Belfort vs. Daijiro Matsui
Masaaki Satake and Marc Coleman are also supposed to fight, but their oppenents haven't been decided on yet.

Nobuhiko Takada, who previously wasn't going to do any more shoots, announced that he'd return to PRIDE rings before this year is over. His left knee that was "the cause of his defeat" in the Royce Gracie snoozefest on 1/30/00 is completely healed, and Takada is down to 96 kg, which is almost his "best weight.". He's going to attend the 8/27 Seibu Dome show to "watch for a golden opportunity" and then request a match on the October PRIDE.11 show in Osaka or December PRIDE.12 show in Tokyo.

Kazuyuki Fujita is recieving boxing lessons in the gym of former World Super Featherweight Champion Yoshiaki Numata. The goal is to upgrade Fujita's punching power and technique, so they can transform him into "Brutal Cyborg."

With negotiations for the Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Frank Shamrock dream match breaking down, Sakuraba has requested that they don't decide to put him against a heavyweight now. In comparison to what they were trying to put together, any match against a comparable size guy will be a letdown, but fighting guys the size of Vovchanchyn really isn't a good idea for his long term because he'd probably take a lot of punishment even if he won.

Kazuyuki Fujita left for America with Antonio Inoki where he's going to train against "7 assassins" for his PRIDE.10 match against Ken Shamrock. He'll start by sparring with former King Of Pancrase Bas Rutten on 7/13. Fujita will also be working with the man that ended the Royce Gracie myth, Wallid Ismael. The other guys he's working with are "secrets," but one will be a muscular former amateur wrestler and other will be a heavyweight boxer from a Los Angeles gym.

Although no contracts have been signed, DSE President Morishita announced that he was 100% sure that Kendo Kashin would fight on PRIDE.10.

DSE President Naohito Morishita is inviting a bunch of big names that have power in pro wrestling organizations to PRIDE.10. Toshiaki Kawada, Mitsuharu Misawa, Antonio Inoki, Tatsumi Fujinami. It's possible that all will have a wrestler to watch compete, although I tend to doubt anyone from NOAH will fight on the show. Morishita is interested in Steve Williams or Bart Gunn. Williams name on the show would mean something, but his competitive wrestling days were over 15 years ago. His only dabble into shooting, the infamous Brawl For It All which mainly consisted of guys that would be lucky to last 2 minutes in PRIDE, was a total disaster that killed his aura and ruined whatever value he might have had to WWF, not to mention put him on the shelf which is something All Japan can't afford right now. Bart Gunn would be useless because his name on the card sells no extra tickets and he's just a puncher that couldn't last a minute with Butterbean.

DSE President Naohito Morishita is going to attend the 7/1 All Japan show to scout talent. Since many of the All Japan wrestlers, most notably Toshiaki Kawada, have a strong amateur wrestling background, Morishita is interested in proposing a talent exchange. Under Giant Baba, All Japan became an isolationist group because of the problems inherent in working with other promotions, but now there's a real possibility of working with even New Japan because they need all the help they can get. As far as DSE talent working on All Japan shows goes, one would expect it to be the former pro wrestlers like Kazushi Sakuraba, Nobuhiko Takada, and/or Kazuyuki Fujita.

Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Ken Shamrock was signed for the 8/27 Seibu Dome show. Fujita will be doing special training in Europe to prepare for this fight.

DSE tried to book Frank Shamrock vs. Kazushi Sakuraba for the 8/27 Seibu Dome show, but Frank wants it pushed back to maybe November so he has time to do the proper amount of training and preparation.

