Post by BobbyTheBrain on Jul 5, 2017 2:02:08 GMT -5
I have many of these on DVD. I've watched 'em numerous times as I've owned many of them for a long time, but I've never done anything like this with 'em. Seems like fun, and I haven't watched these events in a long time so it'll be fun to watch 'em again.
Special Note: In these early Pride events there were no judges. If a fight went the distance it was an automatic draw. This sort of thing went on with Boxing in it's formative days as well, but as you may know some guys have "Newspaper Decisions" where a writer or somebody who was there gives there account of who they thought got the better of it, and it's the best report available so it's what is recorded to history. I'll apply the same thing to the automatic draw fights on these cards.
October 11, 1997
Fight 1: Murakami Kazunari vs John Dixon
Short fight, but not bad. Dixon rushes Kazunari and takes him down early, not much comes of it, but then Kazunari gets the finish with some nice judo techniques. He throws the big man down and after some shots to the mid-section from on top he's able to lock in an armbar and get the submission
Fight 2: Gary Goodridge vs Oleg Taktarov
Two UFC Veterans here. Taktarov won one of the early UFC tournaments at UFC 6. Taktarov had "worked on his boxing" prior to this fight and foolishly chose to trade punches with Goodridge in spite of the fact that his specialty is ground fighting (Sambo) and Goodridge is a very powerful man. Taktarov does ok at first as he is able to get through a few quick shots on Gary, doesn't take long before this strategy backfires of course...Goodridge lands a BIG right hand and drops Taktarov and then he hammers him with shots on the ground, there's a funny moment when Gary unclear about the rules asks the referee "Can I kick face? Can I kick face?" as Oleg is kinda scooting toward him in a crab walk like position lol. Anyway...eventually Oleg gets back to his feet and gets caught with another HUGE right hand from Gary that knocks him unconscious and Gary nails him with 2 more as he's on the ground. Brutal KO. Oleg is carried out on a stretcher.
Fight 3: Akira Shoji vs Renzo Gracie
Back when the Gracie family was still unbeaten in MMA. Shoji is a fighter that appears many times in Pride he's a very brave and courageous fighter, but not especially skilled at anything in particular though he is able to defend himself. Renzo of course immediately tries to get Shoji on the ground, he gets his back at some point and almost submits him but Shoji falls out of the ring along with Renzo forcing a restart. After some punches from Shoji they get back into a clinch and more submission attempts for Gracie follow, he attempts the guillotine choke as Shoji has him pinned in a corner at one point. A very strong submission attempt follows where Renzo locks a choke in and pulls Shoji to the ground, but Shoji is eventually able to pop his head out and escape the pressure. Shoji lands a few shots to Renzo's ribs on the ground, but nothing much else happens and the round comes to an end. Due to the submission attempts from Renzo he took the round in an otherwise uneventful round.
Renzo attempts a triangle choke early in the 2nd round, but Shoji gets out of that too. Shoji stands up and kicks at Renzo's legs a bit from his feet. Renzo eventually stands and gets after him again eventually almost getting another submission leading to yet ANOTHER escape by Shoji...this time from an armbar. Shoji again stands over Renzo and kicks at his legs, tentative to do much else as he has such limited experience (only 1 previous MMA fight prior to this). The round just kinda creeps along with little else happening. 2 rounds down. 20 minutes in. I'd have it for Gracie.
Round 3 sees them standing a little more. I would say trading, but they're just kinda in a boxing pose moving around lol. Shoji lashes out with some leg kicks and lands some big strikes on the ground. Shoji controls this entire round pretty much, the only moment of trouble for him is when Renzo gets his back briefly, but he quickly gets out of it and gets back on the attack. This round is all Shoji. Nothing huge, but a lot of nagging little shots that add up.
Fight ends and is declared an automatic draw.
I have it 2 rounds to 1 in favor of Renzo Gracie so that's the way you'd think I'd score it, but that's the thing about the Pride FC scoring criteria they judge the fight as a whole and not round by round. So in these fights if you lose close rounds in the opening few stanzas and do a lot of damage in the 3rd you can win the fight. Now I wouldn't say Shoji did enough damage to Renzo in the 3rd to win the fight here, but he sure makes it a close call. A draw almost seems fair here to be honest, but if I had to say somebody won I'd say Renzo eked it out barely.
