Nippon Joho: The Bushido Welterweight Tournament
Nippon Joho
Stephen Martinez Sep 28, 2005
TOKYO, Sept. 27 — What an amazing show we witnessed on Sunday.
Immediately after leaving Ariake Coliseum I was kind of 50-50
regarding what I’d seen because. While I really loved the
lightweight side I thought the welterweights could have been
better, sort of like when you watch a movie you’ve heard about for
years but after watching it you feel it wasn’t as good as you
expected.
I gave the welterweight (183 pounds) tournament from Bushido second and third thoughts the last couple of days and came to the conclusion that this was indeed the best overall tournament I’ve ever witnessed in term of action and drama coming from both weight divisions.
Since I’ve been lazy to write something lately I feel it necessary
to remind everyone who hasn’t read my previous articles that this
by no means a recount or play-by-play of what happened last Sunday,
but just random thoughts about some things I noticed from this
show.
Also I would like to divide this “Nippon Joho” in two parts, one dedicated to the welterweight side while in another piece I would like to concentrate only with the lightweights.
Forget about “Hollywood” and let me introduce you the brand new Dan “Dangerous” Henderson. The American fighter just bounced back from one of his worst performances in PRIDE history when he got eliminated from the middleweight Grand Prix by Rogerio Nogueira just to come back stronger than ever with back to back knockouts in one night.
Dream State Entertainment had give Henderson some love in the promotional department with two-shirts this year for the Henderson fans out there. Oddly enough, the last design DSE came out with displayed the “Dangerous” Dan Henderson (Pictures) moniker. Someone at PRIDE must be reading the future because personally I was expecting Henderson to run wild over everyone in his bracket on the way to the finals but never imagined he was going to decimate two quality opponents in Ryo Chonan (Pictures) and Akihiro Gono (Pictures) in such a fast way.
On the other side we have Brazilian legend Murilo Bustamante (Pictures), who also wreaked havoc on the fighters in his bracket on the way to clinching a spot in the December finals. To Bustamante, this night should be like a dream come true in terms of personal achievement. He hadn’t finished an opponent since 2002 when he choked out Matt Lindland (Pictures) at UFC 37 in the now infamous “double tap” match. From there Bustamante cut ties with the UFC in order to get a more lucrative paycheck and jumped ship to PRIDE.
Unfortunately for the Brazilian, the Japanese promotion didn’t have a natural 185-pound division for him to perform in, so we saw Bustamante caught in the difficult world of PRIDE mismatches and weight differences when he faced the likes of Quinton Jackson (Pictures), Kazuhiro Nakamura (Pictures) and Dan Henderson (Pictures), losing two by decision and one by KO.
From there Bustamante went on a campaign to discredit the Henderson match due to what he claims was an unintentional headbutt he suffered during a fast exchange of punches with the American fighter.
Thanks to Bushido we finally get to see Bustamante revitalize his career with three victories in a row since he started fighting again close to 185 pounds. Last Sunday at Bushido we were witness to a new, smarter Bustamante, who finally showed a full knowledge of the PRIDE rules: making his way with a fast armbar over SHOOTO light heavyweight champion Masanori Suda (Pictures) and later taking on his own jiu-jitsu student Ikuhisa Minowa (Pictures) (Minowa is a blue belt under Bustamante) via brutal soccer kicks for the referee stop.
Now these two get to face each other once again inside the PRIDE ring with many things on the line. Bustamante finally gets his shot of revenge and hopes to prove wrong everyone who didn’t believe the “headbutt” excuse, while more importantly he’s two steps closer to becoming the first fighter in MMA history with major belts in the two most important organizations in the World.
For Henderson this is finally the opportunity to become a champion inside PRIDE since he jumped back from RINGS to face Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) in December 2002. Also no less important to Henderson is the opportunity to dominate his natural weight division.
I gave the welterweight (183 pounds) tournament from Bushido second and third thoughts the last couple of days and came to the conclusion that this was indeed the best overall tournament I’ve ever witnessed in term of action and drama coming from both weight divisions.
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Also I would like to divide this “Nippon Joho” in two parts, one dedicated to the welterweight side while in another piece I would like to concentrate only with the lightweights.
“Dangerous” Dan Finally Meets Busta Again
Forget about “Hollywood” and let me introduce you the brand new Dan “Dangerous” Henderson. The American fighter just bounced back from one of his worst performances in PRIDE history when he got eliminated from the middleweight Grand Prix by Rogerio Nogueira just to come back stronger than ever with back to back knockouts in one night.
Dream State Entertainment had give Henderson some love in the promotional department with two-shirts this year for the Henderson fans out there. Oddly enough, the last design DSE came out with displayed the “Dangerous” Dan Henderson (Pictures) moniker. Someone at PRIDE must be reading the future because personally I was expecting Henderson to run wild over everyone in his bracket on the way to the finals but never imagined he was going to decimate two quality opponents in Ryo Chonan (Pictures) and Akihiro Gono (Pictures) in such a fast way.
On the other side we have Brazilian legend Murilo Bustamante (Pictures), who also wreaked havoc on the fighters in his bracket on the way to clinching a spot in the December finals. To Bustamante, this night should be like a dream come true in terms of personal achievement. He hadn’t finished an opponent since 2002 when he choked out Matt Lindland (Pictures) at UFC 37 in the now infamous “double tap” match. From there Bustamante cut ties with the UFC in order to get a more lucrative paycheck and jumped ship to PRIDE.
Unfortunately for the Brazilian, the Japanese promotion didn’t have a natural 185-pound division for him to perform in, so we saw Bustamante caught in the difficult world of PRIDE mismatches and weight differences when he faced the likes of Quinton Jackson (Pictures), Kazuhiro Nakamura (Pictures) and Dan Henderson (Pictures), losing two by decision and one by KO.
From there Bustamante went on a campaign to discredit the Henderson match due to what he claims was an unintentional headbutt he suffered during a fast exchange of punches with the American fighter.
Thanks to Bushido we finally get to see Bustamante revitalize his career with three victories in a row since he started fighting again close to 185 pounds. Last Sunday at Bushido we were witness to a new, smarter Bustamante, who finally showed a full knowledge of the PRIDE rules: making his way with a fast armbar over SHOOTO light heavyweight champion Masanori Suda (Pictures) and later taking on his own jiu-jitsu student Ikuhisa Minowa (Pictures) (Minowa is a blue belt under Bustamante) via brutal soccer kicks for the referee stop.
Now these two get to face each other once again inside the PRIDE ring with many things on the line. Bustamante finally gets his shot of revenge and hopes to prove wrong everyone who didn’t believe the “headbutt” excuse, while more importantly he’s two steps closer to becoming the first fighter in MMA history with major belts in the two most important organizations in the World.
For Henderson this is finally the opportunity to become a champion inside PRIDE since he jumped back from RINGS to face Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) in December 2002. Also no less important to Henderson is the opportunity to dominate his natural weight division.
