Pride FC 10 Return of the Warriors

This is my write up of Pride FC 10 Return of the Warriors, which took place on August 27, 2000 in the Seibu Dome, an outside arena, in Japan.

This Pride was crazy!  If you get a chance to watch it, I highly recommend that you do.

Accompanying Quadros as commentator for this event was Eddie Bravo.  Seeing Bravo in a suit with short hair was pretty awesome.  He also did a good job in Bas Rutten's absence.

The first fight was Belfort and Matsui.  Vitor won the decision with his ground and pound, even though both rounds had pretty slow starts.

Wanderlei Silva versus Guy Mezger was the next fight and if you have not seen it, check it out.  In the beginning, Mezger is picking Silva apart with his stand up.  Wandy hits Mezger with one of his wild punches and Mezger gets rocked.  Silva stays on him and knocks him out.  After the fight, Silva challenges Sakuraba.

The next match up was Giant Ochi and Ricco Rodriguez.  Rodriguez mentions how he wanted to win by submission, because the Japanese fans appreciate submission victories the most.  Rodriguez ends up in mount during the fight and finishes it by smothering Giant Ochi with his chest.  The English-speaking announcer called it a "body choke".  I had never seen or heard of this before, and it seemed a little awkward.  I don't know if the Japanese fans appreciated this more than a knockout, but Rodriguez got the victory.

Gilbert Yvel versus Gary Goodridge came next.  Coleman is in Goodridge's corner and had been training Gary since Yvel's weakness on the ground was exposed in his last fight, with Belfort.  The first strike of the fight is a really quick head kick by Yvel and he knocks Goodridge out, hard.  Really impressive kick, I was blown away.

Next came Igor Borisov against Mark Kerr.  Kerr got the takedown and from Borisov's guard, and uses the neck crank.  He held it for a while but Borisov could not escape and tapped out.  Borisov looked really hurt after the fight and had to be taken out on a stretcher.  

Enson Inoue and Igor Volchanchyn fought next.  Inoue wore gi pants, apparently in an attempt to hold Volchanchyn in guard easier.  Volchanchyn did spend most of the match in Inoue's guard but he got absolutely pummeled by Volchanchyn.  He kept trying for submissions, so I had to give him a lot of credit, but once the round was over, he couldn't even stand.  His corner men had to drag him to the corner and the doctor would not let it continue.  Volchanchyn won.

The next bout was Kazuyuki Fujita against Ken Shamrock.  Don Frye was in Fujita's corner.  Fujita kept trying to take Shamrock down, but Shamrock stuffed it every time.  Shamrock was ruthless with his punches and had Fujita rocked a couple times.  Shamrock did get a yellow card for holding the ropes to stop a suplex.  Fujita had Shamrock in the corner and Shamrock was talking to his corner.  He told them to throw in towel and the fight was over.

Tokimitsu Ishizawa versus Ryan Gracie came next.  This fight ended when Gracie let loose with a flurry of strikes while Ishizawa was trapped in the corner.

The last fight was Kazushi Sakuraba and Renzo Gracie.  The first round was pretty close and relatively uneventful.  In the second round Gracie had Sakuraba's back while standing and Sakuraba had one of Gracie's arms.  Sakuraba spins out and brings Gracie down and lands with a kimura that broke or dislocated Gracie's arm.  The referee stopped the fight and Sakuraba defeats another Gracie. 

Just in fighter name recognition, this event was amazing, but the fights themselves were incredible and made Pride 10 Return of the Warriors the best Pride I've watched yet.