Millenium Fighting Arts INOKI BOM-BA-YE 12/31 Osaka Dome 42,753
In a special exhibition match, Antonio Inoki drew Renzo Gracie 5:00.
Nobuhiko Takada & Keiji Muto beat Ken Shamrock & Don Frye when Takada pinned Frye in a backdrop hold at 24:14. Muto is a skinhead now. Although Takada & Muto got along fine, Takada would still like to have that decisive third singles match with him sometime in 2001.
Kazushi Sakuraba made Kendo Kashin submit to an udegatame at 19:17. Sakuraba came out in a Kashin mask and used some pro wrestling moves like the dropkick, German suplex, & plancha. They are trying to make this a controversial finish to help Kashin. Kashin was trying to superplex Sakuraba, but Sakuraba stopped it and applied an arm lock for the win. Since they were in the corner and ropes, I guess the idea is there should have been a break.
Mark Coleman & Mark Kerr beat Takashi Iizuka & Yuji Nagata when Coleman made Nagata submit to a kesagatame at 12:29.
Naoya Ogawa beat Tadao Yasuda by ref stop in 1:38.
Shinya Hashimoto made Gary Goodridge submit to a gyakukataebigatame at 9:04. After the match, Hashimoto provoked Ogawa in hope of getting another rematch, leading to a skirmish between the two in the ring. Still, Masaaki Satake is the only person Ogawa is currently offering a rematch.
Bas Rutten & Alexander Otsuka defeated Naoki Sano & Ricco Rodriguez when Bas made Sano submit at 14:43.
The Great Sasuke & Daijiro Matsui beat Akira Shoji & Kaoru Uno when Sasuke la magistralled Uno at 20:00.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara made Justin McCully submit to a haragatame at 10:10.
Atsushi Onita was outside the front entrance of the building a little after 6 p.m. Aside from the usual nonsense, he promoted his first match of 2001, a no rope barbed wire street fight that would headline the indy show at Tokyo Differ Ariake starting at midnight on 1/1. Unless the fans who were already outside the building (and probably had tickets) boycotted the Inoki show, there's no way they'd make it from Osaka to Tokyo for his show.

Antonio Inoki is removing his ban on the masho no sleeper (devilish sleeper) for tomorrow's match against Renzo Gracie. I guess when your opponent is 24 years younger than you, you need some kind of an edge.:) Renzo researched his opponent by renting a few videos of Inoki's matches today, including the infamous shoot against Muhammed Ali.
Since Kazunari Murakami & Shinya Hashimoto are on the same show again, there's talk of another "terrorist attack" by Murakami before the show.
Atsushi Onita gave notice that he's going to intrude on the show to continue his petition for a match against Inoki.

Antonio Inoki's opponent on 12/31 will be Renzo Gracie.
Shinya Hashimoto asked Inoki for another match against Naoya Ogawa. They've fought five times with Hashimoto going 1-3. It seems worse since Hashimoto hasn't beaten Ogawa since 1997 and he got his ass kicked in the 1/4/99 match that was declared invalid a while after Ogawa "shot" on him. Ogawa had said that he'd give Hashimoto a rematch if he beat Gary Goodridge, who is Hashimoto's opponent on 12/31. Inoki hasn't committed to anything specific though. He basically said that Hashimoto needs to keep winning all his matches and be patient. This probably means he beats Riki Choshu on 1/4 so he has wins over Fujinami, Omori, Goodridge, & Choshu since losing the retirment match to Ogawa, thus rebuilding his credibility. The other scenario is that he loses to Choshu, and thus that's reason for their not to be a rematch anytime soon. The whole thing is an angle though, so it wouldn't make any sense for them to start getting press now for the rematch idea if Hashimoto were about to suffer a big loss.

