Just watched PRIDE 33 for the first time......

Wanted to watch some prime Hendo and Wanderlei, so I watched PRIDE 33. Thoughts on the card:


Hendo-Wanderlei was a really good fight. Back and forth action and Hendo was the man. He really took it to Wanderlei. My only criticism was that Wandy was very inactive on the ground, and he looked strangely gunshy at time. Aside from that, the fight lived up to the expectations I had of the two men.

Shogun-Overeem was my favourite fight on the card. Enjoyed that one a lot. :rofl at skinny Overeem. And Jones beats any version of Shogun more times than not in my view. :bbb

Diaz-Gomi was very exciting, but I wasn't impressed with Gomi at all. TERRIBLE conditioning - he was exhausted after 4 minutes. Showed a lot of heart and fighting spirit, but he looked soft and out of shape. Did he not train properly, did he come off roids to fight in the US, what was the story? Based on his reputation, I expected a lot more from him. :conf And Diaz was fantastic when he grabbed the sub with a face full of ugly cuts.

Wasn't impressed with the undercard tbh. Meh, it's not like it ruined the event.

:hat

 

And a cage is much better for MMA than a ring is. I ****ing hate these restarts while the clock is ticking. It really disrupts the flow of the fight to have the fighters move themselves to the centre of the ring and reposition purely because they're too close to the ropes and they're getting tangled in them. Also it seems to make fighters hesitant to power through takedowns, because the ropes are dangerous when two men go flying into them off-balance. Plus I find it really weird to have the crowd pulling the ropes back and reaching out to touch the fighter's legs and feet while they're working on the ground.

I quite liked the "After the Fights" video. Was funny hearing Trigg complaining that he was too old to do half of this **** anymore.

All in all, I enjoyed watching this card. Any recommendations for the next PRIDE card for me to watch? I've seen the Fedor-Nog-Cro Cop fights, but as individual fights, not in the context of a full card. Aside from this one, Final Conflict 2005 is the only full card I've watched. Recommendations for the next one? :conf

:hat

 

You are right. He wasn't that old, but he was definitely on the slide. For some reason I had PRIDE 33 tabbed as being a three or four years earlier than it actually was. Perhaps because Nick Diaz was very young, and I associate him with being a lot older than he actually is. :conf

But yeah, Wandy wasn't prime. Not shot, but not peak either. And he had no business fighting Cro Cop in an open weight tournament. Even though he did well, he's just too small for such a skilled opponent with a striking pedigree like that. :-(

Hendo pretty much had a 15 year prime though.

:hat

 

I don't understand all this non-title fight bull****. A quick peek at wiki scaredas says that Gomi fought five times during this period, and four of them weren't for the title. :conf

Yeah the fights were decent, but I mainly know PRIDE through the hype on here. So I expect a lot, because the org gets talked up a lot. And it was a good card, don't get me wrong. It just didn't blow me away. It was just a good card, you know? No more and no less. :conf

And Little Nog, well I haven't seen most of his best fights. I've seen him lose more than I've seen him win. I haven't seen his most famous wins. But I've seen him get soundly outfought over 3 rounds by some blonde nobody in the UFC, only to be awarded one of the worst decisions ever. So watching him get laid out by Sokojou was surprising but not THAT shocking to me, because I never perceived him as being anywhere near as good as his brother. :thumbsup

And I really don't like the ring. I think that's a ridiculous arena for a mixed martial arts match. The frequent resets and people slapping at the fighters really detract from the fights, IMO. :conf

Will watch it. :good

:hat

 

I try not to infer things simply by looking at Wiki records. :yepIf I do, how am I going to know which of his opponents lost because they were shot, or injured, or green, or homesick, or just exposed as hype jobs? :conf :good

Yeah from what I remember of the fight, I had no particular expectations for it. I certainly wasn't approaching the fight from a "Little Nog is The MAN!" point of view. I just watched a fight between two men. :conf

What I remember (and I watched it once, months ago), I was surprised at how well Britz was doing in the first. Then he just kept going. Nog seemed like he was having an off night and never really seemed to get anything going. Britz fought his heart out, give the best effort he could with his comparatively limited talent and seemed to really rise to the occasion, and then got screwed out of a deserved win. :twisted:

Might have to go back and watch it again. But I remember at the time being disappointed for him because I viewed it as a flat out robbery, rather than a controversial decision that could have gone either way. :good

:hat

 

Just rewatched the fight. Sorry mate, Brilz won the fight.

When do you ever hear Joe Rogan tell a big name in MMA flat-out "You hear the crowd calling out 'Bull****' - did you think you lost the fight?" and then tell the loser "A lot of people, including myself, thought that you were gonna win the decision."

No disrespect to Little Nog - he doesn't fill out the scorecards - but Brilz fought his ass off and then got robbed. The only good thing about that decision was that Brilz accepted it with a lot of class and grace. :good

:hat