Newspaper Decision: Renzo Gracie
Special Note: In these early Pride events there were no judges. If a fight went the distance it was an automatic draw. This sort of thing went on with Boxing in it's formative days as well, but as you may know some guys have "Newspaper Decisions" where a writer or somebody who was there gives there account of who they thought got the better of it, and it's the best report available so it's what is recorded to history. I'll apply the same thing to the automatic draw fights on these cards.
October 11, 1997
Fight 1: Murakami Kazunari vs John Dixon
Short fight, but not bad. Dixon rushes Kazunari and takes him down early, not much comes of it, but then Kazunari gets the finish with some nice judo techniques. He throws the big man down and after some shots to the mid-section from on top he's able to lock in an armbar and get the submission
Fight 2: Gary Goodridge vs Oleg Taktarov
Two UFC Veterans here. Taktarov won one of the early UFC tournaments at UFC 6. Taktarov had "worked on his boxing" prior to this fight and foolishly chose to trade punches with Goodridge in spite of the fact that his specialty is ground fighting (Sambo) and Goodridge is a very powerful man. Taktarov does ok at first as he is able to get through a few quick shots on Gary, doesn't take long before this strategy backfires of course...Goodridge lands a BIG right hand and drops Taktarov and then he hammers him with shots on the ground, there's a funny moment when Gary unclear about the rules asks the referee "Can I kick face? Can I kick face?" as Oleg is kinda scooting toward him in a crab walk like position lol. Anyway...eventually Oleg gets back to his feet and gets caught with another HUGE right hand from Gary that knocks him unconscious and Gary nails him with 2 more as he's on the ground. Brutal KO. Oleg is carried out on a stretcher.
Fight 3: Akira Shoji vs Renzo Gracie
Back when the Gracie family was still unbeaten in MMA. Shoji is a fighter that appears many times in Pride he's a very brave and courageous fighter, but not especially skilled at anything in particular though he is able to defend himself. Renzo of course immediately tries to get Shoji on the ground, he gets his back at some point and almost submits him but Shoji falls out of the ring along with Renzo forcing a restart. After some punches from Shoji they get back into a clinch and more submission attempts for Gracie follow, he attempts the guillotine choke as Shoji has him pinned in a corner at one point. A very strong submission attempt follows where Renzo locks a choke in and pulls Shoji to the ground, but Shoji is eventually able to pop his head out and escape the pressure. Shoji lands a few shots to Renzo's ribs on the ground, but nothing much else happens and the round comes to an end. Due to the submission attempts from Renzo he took the round in an otherwise uneventful round.
Renzo attempts a triangle choke early in the 2nd round, but Shoji gets out of that too. Shoji stands up and kicks at Renzo's legs a bit from his feet. Renzo eventually stands and gets after him again eventually almost getting another submission leading to yet ANOTHER escape by Shoji...this time from an armbar. Shoji again stands over Renzo and kicks at his legs, tentative to do much else as he has such limited experience (only 1 previous MMA fight prior to this). The round just kinda creeps along with little else happening. 2 rounds down. 20 minutes in. I'd have it for Gracie.
Round 3 sees them standing a little more. I would say trading, but they're just kinda in a boxing pose moving around lol. Shoji lashes out with some leg kicks and lands some big strikes on the ground. Shoji controls this entire round pretty much, the only moment of trouble for him is when Renzo gets his back briefly, but he quickly gets out of it and gets back on the attack. This round is all Shoji. Nothing huge, but a lot of nagging little shots that add up.
Fight ends and is declared an automatic draw.
I have it 2 rounds to 1 in favor of Renzo Gracie so that's the way you'd think I'd score it, but that's the thing about the Pride FC scoring criteria they judge the fight as a whole and not round by round. So in these fights if you lose close rounds in the opening few stanzas and do a lot of damage in the 3rd you can win the fight. Now I wouldn't say Shoji did enough damage to Renzo in the 3rd to win the fight here, but he sure makes it a close call. A draw almost seems fair here to be honest, but if I had to say somebody won I'd say Renzo eked it out barely.
Newspaper Decision: Renzo Gracie