Additional matches on the 12/31 Millennium Fighting Arts INOKI BOM-BA-YE show at the Osaka Dome
Antonio Inoki in a special exhibition match against an opponent that's yet to be announced
Naoki Sano & Ricco Rodriguez vs. Bas Rutten & Alexander Otsuka
Akira Shoji & Kaoru Uno vs. The Great Sasuke & Daijiro Matsui
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Justin McCully

PRIDE.12 12/23 Saitama Super Arena 26,882 sellout
Kazushi Sakuraba defeated his 4th Gracie when he won a 3-0 decision over Ryan Gracie after one 10:00 round. Ryan suffered an injury to his right shoulder and biceps working out on the 21st. He wasn't (or claimed not to be) close to 100% and the doctor that examined him told him he couldn't fight for 3 weeks, but he insisted on doing the match. Since he was injured, it was changed to a 1 rounder. Ryan came in with blue tape on his shoulder. Sakuraba said he thought the injury might be a lie when he heard about it today, but when the match started he could tell it was legit, so he didn't attack it. Sakuraba clearly and easily won the fight, but since Ryan was hampered by injury, there may still be a rematch. President Morishita is trying hard to finally put together the much talked about Sakuraba vs. Rickson Gracie match. In the meantime, Sakuraba was in the holiday spirit with his entourage coming out in Christmas masks and giving out presents then drinking to his victory after the match.
Igor Vovchanchyn won a 3-0 decision over Mark Kerr after two 10:00 rounds and a 5:00 extension.
Kazuyuki Fujita defeated Gilbert Yvel via decision 6-0 after two rounds. Yvel couldn't connect with any of his big strikes from his back, which was where he was the majority of the match because Fujita had no problem taking him down and was able to use his wrestling skills to keep him there. Fujita worked for several submissions, particularly the arm lock. Although he couldn't make Yvel cry uncle, it was a dominant decision victory for Fujita, who defeated a former UFC champion (Kerr), Pancrase champion (Ken Shamrock although I could put him with UFC as well), & RINGS champion (Yvel) this year. Even more impressive may be that his lone loss was a match that he didn't even fight due to injury.
Vanderlei Silva won a 6-0 decision over Dan Henderson after two rounds. Henderson wasn't able to neutralize Silva's strikes, which cut him around the left eye.
Heath Herring beat Enson Inoue when the ref stopped the bout due to a knee kick to the head at 4:31 of round 1. Enson, 33, got on the mic after the match and shocked the fans by announcing his immediate retirement. He's lost his last 3 matches in PRIDE (after winning 2 in a row), and he's taken a lot of punishment in these losses. In Shooto, where he was their first heavyweight champion, he was a guy that always found a way to win. In PRIDE, where the competition is bigger and better, he was a guy that was always capable of winning, but his opponents would take him down and wouldn't make the mistake that would allow him to catch them in a flash submission, so he often took a lot of punishment trying.
Renzo Gracie student Ricardo Armeida made his PRIDE debut, defeating Akira Shoji via decison 4-0 after two rounds. Ricardo showed a strong punch and low kick in addition to the expected ground technique. He made Shoji bleed with two straight punches to the nose.
Rico Rodriguez beat John Marsh (sp?) via decision 3-0 after two rounds. Rodriguez best damage came from series of knee kicks to the head.
Carlos Newton won a 3-0 decision over Johil De Oliviera after two rounds. Newton busted Oliviera's nose open with punches.
Guy Mezger beat Alexander Otsuka via ref stop at 1:54 of round 1. Mezger clocked Otsuka with a right hook counter punch. He did damage with right low kicks, and got a ref stop with 12 punches to the face when Otsuka was down.
DSE did huge business here because in addition to the overflow crowd, 7,000 programs were sold (at 2,000-en a pop, that's about $140,000) and Sakuraba t-shirts were also selling like crazy. In light of this, they decided to return to the Saitama Super Arena for the 3/25/01 show.

So far, the 12/31 Millennium Fighting Arts INOKI BOM-BA-YE (pro wrestling) show at the Osaka Dome has
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kendo Kashin
Nobuhiko Takada & Keiji Muto vs. Ken Shamrock & Don Frye
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Gary Goodridge
Naoya Ogawa vs. Tadao Yasuda
Takashi Iizuka & Yuji Nagata vs. Mark Coleman & Mark Kerr
Probably the most bizarre lineup of the year.

If Keiji Muto shows up as The Great Muta on 12/31, Nobuhiko Takada may transform into a new heel character called The Great Nobu. This character would spew purple mist.

Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Gilbert Yvel was added to the PRIDE.12 lineup. Yvel's been nicknamed "hurricane" for his fast blows.
Dan Henderson vs. Vanderlei Silva was also added. That likely spells the end of Henderson, who won RINGS first KING of KINGS tournament this February, in RINGS. Henderson would like to fight Sakuraba, so he needs this win.

Kazushi Sakuraba will have a pro wrestling match against Tokimitsu Ishizawa on the 12/31 show. The story behind this match is that Sakuraba wants revenge because he opposed Ishizawa 3 times in tag matches during the UWF-I vs. NJ series ('95-96), and never beat him (his team won one of the three, but Hiromitsu Kanehara went over Ishizawa). Keeping with the UWF-I vs. NJ theme, the biggest match on the show might be the third meeting between Nobuhiko Takada & Keiji Muto. Their first two matches, 10/9/95 won by Muto and 1/4/96 won by Takada, both sold out the Tokyo Dome, but a rematch at this point wouldn't have nearly that kind of allure. The show will definitely feature a tag tournament and a crappy battle royal.

Akira Shoji vs. Allen Goes was added to the PRIDE.12 lineup.

A partial lineup for PRIDE.12 on 12/23 was announced:
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Ryan Gracie
Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Mark Kerr
Enson Inoue vs. Heath Herring
Alexander Otsuka vs. Guy Mezger
Johil De Oliviera vs. Carlos Newton

PRIDE.12 is supposed to focus on revenge. The Gracie family should get another chance to avenge their losses Kazushi Sakuraba, as he's supposed to face Ryan. This isn't much of a chance since Ryan is worse than the Gracie's Sakuraba has already defeated. Masaaki Satake will probably either have a rematch with Naoya Ogawa or Mark Coleman. Mark Kerr will probably have a rematch with Igor Vovchanchyn.

Kazushi Sakuraba announced that he wouldn't like to appear in the PRIDE Grand Prix next year. In this scenario, the middleweight tournament (the grand prix has been divided into weight classes this year) would then be used to create a challenge for Sakuraba.

Antonio Inoki sharply criticized Atsushi Onita for continuing to get publicity for himself by talking about fighting him in his retirement match. Inoki is already retired (although he fought a pop singer since and there was much talk earlier this year about a match against Seiji Sakaguchi) and has already had to make it clear that he has no interest in coming out of retirement to fight Onita because Onita talked about the match publicly to put pressure on Inoki, who had not consented to even considering taking the match. Of course, it's hard to feel sorry for Inoki when he plays this game better than anyone in the wrestling business.

Nobuhiko Takada is taking time to heel a fracture in his right foot that he suffered during yesterday's match with Vovchanchyn, but said he'd probably participate in Inoki's martial arts show if Inoki asked him.
Masaaki Satake declared that he'd get revenge on Naoya Ogawa.
Road Warrior Animal sent a message to Alexander Otsuka congradulating him for yesterdays win and stating that he'd like to team with him against next Autumn.
Antonio Inoki once again said he's not interested in fighting Atsushi Onita.
Kazushi Sakuraba announced he'd fight on PRIDE.12.