PRIDE.9 6/4 Nagoya Sogo Taiikukan Rainbow Hall 9,154
DSE President Morishita announced that DSE had reached a business agreement with Antonio Inoki. This is significant because it opens the door for New Japan wrestlers to be on PRIDE shows, which means better attendances since the casual fans that PRIDE draws are mainly wrestling fans who would rather pay to see a big name wrestler without a lot of shooting ability or experience than a guy that is a really good shooter who either was never a pro wrestler or wasn't pushed heavily when they were a wrestler. This probably means that worked matches will return, especially if Shinya Hashimoto is involved or Naoya Ogawa makes his return. They already did an angle where Kendo Kashin was at ringside without his mask and Renzo Gracie asked for a handshake as a contract between the two that they'd fight on PRIDE.10. After much deliberation, Kashin reluctantly shook Gracie's hand. Kashin was a national wrestling champion back in the day and is a very good submission wrestler in a worked sense. However, he's been doing pro wrestling for 8 years without ever doing shoots, so if they meet at the next PRIDE show, I don't see how he can win a shoot (given the proposed opponent, I don't see it being a work).
Although Vitor Belfort couldn't put Gilbert Yvel away, he beat him convincingly en route to a decision win after two 10-minute rounds. Yvel, making his PRIDE debut, excelled under RINGS rules where he could grab the ropes when he was in trouble to get a standup and they'd also stand the fighters up at times if nothing was happening. PRIDE has no rope escapes and very few standups, so Yvel's weaknesses on the mat were a much bigger detriment. Belfort took Yvel down and used repeated punches, opening up a cut around his right eye.
Igor Vovchanchyn beat Daijiro Matsui by doctor stop at 5:03 of round 1. Matsui was bleeding heavily from Igor's punches. The doctor looked at the cut twice, allowed him to continue the first time, but stopped it the second time.
Mark Kerr's training partner Rico Rodriguez won a 20:00 decision over Gary Goodridge. As usual, Goodridge was did little once it went to the mat.
Akira Shoji made John Renken submit to an udehishigigyakujujigatame at 6:44 of round 1.
Naoki Sano was a late replacement for stablemate Minoru Toyonaga, whose career is believed to be over as he's got a brain tumor and is fighting for his life. Sano once again proved that he should stick to works, as Carlos Newton mounted him, took his arm, and went into an udehishigigyakujujigatame for the submission in just 40 seconds.
Allen Goes controlled former Lion's Den fighter Vernon "Tiger" White on the ground en route to a 20:00 decision.
Carlos Baretto won a 20:00 decision over Lion's Den fighter Tra Telligman then challenged Ken Shamrock to a fight.
Former USWF fighter Heath Herring made Willie Peeters submit to a choke sleeper in 48 seconds. Peeters agreed to replace Marcelo Tiger 3 days ago, and was never known to be in great shape when he knew he had a fight coming up.
The show got off to a disasterous start as Johil de Oliviera was severly burned on the way out by the pyrotechnics. He suffered burns on at least his face, chest, and abdomen, resulting in nasty water blisters. Instead of fighting Renzo Gracie protege Matt Serra, he had to be rushed to a Nagoya City hospital where he'll be recouperating for 2-3 weeks. Morishita said that would be the end of the pyro on PRIDE shows because it's not worth risking another accident. Meanwhile, Sting is still coming down from the ceiling for no purpose, gain, or logical reason.
Kazuyuki Fujita, who didn't compete but was one of the announcers on the show said he'd like to fight Ken Shamrock on PRIDE.10. Aside from Fujita & Shamrock, other big names announced as competing on PRIDE.10 are Kazushi Sakuraba, Akira Shoji, Alexander Otsuka, Ensen Inoue, Mark Coleman, Mark Kerr, & Igor Vovchanchyn.

Although Rickson Gracie last worked for rival Colosseum 2000, DSE is trying to put together Rickson vs. Kazushi Sakuraba since Sakuraba defeated Rickson's brother Royce Gracie.

DSE's major PRIDE 10 show at the Seibu Dome in Saitama will be the first PRIDE All Star War. There will be fan balloting to determine which fighters outside of the regulars get to participate. Naoya Ogawa & Shinya Hashimoto are probably going to be on the show. They are trying to get a Nobuhiko Takada and a Shamrock or twol. Kazushi Sakuraba & Kazuyuki Fujita, who are skipping PRIDE. 9 due to injury, will be back for this show.

