The Diaz/Gomi fight wasn’t a title fight, so Diaz did not “captur[e] the PRIDE FC lightweight belt.”

why do you say henderson won’t come?

i didn’t know the diaz fight was for the belt, thats crazy, i thought it was a non title fight

Gomi/Diaz was a non-title fight.

Thanks guys … I made the correction. I’ll stick to the UFC. I’ll never understand why the titleholders rarely defend their titles in Pride.

i’m with you mania, i thought it was a title fight also. was it a weight problem, or can they just decide when to risk the belt?

It was not a weight problem … I know that much.

UFC Mania you are not allowed to dissapear like that. I was nervous today, I thought you got hit by truck or something. Where would I get the best UFC news????? Atleast please give us a warning next time!@!!!!!

Pride champs have a tendency to host non-title matches all the time. Gomi has lost two fights in the last year that were non-title fights. The only person that has always put the title on the line as far as I know is Fedor.

Gomi takes a lot of heat for always having non title fights. The good news is their is a rumor going around that the title will be on the line between Gomi and Nick Diaz on April 8th in Japan.

This really was the best show i have ever seen. After seeing Hansen, Sakurai, Diaz and Gomi last night and Kawajiri and Gilbert melendez fight at shockwave 2006,i have to say that the light weight grand prix on may 20th is the most exciting mma event that has been anounced so far this year.

The scariest thing about Nick Diaz is that he’s only 23. This guy is going to wreak havok for a long, long, time. He may not have the grace of a St. Pierre or the humility of a Couture, but damn he is one tough guy. And he can fight.

All the talk about betting now that Desert Dog has joined the ranks well here is a bet I’d be willing to take: We haven’t seen the last of Diaz in the UFC.

I heard a rumor that Pride fines its fighters if they seem to be avoiding the action (Tim Sylvia comes to mind). If that is true, why the hell doesn’t the UFC do that? That is the one difference I have noticed in Pride. There doesnt seem to be as much “feeling the other guy out.”

Gomi lost twice in the past year (Diaz, Aurelio) and still has the belt. If I were him I would wrap that baby up and FedEx it to Sakakibara’s office (who in turn should vacate the title). PRIDE is trying to establish credibility in the States and having a “champion” get smoked via gogoplata (the white whale of submissions) is definitely not a step in the right direction.

dudes, Pride 33 was the bomb it made the last few UFC pay per view look crapyer then what they already were. Those were some bad ass fights. The diaz fight was a classic and the JUdo Champion that i want to see more of him I dont think that was a fluke. I have always backed the UFC but after last night this should be called Pridemania.com because they looked liked they had the best fighters last night. UFC 68 better put on a good show. One more thing to add I liked the fact that i paid my 40 bucks ang got to see all the fights that happened last night the UFC should do that too. Instead of showing what they think will be the best fight.

Mahde,

The yellow card, currently used in PRIDE, gives the referee the ability to penalize fighters for extended periods of inactivity. Simply put, you either bring the pain or bring the checkbook. A yellow card results in not only a verbal warning, but a 10% deduction from the fighter’s purse. Three yellow cards and you’re disqualified.

Like I wrote in one of my earlier columns, this is a very effective way of preventing a snoozefest like Sylvia/Arlovski 3. I am all for this system or a variation thereof being implemented in the UFC.

Random thoughts.

Seeing all the fights was a plus. Listen please UFC!!!

Frank Trigg is boring. Surprized he didnt get caught in a rear naked choke.

Dana should sign that judo dude.

More fighting with less Joe Rogan.

The UFC is such a better presentation, but those PRIDE fighters put on the best show i have ever seen.

Speaking of man crushes… Mine is Henderson

Dana should also get rid of bruce buffer and give that pride anouncing lady a contract.

Her name is Lenne Hardt and she’s from Brooklyn. She does a lot of voice acting as well for video games. I love the way she announces because she really puts excitement into it.

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u258/Mrpasty/Lenne_Hardt.jpg

The fight was non-title primarily because it was his (Diaz) first fight in PRIDE and it was on American soil. PRIDE has a history of protecting their champs.