10/31 Osaka Jo Hall 13,500 sellout (first in PRIDE's history)
Kazushi Sakuraba made Shannon "The Cannon" Rich submit to an akiresukengatame at 1:08 of round 1. Sakuraba's and co. came to Sky High wearing Mil Mascaras masks (I think 2 people had Mascaras masks and one had a Dos Caras mask). Rich tried a middle kick, but Sakuraba had no problem catching his leg and that was about it. Sakuraba, whose match is almost always at least one of the best on the show, basically appologized to the fans saying next time he'd have a more interesting match. Since Vovchanchyn is the one guy that beat Sakuraba in PRIDE, and both guys won today, they might wind up fighting on the 12/23 show, but that's not a match Sakuraba wants since he gives up in excess of 80 pounds. In any case, Ryan Gracie is the one that announced candidacy for Sakuraba's next fight.
Naoya Ogawa made Masaaki Satake submit to a hadakajime at 2:01 of round 2. As expected, this was a work. Satake didn't do badly here at all. In round 1, he reddened Ogawa's thighs with low kicks, and also took him down and connected with several punches. Ogawa took over in the second round, cutting Satake's eye with a straight punch after switching to southpaw. The finish saw Ogawa grabbed Satake's right foot and take him down. Ogawa locked Satake's arm and took the side mount position. Satake turned to his stomach because Ogawa was hitting him repeatedly, so Ogawa choked him out from the back mount position. Ogawa was talking about fighting Rickson Gracie next year, but that's still not set in stone. Antonio Inoki announced a major show on 12/31 at the Osaka Dome (I think U.F.O. is actually holding a show). Since Inoki is working with DSE, they are supporting the show and letting him use some of their fighters. Inoki says it's going to be a comprehensive compilation of fighting skills with representatives from puroresu, judo, boxing, & karate.
Igor Vovchanchyn beat Nobuhiko Takada at 3:17 of round 2 when Takada gave up during a series of mount punches. Igor knocked Takada down with a left hook. He took Takada's back, mounted, and hit Takada in the head continuously, but Takada was saved by the bell. At some point Takada's head was bloodied from the punches. Takada couldn't stop Igor from taking him down and using ground and pound, so while he lasted longer than expected because it seemed to be another Takada semiwork where his opponent was going over but was letting him last a bit and not totally embarrass himself, the fight seems to have went about how you'd expect. The one surprise is Takada did take Igor down. Takada walked out with both hands holding his bloody head. No word on whether he'll live up to his promise of retiring from shooting now that he lost again.
Akira Shoji made Herman Renting submit to an udehishigigyakujujigatame at either 3:08 or 3:48 of round 1.
In spite of giving up 30 kg, Alexander Otsuka made Mike Boke (sp?) submit to double arm bar at 2:37 of round 1. Mike used a punch rush on Alex. Alex got a reversal to set up the submission. Giant Ochiai came in to set up a (wrestling) match with Otsuka on Battlarts big show on 11/26.
Gary Goodridge TKO'd the oldest fighter in PRIDE history, Yoshiaki Yatsu, at 8:58 of round 1. Yatsu had next to no offense, and got pounded on the whole fight. Yatsu didn't want to give up, but the ref stopped it after 50 + seconds of Gary pounding on him. Yatsu was disappointed that he lost, but feels he can do better next time because he's only been training in shooting for three months. His goal in shooting is to become a "middle aged star."
Gilbert Yvel went to a no contest with Vanderlei Silva in 21 seconds when Silva's kick caught Yvel low with a left low kick. It was accidental, so Silva wasn't DQ'd. They planned to restart the match when Yvel had recovered, but he was unable to continue so it was the first invalid match in PRIDE history. Hopefully they'll have a rematch.
Heath Herring upset Tom Erickson, forcing him to submit to a hadakajime at 6:17.
Sydney Olympic judo gold medalist Tadohiro Nomura, K-1/Seido Kaikan Director Kazuyoshi Ishii, & Shinobu Kandori were in attendance.

Atsushi Onita's latest pipe dream is to have his retirement match against Antonio Inoki on a PRIDE show. To make things more ridiculous, Onita would like it to be an amperage explosion death match.

Kazushi Sakuraba was late for a workout because he had a hangover. Apparenly he was shooting a commercial for a brewing company the night before, and drinking one glass of alcohol turned into two, and two turned into three. Sakuraba woke up at 1:30 PM the next day, but it was only weight training that he was supposed to be doing in the morning so it wasn't really a big deal that he was late. Sakuraba was once again talking about taking 6 months to a year off to rest and clear his mind.

Nobuhiko Takada may retire or give up shooting if he loses to Igor Vovchanchyn on 10/31. If he wins, he plans to participate in the second PRIDE GRAND PRIX Tournament.

PRIDE.11 on 10/31 at Osaka Jo Hall will have:
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Igor Vovchanchyn
Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Gary Goodridge
Naoya Ogawa vs. Masaaki Satake in a No Rule Match. Surprisingly, Ogawa isn't being his usual cocky self. Instead, he said he's so worried that he can't sleep because Satake appears in his dreams, and "Satake is scary." Satake was able to beat Ogawa's partner Kazunari Murakami on PRIDE.10, so I guess this is a way of putting them both over.
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Shannon "The Cannon" Rich
Gilbert Yvel vs. Vanderlei Silva
Tom Erickson vs. Heath Herring
Akira Shoji vs. TBA
Alexander Otsuka vs. TBA
Supposedly this is a Japan only PPV, but PRIDE.12 will be shown in the US.