I saw the North American version of the PPV so I thought I'd make some comments:
The show seemed to be geared toward the hardcores rather than new fans. If you have seen PRIDE before and are up on what has gone on there, but just wanted to see a version of the show where you could understand the announcing then this was a great show. If you had never seen PRIDE before then it had to be really confusing. They did a good job of introducing the fighters with a video feature, but otherwise you were pretty much left out in the cold. They didn't really give you any overview on what was going on, any history about the promotion, or really do anything to get you do understand the magnitude and importance of the show and tournament. They did talk about a lot of previous fights within the commentary, but it was mainly in reference to a specific point or strategy, rather than what UFC does where before their current fight they go over what each fighter has done there with highlights to back it up. Time constraints played a big part in this too because in UFC they always have time to kill, so they spend it trying to give you an idea who the fighters are with their background, strengths, weaknesses, and the tale of the tape to show some similarities and differences. On this show they basically just showed a guys name with his picture or some highlights of him, which is fine, but you need to be talking about the guy as well. One thing that was annoying was they had the time to show highlights of every tournament fight they showed on this PPV before the final, but they didn't do a similar feature for the first round of the tournament so we'd know how they got to where they were. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people didn't realize this wasn't a one-night tournament. They did show clips from some of the first round matches, so it wasn't like they couldn't get the footage, it was like we only have so much time so if this doesn't mean something to you then oh well. The show lacked continuity because all the announcing was apparently done live. They might join a fight in the second round, but instead of doing something to get you up to speed, they just showed round 2 on the bottom and the announcers were calling the match as if you'd been watching it the whole time because they had no way of knowing what was and wasn't going to make the final cut. Aside from the conversation between the three announcers to open the show, the production was worlds better than current UFC. It definitely looked first class, especially the highlight packages in between the fights, and that helped make up for the announcers to some extent. I sound like I'm blaming the announcers, but it's the promotion that has to have them do the features to get the fighters over. Really, even though they went the full 3 hours, there wasn't enough time, but getting the fighters over is the most important thing for getting people who don't just buy based on genre or brand name to buy the shows, so you have to find time somewhere.

PRIDE GRAND PRIX 2000 Tournament Quarterfinals:
Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Gary Goodridge. Goodridge is probably as easy an opponent as Igor can get in PRIDE because he's a predictable, one-dimensional aggressive puncher, and that just plays right into Igor's hand. This was basically a boxing match. The whole fight was standup with no kicks thrown. Goodridge got a few shots in, but really never did any damage. As usual, Igor won it with his counter punching.
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Royce Gracie. In this form, it was really entertaining. Gracie was far more aggressive than I expected. His problem was that he had nothing that could get past Sakuraba's defense and hurt him or make him think about submitting. The first round was all action, and Gracie was in control most of the time, but really, since there was no judges to worry about, Sakuraba was letting Gracie wear himself out trying to find something that would work. Gracie punched a lot more than in his UFC days, but it was totally quantity over quality. Sakuraba played a lot of mind games with Gracie, trying to pull his gi for instance, and did some entertainment like doing Mongolian chops when he was on top. He invented a few new moves. At one point, he pulled Gracie's GI so he was in the finishing position of a Tenryu style powerbomb then threw punches down. Late in the fight, he did a jumping punch when Gracie was in butt scoot position, but Gracie kicked him before he could get back up. As time wore on Gracie was taking punishment every time they engaged. Sakuraba's low kicks to Gracie's left leg were hobbling him, but he was doing damage all over with punches and kicks. He never came close to a knockout, but it got to the point where Gracie was dreading engagement because he knew it just meant more punishment. By the 6th round Gracie was getting tagged every time he tried to do anything, and he could only back up so far before he was to the ropes and had to face Sakuraba. I give Gracie credit for his heart, but toward the end of the 6th round it was getting counterproductive for him to hang around and just keep taking punishment. His corner considered throwing the towel in during the round, but didn't wind up doing so until the round had ended. The fans went nuts when Sakuraba finally put an end to the Royce Gracie myth, and this is a match that will still be talked about 50 years from now.
Mark Coleman vs. Akira Shoji. Shoji just got punched the whole fight, both in standup and when Coleman was using his famous ground and pound. Shoji's left side/rib was all bruised up and there was discoloration and a lot of swelling around his eyes. Shoji did nothing offensively or to disrupt Coleman. Due to this, Coleman was able to pace himself so he never gassed and got an easy decision after 15:00.
Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Mark Kerr. Kerr was dominating early with ground and pound, and also did a couple of deadly knee lifts, but at some point I guess he totally blew up and Fujita started having his way with him. Fujita outwrestled Kerr in the second half and hit him with a lot of punches. The thing is Fujita is basically still nothing but a wrestler, so he squanders tons of opportunities and his strikes don't do much damage. From what I saw, I'd give the round to Fujita, but nothing he did made me think that they shouldn't have sent them out for another round.

Super Fight: Masaake Satake vs. Guy Mezger. It appeared that Guy controlled one of his typically boring fights, but they barely showed any of it.

