TOKYO, Dec. 31 — The New Year’s Eve TV ratings war is huge business here in Japan, with PRIDE and K-1 competing fiercely against each other to draw viewers. I’m not sure of the final rating numbers just yet, but anyone who didn’t watch PRIDE’s “Shockwave” card from start to end is definitely worse off for it.
Perhaps the most anticipated bout of the evening was the rematch between PRIDE middleweight champion Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) and Ricardo Arona (Pictures). The competition between Brazilian Top Team and Chute Boxe has been well documented, but there was something deeper, more personal with this match-up — the bad blood running between these two fighters went far beyond a healthy rivalry.
Right from the start, Silva came charging in, only to be taken down by Arona. From here Silva held a tight closed guard on his back just as with their last fight.
After throwing punches from his back and tying up Arona’s hands, the referee eventually stood both fighters up. Arona went for another shot to counter Silva’s charge, but this time the Brazilian Top Team fighter ended up on the mat. Now here was a situation that we hadn’t seen before — in their previous fight in the semifinals of 2005’s PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix not once was Arona on his back.
From his back in the opening round Arona went for an armbar and then transitioned to an omoplata, but Silva had the presence of mind to move with the attempts and escape. Arona scored the first guard pass of the fight, but it was just before the round came to a close.
Throughout the course of the fight, Arona moved to his back after failed shot attempts to avoid taking damage when down on all fours. In the second round, he once again got past Silva’s guard to take side position and landed a big knee to the head, but the Chute Boxe fight shrimped hard and got to his feet.
It was obvious that Silva wanted to keep the match standing and many times refused to follow Arona to the ground. Arona once again got past Silva’s guard in the third to take side, but couldn’t really capitalize on the position. The fight closed with Silva taunting Arona to stand and Arona taunting Silva to come to the ground.
It was close. Silva was the more aggressive of the two on their feet, but Arona got the better positions on the ground. The fight went to the judges and they awarded the split decision victory to Silva. Arona's reaction to the announcement and expressions while leaving the ring showed that he could not believe the call.
In his post fight interview Silva thanked all the Japanese and foreign fans, and even made a special mention to Sherdog.com and Hanamaru Udon (see previous “Silva Udon” article).
In a rematch of their PRIDE “Final conflict” 2003 bout, Team Quest fighter Dan Henderson (Pictures) faced off against Brazilian Top Team member Murilo Bustamante (Pictures) for the PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix championship. Henderson bested Ryo Chonan (Pictures) and Akihiro Gono (Pictures) back in Bushido 9 to reach the final, while Bustamante went through Masanori Suda (Pictures) and Ikuhisa Minowa (Pictures).
This was another close fight, and while both guys scored takedowns, most of the action was on the feet. Bustamante’s boxing throughout was impressive, and the BTT fighter connected a good flurry in the second round that staggered Henderson and slowed him down a bit.
Henderson worked through this rough patch and later in the round got a hold of the Brazilian to fire some very effective knees to Bustamante’s head. At one point it almost looked like the American fighter would score a knockout from the damage he inflicted with his knees, but Bustamante held on until the final bell.
When the fight went to the judges the outcome was still in doubt. Bustamante boxed well but Henderson scored with those vicious knees. In the end it was Henderson who was awarded the split decision victory.
In the Lightweight Grand Prix tournament finals, the “Fireball Kid” Takanori Gomi (Pictures) faced off against Hayato Sakurai (Pictures). The lightweight tournament preliminaries back at Bushido 9 were off the chart in terms of action, so this match-up was expected to be just as fast paced and exciting.
Gomi has been on an absolute roll and has yet to taste defeat in PRIDE. The Kiguchi dojo fighter was recently named the PRIDE’s MVP for 2005. Sakurai had kind of a mixed bag of victories and defeats in recent years, but a strong 2005 put him in this position and there was no doubt he was looking to be on the top of the lightweight division.
As part of the media, you sometimes have interviews or other distractions that you have to deal with and can’t give all your attention to the fights. This was my case when the Gomi-Sakurai bout was happening, so I was really only able to catch the last bit of this fight, but fortunately this was the most important part.
After some exchanges on their feet, Sakurai tried to take Gomi down with a hip toss, but on the way down, Gomi ended up on top in the mount. This is where Sakurai’s troubles began. The Fireball Kid began to rain down punches and after taking a lot of shots Sakurai twisted to escape, giving his back to Gomi.
Finally Sakurai escaped and both fighters were on their feet, but the punches had taken their toll and Sakurai looked staggered.
From here, Gomi threw a right hand and then followed up with a left-right combination. The last right-hook caught Sakurai on the chin, knocking him out cold 3:56 of the first round. For coming from a wrestling background, Gomi has developed into one hell of a striker and racked up another knockout on his resume with this victory.
The damage Sakurai took on the ground really determined the outcome of this fight. Hopefully these two will meet again in 2006.