Also, Diaz only has to make 160 for a PRIDE LW fight rather than UFC’s 155.

Saw these fights live. Way better than UFC by far. Bigger venue at Thomas & Mack, ring better than cage for spectators, 10 min vs 30 min breaks between fights.

A LOT MORE ACTION. Fighters fighting to WIN…not fighting not to lose like the UFC.

Yo the bottom line is all them boys (except trigg) went out there and put it all on the line and it made a great show!! Haven’t seen too many in the UFC willing to do that in a long time. Some yes, just not many. Loving the Diaz win and he should have won the belt. Hope his face heals and he got paid for that effort. I wouldn’t really want to have to face that razor fisted asian again in order to win the title.

That show was sureal! Is it just me, or did it seem like Gomi was toying with diaz until he got caught? It looked like he was faking, like a pro wrestler pretending to take a beating, I deffinitly wanna see him fight Diaz agian, I dont think he’ll be so careless next time! I was upset that the Vegas rules were no soccer kicks, coupled with the no elbows, it was too limited, but I agree the show was exciting. I would like to see Ufc elbows/octagon with soccer kicks allowed, and the penalties to boring fighters, that would make for a great show. I also like the way pride shows the WHOLE CARD, I felt a little ripped off last UFC, I was looking forward to the Machida fight, and they didnt show it. I like Joe Rogans announcing, and everything about the UFC production. I know I shouldnt say too much about the pride ring lady, and the Japanese version of Bruce Buffer, but that was sad. THe stands werent anywhere near full, and they kept showing shots of what appeared to be cheap Vegas prostitutes, like really cheap. All in all, it was a great show.

This was the first Pride event I ever watched, and like everyone else thought the fights were awesome. The last two fights of the night were unreal. And to have two fights in the middle of the card that lasted less than 1 minute combined. Unreal. Even my wife who hates MMA was watching.

But I did have one complaint that I didn’t see anyone mention. On the PPV showing, the audio was crap. It almost sounded like someones home video. The taped interviews/promos before the fight had such an echo, that I didn’t even really listen to them. It seemed like they didn’t have a direct audio feed into the TV production, and were relying on picking up the audio from the arena. And because of that the audio levels were all off, even the announcing was being drowned out. It really pissed me off.

Overall, best fights I have ever seen on one card (of course only been watching MMA for a little over a year).

Everyone is giving Trigg shit. But thats silly Misaki is a serious threat most recently winning the MW GP Tournament including defeating Dan Henderson…

Trigg went out with a game plan and executed it and kept on trying to pursue a better positon.. Also mind you if he were allowed to knee to the head like they would’ve in Japan he would’ve had him done for in side mount.

Anyways, after the PPV I hope everyone has had a chance to see that happened on Saturday.. I think we can all agree how it’d be nice if UFC could adopt some of Prides standards..

Run Em Down:
More Fights Less Bullshit. we got to see 9 fights at best at a UFC PPV you will see what 6 MAYBE 7 if the fights mostly go to a first or second round stoppages?
Less footage of Michael Clark Duncan and Kevin James over and over again and more fights.
UFC needs to bring back a walk way intro.. I think they’re at a point of popularity that they can afford a bigger arena to make up for the missed seating due to a walk in.
UFC should pursue a yellow card system of sorts, whether it be the 15 second variety EXC is doing or their own variation. But seeing fighters get warned, warned again, and then finally stood up made me curious as to if different UFC fights we’ve seen in the past would have different outcomes if they had to constantly pursue.
I also noticed that the refs also gave the fighters every chance in the world to fight until they absolutely had to stop the fight. I just wouldve had a feeling if the fight was in the octagon, Gomi wouldve been stopped in round one, Hansens armbar on Ireland wouldve been stopped a good 10 seconds before it was.. etc. etc. etc. etc.

Just curious what was the judo guys name???