Scheduled participants for PRIDE.12 on 12/23 at Saitama Chiinama Super Arena are:
Renzo Gracie, Ryan Gracie, Mark Coleman, Mark Kerr, Ken Shamrock, Gilbert Yvel, Igor Vovchanchyn, Gary Goodridge, Ricco Rodriguez, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kazuyuki Fujita, Enson Inoue, Masaaki Satake, Alexander Otsuka, & Akira Shoji

Yoshiaki Yatsu's opponent for his PRIDE debut will be Gary Goodridge. Goodridge defeated SPWF's Tachihikari in the first round of the PRIDE GRAND PRIX 2000 on 1/30/00, so Yatsu is fighting for the honor of his company. Yatsu is just learning the basics of vale tudo, but feels his wrestling background is good enough that he can win if he works hard to learn the most important things. With this in mind, Goodridge is a good opponent for him because if he can learn enough about takedowns to get Gary off his feet, he should be able to control him on the ground and win a boring match. If he can't take Gary down and keep him there, which is more likely, then Gary will beat him to a pulp.

Kazushi Sakuraba formally challenged Rickson Gracie. DSE promised a Sakuraba vs. Rickson fight to decorate the 21st century opening, but I'll believe it when I see the bell ring. Sakuraba hurt his ankle during the 8/27 match against Renzo. He said he'd like to rest for 6 months to a year to heal up, but now that he's the top native in the top mixed martial arts promotion, he's expected to be in one of the big matches on every show. This does not sound promising.

Kazuyuki Fujita is going to Russia for a week starting 11/10 to spar with amateur wrestling god Alexander Karelin.

DSE announced that there would be a second PRIDE GRAND PRIX tournament in 2001 one, this time with better fighters and more money on the line. Due to complaints from Kazushi Sakuraba & Kazuyuki Fujita, both who were eliminated because they weren't really in any shape to continue that day (okay, Sakuraba still had 6 strong minutes in him, but after fighting 90 minutes you shouldn't be coming back for potentially two more tough fights) they are looking to spread the tournament out over four shows (that way it would be one round per show).

I saw the US version of the PRIDE.10 PPV, so here are some comments on the matches:
Vanderlei Silva vs. Guy Mezger. I thought Guy's performance was overrated here. He didn't use his reach advantage all that much, and was only the agressor in the early moments when Silva was clearly feeling him out. Silva is a guy that wants to trade blows, and Guy played right into his hands by worrying about power and the KO rather than using his advantage to put himself in a position where he'd win the decision or possibly could have gotten a knock out later if Silva made a mistake. Maybe the boring thing got to his head? This was definitely an exciting fight. Aside from a very brief portion where Silva got on top of Guy and tried to flurry, but Guy was quickly up with a knee, it could have been a K-1 match. Although early on it looked like Guy was too tall for Silva's killer knees, Guy's big mistake was his willingness to clinch, which seemed to be brought on by fatigue. I haven't seen anything from Silva that makes me think he's all that dangerous from a distance, but he's awesome when fighting on the inside. Guy got a few good punches in, but it didn't take long for Silva to catch Guy with a right hook. Silva did a deliberate headbutt and Guy came back with a knee, but lost his balance and Silva put him away with 9 right hands in a row. Most everyone will enjoy this fight.

Giant Ochiai vs. Ricco Rodriguez. Ochiai is a bizarre looking poorly conditioned fighter with wild hair. He looks like he'd weight less than 250 since he's not exactly muscular, but they list him as 6'1", 266. In any case, he's not supposed to be a Giant in the traditional sense, but does appear to be here more for his "character" and because they are lacking in natives than for his skill. He did try hard, but that was about the only positive in his performance. Rodriguez looks like someone who could be a real force at some point, but with an opponent so far out of his league, it's hard to put any stock in anything he did here. He dominated the whole fight, including body slamming Ochiai out of a front guillotine and passing his guard with ease. Rodriguez seemed pretty well rounded and went about business to get an easy win with a smother.

