TOKYO, June 25 — All right, all right, I’m back home after having drinks at a party full of cute girls and now I’m sitting in front of my boring computer typing this column. Why, Masa? Why? Well, because I have some interesting news to spread to hardcore MMA fans like you about the weigh-in for the second round of the PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix.
As far as how the fighter’s looked, please check out the pictures or video, which were taken by my partner Stephen Martinez and I. This time I sucked shooting the video because all the photographers in the front stood up (even though they were not supposed to) so my tripod became useless, and had to hold the video camera with my arm that was hurt by a relentless armbar last Saturday while rolling. So the video is bit shaky but still worth seeing. You can’t miss how Sakuraba look like for weigh-in.
Now what I’m doing here? Yes, there was a bit of Q&A session with Sakuraba, Mr. Takada and President Sakakibara. So let’s see what they said.
First, Sakuraba. After the weigh-in Sakuraba showed his confidence for this fight the entire time. As he behave so, he told us he’s 400 percent ready for this fight. He weighed in at 87-kg., which is way less than the limit of this tournament. But he explained about this weight, “I didn’t mean to cut my weight this much. I didn’t try to cut weight. I just lost [weight] by my hard training.”
Well, he’s not huge dude. So I don’t think he lost like 20 pounds, but he naturally lost some weight and still in good condition. That’s good for him.
During this interview session, one conversation that I heard in Internet radio last night came into my mind. Sound Off radio host Mr. Ryan Bennett asked Sherdog himself, “How can Sakuraba win this fight?” So I simply asked Sakuraba not if he can win this fight, but how does he see this fight ending? “I want to finish this by Ippon (submission),” he answered. “Or maybe knockout.”
Well, go for it. You’re the legend. I just don’t see that’s happening … but anyway. Saku seems to be in very good condition. I could tell according what Mr. Takada said. “Saku’s condition is better than ever. He injured his rib a while ago so he couldn’t train for long time. At that time, he was irritated. But I think that was good for him after all because he couldn’t train really hard. Then that blank of training helped his knee to get better. Now, he even trains without a knee brace for real hard training. And he says to me that he feels real good with his knee. He’s in the best shape of the past four to five years. Guaranteed.”
Alright, that’s enough. Yes, Saku is in good shape. Now we want to see how he out put his performance. Let’s see what’ll happen with his best condition against Arona.
Is there other news other than about Sakuraba? Yes, there is. After Mr. Takada’s interview we had Mr. Sakakibara’s interview. And he said PRIDE will have a guest tomorrow. At tomorrow’s show, the Secretary of Ministry of Environment, Ms. Yuriko Koike, will be stepping up on the ring to appeal for the “Minus 6%” campaign. This campaign is aimed at telling people to decrease carbon dioxide, or telling people too conserve electricity for air conditioning. Bla bla bla….
But that’s not the thing I wanna tell. What I wanna say is that having the Secretary of Ministry of Environment in the PRIDE ring appealing to young people is amazing. Some governmental people in the ring of MMA? Can you imagine an American Cabinet Secretary in the Octagon in America? Or a parliamentary official in the cage of cage rage in the UK?
I think PRIDE once again gained another stage to be in the mainstream of national Japanese sports. The government is using the PRIDE ring for its campaign. That’s something. Actually, we had some governmental people in the PRIDE show before. But not in the ring, and that was as a friend of fighter, or as a fun of this sports. But this time, they come here for their job as Japanese government. It is something, eh?
OK, that’s about it fellas. It’s hot and humid. And I had to gave up one girl tonight because of this job. So I don’t wanna sit in front of the PC anymore. Hope all is good with ya’ll. And enjoy the report we’re sending out from Saitama Super Arena! Stay tuned to Sherdog.com.