Sokoudjo,is his name. I hope I spelled that right. But i wish we would of got to see more of this guy. Cuz it diddnt look like he even caught Nogueria with a clean shot and it still put him out cold

Every fighter has their day and their off days…

What wasn’t mentioned was the fact that Pride rules were not used. NSAC rules – 5 minute rounds & no head shots to downed opponents.

In some of the fights, you can see that the fighters are instinctual by winding up their legs for a soccer kick or a head stomp, and then they held themselves back from that. Too bad

Going back to Japan on April 8 will see the return of Pride rules, which, in my opinion are better for the fighter and the fans… well, not necessarily the one on the receiving end of a soccer kick or knee to the head when he’s down.

Then back to the U.S. on April 28 for another barn burner.

I’ll be broke when April is all said and done with all the MMA action planned.

Great show overall and good to see Chuck Norris in the crowd. Now I’ll have to shift focus for what could be the same shocking event outcome for UFC 68 with Randy/Sylvia, Hughes/Lytle & Franklin/MacdDonald who all have the potential to go in the opposite direction as Pride 33 did.

Yes, yellow cards are a must for UFC and also, the referee yelling, “Action, action!” when the human blanket is thrown.

Greg

i know trigg is boring but im glad he won that fight, Misaki has gotten too many close decisions in his favor

Robin said “Just curious what was the judo guys name???”

Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou was the guy’s name. I PVR’d the fight and have played it back and forth in slo-mo several times to determine how the punch landed. It looks like he threw a round-house left as Lil-Nog was coming in that caught Lil-Nog right on the jaw-hinge with mostly lower fore-arm/wrist, but it was a heavy shot nonetheless. As Lil-Nog was going down, he followed up with a short uppercut that also made contact. Lil-Nog was out before he hit the canvas.

Questions, thoughts, and notes:
Where does this place Diaz now in the LW division?
Nothing about Pride rules woulda changed the outcome, except Diaz’ elbows may have ended it earlier.
Was that the real Misaki?
I think so.
Was that the real Hendo?
Yes, but under Pride rules, I gotta give the rematch to Silva.
Do we want to see more of that judo guy from Hendo’s camp?
F**K YEAH!
Rua vs Liddell? Whaddya think?
Should Dana read this blog, watch that card, and think to himself, the fans aint as stupid as I thought? Yes.
$40 / 9 fights = $4.44 per fight or so
$40 / 5 fights = $8 per fight.
That’s why I normally spring for Pride and but download UFC from a torrent site then next day.
Gomi, btw, has a tendency to party alot ( first time in Vegas ) and not train when he doesnt think he needs to. Yay for my man Nick, but the next fight you’ll see a different Gomi. I just hope for the same result.

Oh yeah, to the ppl who call Diaz a washout, first of all he’s 23. Secondly, he lost 3 DECISIONS in a row. Diaz is a BJJ fighter and most of his work occurs on the ground. The UFC has admitted they have had a problem with judging since most judges come from boxing and are clueless to the ground game.
Diaz needed to come to Pride where he has a fair chance for his game to succeed. Take away the ground game, and you get kickboxing in a cage. Boring.

morethanufc, i dont think gomi was toying with him, it looked more like he came out throwing heaters and after he rocked diaz, he kept throwing hard, then diaz wethered the storm and gomi was gassed…ive never seen anyone take it to gomui like that…i think it was gomi out of shape and underestimating the heart and intensity of Diaz..gomi was backing away the whole fight, that was awesome…and that was the first time i think ive actually seen someone actually succeed with the gogoplata

Dude, I’ve been watching MMA or Shooto or Pancrase since the mid 90’s. Yes, I am old enough to have purchased the first UFC, yes I really did. I also bought the second one, but it was SO freaking violent, I gave up on it. I was used to pancrase and shooto that had rules, albiet not many, but more than the UFC back in the day.
Having said that, I have never seen a gogoplata before. I didnt even know that crazy move had a name until I read it on Sherdog. You think Diaz was saying to himself, “Holy shit, I been practicing this for years, but I never thought I’d use it!”

yeah i know man, its all eddy bravo esk, ive seen it attempted many times, locking the shoulder with the leg, but after that, it was all lossed….and i agree, Nick diaz was probably thinking, hmm, i was just trying to stay busy, the gogoplata actually worked, and on Gomi??