Gilbert Yvel vs. Gary Goodridge. Yvel showed what makes him so dangerous and exciting, dropping Gary with a killer high kick on the first real offensive move of the match. The fight was actually about 26 seconds, but Gary was down for a lot longer than that after taking such a kick.

Mark Kerr vs. Borisov Igor. Borisov seems to have some skills, but he's not close to Kerr's level. Kerr took him down with ease. Borisov's guard was good, as the combination of keeping Kerr close and mobility kept Kerr from starting to ground and pound. However, Kerr just put his hands behind Borisov's neck and pulled up for the submission. If Kerr can start winning without just pinning his opponent down and using ground and pound, he may become unstoppable.

Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Enson Inoue. Very good, brutal fight. The first 15 seconds were wild swings from both men. Virtually nothing hit, but Igor did get a nasty cut around his eye from a right hand before taking Enson down. The rest of the fight was ground and pound, but Igor had leverage and distance so his punches had a lot on them, and thus it wasn't the boring pawing we usually see. The other thing is that Enson was always working for submissions from the bottom, as usual. This has worked for Enson several times in the past, but today wasn't one of those days. Today, going for the submissions was his downfall because to do so, he was letting Igor have the leverage and distance, and thus this was the big reason he was knocked senseless. Enson wasn't going to win by just holding Igor close and hoping for a reversal or the end of the round though, so I don't feel his strategy was bad. It's just that Igor's body type makes it incredibly hard to submit him, but more importantly he recognizes and adjusts to all the attempts. For instance, really the only time that he'd get chest to chest with Enson on the mat was when Enson would be ready to bring his legs up to armbar Igor. Enson seemed half out of it by the 5 minute mark, and it just got worse from there. He may have been hoping that Igor would burn himself out by being so active, which did happen, but by that time Enson was too dead to even maintain his guard. Enson just covered up once Igor passed, and Igor just unloaded. Enson was covered up not trying to do anything and praying for the bell. This definitely should have been stopped. It was a situation where Enson didn't want to give up, but was stuck in a position where he was getting knocked around constantly and he didn't have the energy or senses left to even attempt to improve his position. Enson couldn't even get up when the round ended, they had to pull him over to the corner and revive him. When Enson woke up enough, he said he wanted to continue. Luckily, they finally decided to put him out of his misery, but that also made all the punishment he took in the last two minutes for naught.

Masaaki Satake vs. Kazunari Murakami. The announcers comments were really laughable here, claiming Murakami is a national hero and U.F.O. is a really famous Japanese wrestling organization. The announcing was better today from the sense of putting over the product and for enthusiasm, which is most of what the announcers are there for, but I prefered Bas & Maurice from the sense that they call it like they see it and don't feed you loads of bull like this. Like Satake's K-1 fights, this was the dullest fight that was shown (Belfort vs. Matsui was skipped), mainly due to all the clinching. Murakami was able to take Satake down once, but later Satake fell on top of him when he tried for the takedown and did pretty good damage with punches before the ref stopped it. The post match was totally pro wrestling with Naoya Ogawa getting into the ring, although there was no pushing or anything like that, but the fight itself didn't look the least bit questionable.

Ken Wayne Shamrock vs. Kazuyuki Fujita. Shamrock came in lighter than in the past so he'd be faster, which makes him totally gassing out so quickly all the more puzzling. Fujita kept trying to shoot, but Ken was able to defend it every time. Shamrock bloodied Fujita's nose with a left hand after one failed shoot. The one time Fujita had Shamrock, he wasn't able to take Ken down because he Ken held the ropes for about 5 seconds, let them go momentarily, and then held on again for another 5 seconds. Finally, the ref gave Shamrock a yellow card. Fujita kept coming at Shamrock, but it was starting to look hopeless as he wasn't getting any closer to his first takedown, instead Ken was rocking him with punches. Fujita also nearly lost to a front guillotine ala the non circlefest Shamrock vs. Severn, but this is where Ken seemed to burn himself out. Ken finally released the hold because Fujita wasn't going to submit and thus it was taking more out of him to keep it on than it was worth. Still, Fujita was the one that looked more winded and Ken was the one that was still doing damage (with more punches). As Ken tired more, he would just stand around waiting for Fujita to try to shoot again. Of course, he'd been dominating the match by waiting for Fujita to shoot, so this wasn't a bad strategy or anything, it's just that he'd lost his bounce. Fujita had one some damage throughout the fight with knees, but the one that really hurt Ken was the one to the balls. Shamrock didn't get/take enough time to recover from this and Fujita wasn't even warned. Anyway, most of the stamina Ken had left seemed to be robbed by this illegal tactic. Fujita was willing to trade punches now that Ken seemed to be more tired than he was. Suddenly Ken yelled to his corner to throw the towel in. Fujita backed Shamrock into the corner, and Ken asked his corner to throw the towel in until Pete Williams finally did. Aside from a few knees, Fujita really did nothing while Shamrock did a lot of damage with punches ,a few knees, and one submission. I don't think Shamrock threw the fight, but I also wouldn't be shocked if that was the case. Shamrock looked fine after the match was over, which adds to the skepticism. I liked the fight a lot, but it ending out of nowhere in this fashion took it down several notches in my book.