PRIDE GRAND PRIX 2000 Tournament Semifinals: Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Kazushi Sakuraba. Sakuraba deserves a ton of credit because despite giving up all the size and power and having fought about 9 as many minutes in the first round due to the goofy Gracie rules, he won the first 11 minutes of the fight. He couldn't take Igor in stand up, but he was able to get him down a couple times and once they were on the ground Sakuraba it was Sakuraba's fight. Sakuraba was standing over him and doing some damage with punches. You could see even when Sakuraba was on offense that he was physically spent. His conditioning was great, but after an hour and forty minutes it's hard for anyone not to hit the wall. Anyway, if Sakuraba had the energy he would have been more active here and Igor was pretty much a turtle on his back today, so in my opinion he would have been able to stay in a controlling position for 4 more minutes and win a decision. What actually happened was Igor got up and belly-to-back suplexed Sakuraba, never releasing so he'd control him on the mat and throw punches. Sakuraba was just counting the seconds until the round ended while he tried his best to cover up. Igor was wisely aggressive here, and landed enough punches to cut Sakuraba and get the judges to call for another round. Nobuhiko Takada was smart to throw the towel in because Sakuraba was verging on collapse and he'd already accomplished the main thing, so it was better for him to think about his bright future than to take a bunch of punches because he was too exhausted to be able to even compete with Igor a much fresher Igor.
Mark Coleman vs. Kazuyuki Fujita. Fujita's knee was all taped up and his corner threw the towel in before they even touched. This was essentially a forfeit, but the only way for an injured fighter to get paid for losing in the next round is to go out there and make a farce out of the tournament.

Super Fight: Ken Shamrock vs. Alexander Otsuka. Shamrock didn't fear Otsuka, so he was more aggressive than in the past. His striking was better than it used to be, and he clearly won standup before taking Otsuka down into the mount and throwing punches. Otsuka got back to his feet after escaping an arm lock, but Shamrock totally outboxed him, cutting Alex under the eye and bloodying his nose, before finally KO'ing him with a flurry of punches. Otsuka really wasn't a test for Shamrock, but this was much more exciting than typical Ken.

PRIDE GRAND PRIX 2000 Tournament Final: Mark Coleman vs. Igor Vovchanchyn. Aside from Mezger vs. Satake, Coleman's fights were the only ones that weren't enjoyable. I don't fault Coleman for having a boring style as much as I fault his opponents for not being able to do anything to stop him from exerting his will. The supposed top heavyweight in the world did absolutely nothing to stop Coleman from just going about business like he did against the not particularly talented Shoji. Coleman is limited when it comes to technique because he really has no submissions, and his only punches are right hand power shots, but he fought as smart of a fight as he's going to fight. He took Igor down so Igor had no chance to counterpunch and then kept him down, bruising his left rib up with punches at a steady pace. He did try for an armbar, but he could never get it applied right, so it just put Igor in some pain. Igor didn't move around on the mat at all, so Coleman basically hit him whenever it was convenient. I thought Igor's only chance was to get off to a good start in the second round, but when Coleman slammed him to the mat right away you knew it was only a matter of time for Igor. The finish came when Igor was pretty much trapped in the corner and Coleman was standing over him. The thing is they were facing opposite directions so when Coleman started dropping knees they were right to the top of Igor's head. Igor covered up so they didn't really do much damage, but he couldn't improve his position at all, so it was either tap or lie there and get kneed in the arms or head all night. Igor wisely chose the former. Igor was definitely at a disadvantage when it came to stamina because Sakuraba gave him a tough fight, while Coleman fought a punching bag and then got a free pass, but from what I saw here there would have been a lot better chance of Sakuraba beating Igor if all things were equal than of Igor beating Coleman. Coleman has definitely improved because he understands how to stay within himself, which is mainly pacing himself because he's still as physically dominating as just about anyone in the sport. I still think Coleman is very beatable, but it's not going to happen unless you can stop him from taking you down or make him burn most of his gas while he's controlling you, the latter of which is seemingly getting harder to do although you can't really say that when his opponents didn't seem to try to beat him the way others have.

What Fighters Should Eat - Protein But Skip the Meatloaf!
Classic Meatloaf Recipe - Ingredients include lean ground beef, breadcrumbs, milk, seasonings
Best Diet for MMA Fighters - Lean meats, organic dairy, veggies/fruit, nuts/beans/seeds