Actually if you had the opportunity to see the last PRIDE PPV – Shinya Aoki pulled off the “unicorn” submission hold known as the gogoplata on Joachim Hansen.

I think that although Silva looked VERY lethargic against Hendo (whether or not his sickness played a big role or not is a different story) he was hurt by the lack of knees/kicks in the 4-point stance. It’s definately a rule that favours grapplers, as Silva sprawled a shoot attempt by Hendo and could have had him in real trouble…BUT…no knees meant it was a neutral position at worst for the grappler who failed their shot. Why should someone who is making an attempt to put themselves in dominant position be shut down and then deny the other fighter the ability to be in the dominant position. It creates no deterrent to keep grapplers from continually shooting at the legs b/c they know they will not be put in harm’s way should they fail and should they succeed they have obtained a (very) favourable position.

While that’s not the reason the fight was lost – it’s definately a factor in that fight and others no less that could have saw very different outcomes if the “unified rules” weren’t so favourable to grapplers.

So none of you have to put yourself through the pain of downloading the Post Fight Press Conference ( even with an 8Mb transfer rate on Extreme 6 Ultra DSL it took like 6 mins ) I will give you the highlights:

There were none. Except….

Mr Sakakibara did not seem happy AT ALL. He didnt like the questions about how Hendo would defend two belts, he mosdef expected Gomi to win ( he didnt say it but didnt need to ), Diaz only has a 2 fight contract so it is doubtful he will get a rematch soon – “I hope so” is all he said, he wouldnt commit to Diaz getting a slot in the LW grand prix in May, and he really didnt like the questions about Pride being for sale.
I guess the only thing I got out of it is that the next Pride would be LIVE from Japan, no delay! That was certainly good news.

yeah i wouldnt imagine he was too happy at all….they were trying to showcase japanese talent in america, and the americans kinda took it to them…i figured he might be happy about silva losing, so now shogun can be in

pride 33 sorry to say was way better than the last couple of ufc fights. but the thing i like the most is that prides top fighters got the shit kicked out of them and made pride look stupid

Holy shit that was a epic battle btw Gomi and Diaz. Gomi looked like a one round wounder much like the BJ in his rematch with hughs. After Diaz weather the storm he took it to Gomi and won, gotta give props to the guy. As for the entire Pride 33 it was pretty intense although so was UFC 66.

Bring Diaz back UFC! Get him into the 155 division, and he will tear it up!

henderson has a big payday comming in the ufc.henderson is comming to the ufc. he will fight lidell if he beats jackson. when that happens that will be the biggest payday in the history of maa.this also means that from 170 to 205 weight classes are in danger because he can fight in all those classes and easly win them all.henderson I BELIVE is the third best fighter in the world behind feder and cro cop followed by lidell

Ok ok, HOLD ON!!!!!
Jezz, listen, I think some of you guys just started watching Pride. Hendo won one fight. He did a great job. But a little objective analysis reveals that:
1) it was in the US under unified rules so Silva had a disadvantage from figthing his usual game
2) Hendo has looked pretty mediocre in his last 4 fights or so. He got a decision win over Belfort ( Belfort!!!! ), and lost to Misaki. Oh yeah, the guy that got knocked out by that African Judo champion, lil Nog, subbed Hendo in like 7 mins in rd one just 1 1/2 yrs ago or so.
3) I am big Hendo fan, he’s in my top ten, but this was a huge upset.
4) Reports are trickling in that Silva was in the hospital the day before the fight. That is unconfirmed at this point, but more and more sources are reporting it. We’ll see.