Tokimitsu Ishizawa vs. Ryan Gracie. Gracie took Ishizawa down the first time he shot. Ishizawa did guillotine him on this, but it was totally ineffective. Gracie showed good patience here, sitting in it since it wasn't doing anything to him instead of pulling out right away like Ishizawa might expect. Actually, I think Ishizawa thought the guillotine was doing something. In any case, when Gracie decided it was time to get out, he got out on the first try, standing up and kneeing Ishizawa in the face. Ishizawa didn't like that, so he stood up as well, but Ryan flurried on him with Belfort fast punches for the ref stop. Ishizawa probably would have went down before the ref stopped it, but the corner seemed to hold him up. Gracie showed patience and explosiveness while Ishizawa showed that he's much better off in NJ rings.

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Renzo Gracie. You could see even before Renzo started kicking that Sakuraba had respect for his striking than he did not have for the other Gracie's he's faced. Gracie showed the respect was warranted by establishing his striking, particularly the low kick, early on. Still, Sakuraba wanted to make this a predominantly standup fight. Sakuraba avoided going to the mat when Gracie went into butt scoot mode, instead kicking Gracie in the thighs in between his usual fakes and mind games. For the most part though, Gracie was the agressor during this round, and that's the main reason I think he won it. The damage done was about equal, but Gracie was, with the exception of a long boring clinch where neither did anything, much more active, while Sakuraba landed the harder blows. Sakuraba was more aggresive in round 2. Gracie couldn't take him down, and Sakuraba was kicking his thighs again when he was in the butt scoot. Sakuraba even tried a spinning savate when Gracie was in this position, but it didn't really work. Nothing happened when Sakuraba finally tried going down into Gracie's guard. Sakuraba eventually got up out of it and did one low kick. He seemed to be toying with Gracie, who was again in the butt scoot, here. After Gracie got up, Sakuraba finally tried for a takedown, but twice Gracie blocked it and gave Sakuraba a knee. Sakuraba finally took Gracie down with a single leg with less than two minutes in round 2. It was pretty obvious that this was going OT unless someone got a submission before the end of the round. Sakuraba was standing sideways while Gracie was on his back, so Gracie got up and took Sakuraba's back with waistlock. I think this is what Sakuraba wanted him to do because he started working for the chickenwing armlock immediately. When he broke Gracie's clasp, he made an incredibly spectacular move, spinning around Gracie's back while holding his arm, which forced Gracie to flip onto his back to try to alleviate the pressure. Gracie's arm popped out of the socket at the elbow before he even hit the ground though, which was made worse by Sakuraba fully locking the chickenwing armlock in once he was on top on the ground. The way Gracie's arm was almost bent in the opposite direction of how it normally bends was scary. For whatever reason, Gracie never tapped, but the ref quickly stopped it once he saw what the arm looked like. Gracie then tapped to be a sportsman and show it was a good call. Unlike the other Gracie's, Renzo offered no excuses saying that Sakuraba was better than he was tonight and tha he was "the Japanese version of the Gracie family." I'm not sure how one guy can be a version of the family, but anyway it's easy to respect a guy that fights and excellent fight and then can admit he lost to a better man, rather than what most of the rest of his family does... An excellent fight with an instant classic finish to cap off the best PRIDE to date.