Dont go calling the guy the 3rd best fighter in the world after one fight. He had a big night, he worked hard for it, and whooped Silva fair and square and that is all it was.

henderson fights guys about 20 to 40 pounds heaver than him all the time on short notice. has never been knocked out. another thing he always does no matter what size is take everybody down . right now the only guys in the ufc he would have trouble with in the ufc would be cro cop and silva at heavy because of silva being 6 8 and 270

alpha…take your 1st grade knowledge and have a timeout. read up. study. soak in some literature. watch more than one mma ppv then come back with some intelligent comments. its not silva. its sylvia. hendo is amazing. one of my top 10 as well mtufc. he also had a big big night. but lets not make him jesus. liddell would put him to sleep. on a side note…nick diaz is the toughest fighter i have ever seen in 10 years of watching mma. at 23 he will fight anyone, take a serious beating, get up, take more beatings…then either knock you out or submit you. the only way to beat him is to be a wrestler and lay on him for 3 rounds. if you try to g&p him, he will submit you. if you try to stand with him – lawler, gomi (two of the sickest strikers in the game at the time of their respective fights) – he will knock you the f out. if you dont like him, you have something wrong with you. he is the definition of tough as nails. and you have to love that.

“henderson fights guys about 20 to 40 pounds heaver than him all the time”

Who?

Tim Sylvia is ugly.

Awesome card. Definitely worth the buck. Too bad about the NSAC rules though, but all of their wins are greatly deserved. Henderson is one tough sob having such a hard chin like that. I was kinda shocked that it ended so fast (the thing that got to me was the followup by Henderson at the KOed Wand Ouch!). Diaz vs Gomi was clearly the fight of the night, both guys pummelling each other with Diaz having the clear advantage with longer reach. Gogoplata ftw! A rematch must definitely be set. PRIDE 33 = teh bomb!

Some guys are wusses and can’t take the punch and others aren’t. Henderson is one of the guys who are.

well its going to happen liddell is going to fight henderson this year.henderson could just as easy knock chuck .henderson has never been knocked out everone he fights at 205 is actully about 20 heaver than his actual weight .he also has faught some heavys like feders brother and some others

PRIDE 33 WAS THE FIRST PPV I BOUGHT AT HOME, I usually go to bars and pay $10 to see UFC. The Pride fight night was awesome, great primal buildup with crazy announcers, lights, fireworks etc…

THE GOMI/DIAZ FIGHT WAS THE BEST FIGHT EVER. Very exciting, and Diaz pulled out a win when it looked as though he was out.

GREAT HEADLINE WITH HENDERSON/SILVA AS WELL!

I love getting ALL the fights (9) instead of some…maybe UFC will learn a few tricks. I’ll go see UFC this weekend, but there isn’t fight I’m excited for.

I have to say, even though I would love to see all the best fighters in the world fight each other, there is some positive that has come from there being two large mma organizations competing for the top spot. They each get to do their own thing and then see what us fans like best about each one. If they want to survive, then they will start incorporating the best of both worlds.

That damn Tim Sylvia can’t keep his mouth outta anything. You need to worry about winning some fans you pansy!! Big safe ass baby praying not to loss your precious belt, boring almost every fan in the world. I hope you watched and took notes during all the Pride fights, cause your dragging the UFC down with your shit. Its a damn shame when people rather see someone you did beat twice be the champ. At least he will go in there and let it all hang out. Kill or be killed, kill something and eat it mr. hunter.

Ross Pointon would beat the ugly out of Tim Sylvia in two rounds or less. And Tim Sylvia is really ugly, so that’s saying something.

Ross Pointon is the future of MMA.

with steve os man crush of Ross pointon aside, Im with morthanufc and tim sylvia, hendo is bad as it gets, but hes still just a really good 185 pounder…i dont think wandy will ever be the same, Hendo can get the assist from Crocop on that one I think…If he in there with Chuck, exchanging like he did with Silva, Hendo will def be the first to drop..Chucks chin is solid. No to see him fight Anderson Silva would be really nice….But i do have a man crush on dan henderson and would love to see him win 2 pride blets, then sign a big contract with the ufc

Somewhere on UFCmania, someone posted about Diaz being a washout and then going and beating Prides best in Gomi.

Probably the same A Silva nuthugger who didnt realize Pride was saying the same thing about Silva washing out of Pride, then beating the indestructable Franklin. Just a thought.

I think that was Dana White.

Yeah Dana White is a scumbag.

Diaz is tough, he did lose a lot in UFC ( alot more than Silva did in PRIDE), but by no way should he be considered a UFC washout. He lossed to alot of tough guys, and after this confidence booster, i think he is definatley going to be a fighter to keep your eyes on

Geez guys – stop putting so much weight in the results. Although I loved the matches, they dont meant that much. The rules enforced by the nevada state athetic commission suck for most pride fighters, especially for guys like Silva.

Despire the boring fighting style I was happy with Trigg winning over Misaki. Misaki won way to often when it was a close decision, most recent upset for me was the win over Denis Kang in the GP finals.

As for Nog: I wonder if the guys sucking on Nogs balls will stop bashing CroCop for a loss to Randleman now that their fighter lost after 23 seconds.

Oh my god, please read the MMAWeekly article on the fighters medical suspension! Nearly every fighter of that evening has been suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for at least till april 11th … 3 days after the next Pride event (april 8th, where people hoped to see a diaz/goma rematch). Is the head of the commission Dana’s brother or something?

The medical examinations couldn’t have turned out better for the UFC, Pride might have a hard time filling the next card. (Diaz possibly out till late august .. are you kidding me!?)

I hope that the gomi loss means that we’ll have the chance to see him in the ufc fighting hughs and GSP

The automatic KO suspensions are normal, but how bout Hendo breaking his right hand? Good thing he used his left to KO Silva.
I had a feeling Diaz had a busted orbital, not suprisingly considering the swelling happened almost instantaneously.

And yes, me ( the poster, pick a new name!!), I hope we get to see Gomi in the UFC. I still dont think GSP can hang with Gomi, the styles match up way too well for Gomi. Hughes, the old Hughes, gnps or armlocks a victory in under 2 rds.

did anyone else notice that on MMAweekly.com rankings Gomi is not longer the number one lightweight in the world? Hayato Sakurai moved up to the top spot! I am very sad about the news on Nick Diaz not being in the Grand Prix. Thanks for passing on that info.

does anyone have any idea who will be fighting at the pride 34. i am a big fan of mma and after pride 33 pride moved wa up in my book.although the gomi and silva fights where terrible disapointing i cant wait to see the rematches in japan so i can see gomi destroy diaz and silva get his title back,and fight chuck and destroy him.i hate chuck!!!

Jimmy u made a great point were we pay 40bucks to watch pride and get to watch every single fight.if u notice it was one fight after the other no advertising lik the ufc between fights. i love the ufc but i think alot of people r goin to start watchin more of pride because they show every single fight.i refuse to order the ufc this weekend for one reason who the hell wants to watch these boring match ups and 2 reasons they wont even show u all the fights so from now on if they dont start showin all the ufc fights im goin to stick with pride

What does Tim know? He thinks He’s the best striker in the ufc. LOL

Guess who Rua is getting a shot at next? Shhhhh, dont tell anyone.

Well, I dont have it confirmed yet, since the damage to Hendos hand is pretty bad. He may not be able to fight for 6 months so it could be end of summer. But Pride is saying Shogun has earned a title shot, Shogun has asked for it and he usually gets what he asks for, and now that Silva is no longer standing in the way, it should happen soon.

The future of 205 as arrived. I just hope he can fight Machida at some point. Wow, that’s an awesome fight to chew on, aint it?

Pride just canceled there next US show. It was set for April. More pieces to this puzzle are falling into place.

thanks mtufc, im appointing you to the job of keeping me updated on the pride situation, you seem to have all the knowledge because i never find anything about them and this is my #1 website

Nah, I work nites right now. I have all day to sit and read UFC, MMA, Pride news between doing my day work at home and sleeping. It works out.
Yeah, I have kinda found a home here, too bad its dedicated to the UFC only. Nothing like this site anywhere for Pride.

Been meaning to ask you, Dude, you arent a moderator on MMAforums,com are you? There an MMADude there as well.

nope..thats must be an imposter, or maybe im the imposter…this is the only one i comment on and really look at…needless to say im the cooler of the dudes, trust me