Real Deal A Real Let Down
Posted by RB, 31 Oct 2006
By the time Pride 32: The Real Deal was finalised, a few days before the event took place, it had radically changed from the first lineup Pride had announced. Cro Cop, Fujita, and Silva would not be fighting, despite their inclusion on early promotional material, and days before the event Mark Hunt (who was scheduled to fight Butterbean in a boxing-rules match) was taken off the card due to unresolved legal issues preventing him from entering the US.
For Pride, such major adjustments and last minute changes are par for course, and despite the game of musical matchmaking in the run-up to the event, the card they delivered was crammed full of names and serious talent: Fedor, Shogun, Barnett, Henderson, Randleman, Baroni, Lawler, Belfort, Coleman, and Butterbean were all there to introduce the casual American fan to the 'other' MMA organisation.
Two of the most intriguing match-ups were Kevin Randleman vs Mauricio Rua and Dan Henderson vs Vitor Belfort, and then there were world class heavyweights such as Fedor & Barnett competing (against Mark Coleman and Pawel Nastula, respectively) -- very welcome additions to any card.
Yet glancing at the betting lines a couple of weeks beforehand, I began to have doubts about how the fights were actually going to hold up: Fedor Emelianenko -868, Kazuhiro Nakamura -901, Josh Barnett -750, Mauricio Rua -305, Phil Baroni -392... the lines read. The only bouts the bookies were expecting to be competitive were Villasenor (-128) vs Lawler (+118) and Henderson (-209) vs Belfort (+189). As far as seeing some high quality competition goes, I thought, these odds can't be a good sign.
As it turned out, they weren't: in many respects Pride 32 turned out to be a sub-par show, largely due to a dearth of competition. There was plenty of talent, but less competition -- a matchmaking issue we have seen before in Pride.
Still, it was a pretty entertaining card, and there were a whole bunch of positives: the fireworks, pyrotechnics, and lighting were all impressive and added to the unique and exciting atmosphere that a Pride event often does generate -- helped along by the stylised graphics, the crazy and brilliant vocal talents of Lenne Hardt, and some well-strung together fight sequences played back in slow motion accompanied by an orchestral soundtrack, which are extremely effective at conveying a sense of grandness and beauty about the sport.
Like I say, the show's problems were down to the actual fights rather than the production. Many of the fights turned out to be as uncompetitive as the odds had suggested, and others were subject to bad refereeing. Both TKOs of the night -- Robbie Lawler over Joey Villasenor and Butterbean over Sean O'Haire -- were stopped early. Not incredibly early, but at least two or three strikes before the other fighter could be deemed to have actually stopped intelligently defending himself — just enough to leave an empty feeling in this spectator's stomach.
This was especially the case in the Lawler/Villasenor fight. Lawler mistakenly thought he had knocked Villasenor out with a knee and raised his hands briefly in victory, apparently influencing the referee. Villasenor, however, could be seen to be very much awake, aware, and actively defending. Lawler swung a couple of wild caveman punches down on him, both hitting the arms, and the ref stepped in and called the fight. The commentators ate it up, but it was obvious the fight had been deprived of a decisive ending, and the icing was taken off what could have been a very impressive cake (had Lawler been given the full opportunity to finish).
Questionable refereeing also affected the Barnett fight, where the fighters were stood up at a very strange point in the action when Nastula was dominating Barnett on the ground—this time the commentators picked up and emphasised the fact that the call was dubious.
As for the rest of the Barnett/Powell fight, it was among the best of the night. What should have been a day in the office for Barnett turned into a dangerous fight for The Baby Faced Assasin as he was outdone both on the feet and on the ground for most of the fight. Powell rocked him standing, prevented his takedown attempts, got a couple of his own, gained the dominant position on the ground, and generally looked the better fighter on the night.
Then he made the mistake of momentarily exposing a leg and Josh suddenly had an ankle lock sunk in, with Powell tapping out seconds later. Ultimately then it was the incredible effectiveness of Josh's submission game that was once again demonstrated -- above even the dominating performance Powell gave before the end. It is also worth noting that Powell tested positive for several banned substances post-fight.
The Mauricio Shogun vs Kevin Randleman matchup was in my eyes the most promising fight of the night, and I had extremely high expectations for it. Randleman had shown incredible enthusiasm and mental preparedness in his recent interviews, and come the day of the weigh-ins he was the usual specimen he has been throughout his career -- something his recent spate of surgeries could have changed. Knowing that a Kevin Randleman performing on peak can be one of the most dangerous and explosive fighters in the ring, and convinced that this was Kevin Randleman's time, I picked him on this fight and put down a hundred quid to this end.
Come fight time, Randleman enters the ring and the first thing I notice is that he doesn't look to have the same level of excitement as he had shown in the days running up to the event—he looks about ten times more excited than he had done before: I have never seen a fighter look so close to a caged wild animal about to be turned loose on its first meat in weeks. Randleman was almost knocking over the referee bursting towards Shogun with uncontainable impatience, well before the fight had started, and once the official got out of the way and allowed a clear path between the fighters, 'The Monster' exploded across the ring and instantly drove Shogun to the canvas with a great double leg takedown. Half a second later he was caught in a tight kneebar from which he could not escape.
What had the potential to be a great fight turned into a two minute pro wrestling-style drama where Randleman winced and screamed in agonising pain through the kneebar until everyone watching was preparing themselves mentally for the crack that would signal the bone had finally snapped and broken through the flesh. Randleman hung on until there was absolutely no option but to tap, but at the same time showed almost no viable attempt to escape the hold. At several points it looked like Randleman could have escaped if he had been making intelligent efforts to do so, but his only strategy for survival seemed to be to scream in pain until Shogun was overcome by a profound sense of empathy and let the hold loose.
As for the night's main event, Mark Coleman vs Fedor Emelianenko, Hammer House was again represented with an incredible showing of heart while falling drastically short of what is required to take home the 'W'. Coleman made a very determined attempt to take Fedor down, and was eventually rewarded in the second when he succeeded in doing so. For all his trouble, he was armbarred almost as quickly as Randleman was kneebarred, and tapped out sensibly before Fedor was forced to make tough decisions about inflicting permanent damage to his opponent's limbs.
Despite Coleman's fiery spirit in the ring (he showed a much greater determination in his takedown attempts compared to his fight against Cro Cop, for example), Fedor never looked to be in trouble, applied the armbar with ease, and commented to the effect that he protracted the fight since it was his first bout in ten months and he wanted to get some decent ring time in.
After Fedor's hand was raised in victory, Coleman's two girls were brought into the ring, creating an extremely awkward viewing experience. As they hugged a battered and bloodied Coleman, crying their eyes out, the camera zoomed in as Coleman consoled them with, 'Daddy feels great... Daddy is so glad it's over... Now we can go and have some fun.' To make matters worse, the camera then followed as Coleman picked his kids up and took them over to meet Fedor, the man who just beat up Daddy.
'The Russian Experiment' did not seem to appreciate this impromptu get together, appearing unsettled and embarrassed by the situation -- even more so as Coleman twice playfully punched him on the jaw to show his girls how there were no hard feelings between the two men. It is fair to say that the decision of the Pride officials to allow the girls into the ring at that time, and additionally the decision of the cameraman to focus on their distressed reactions for several minutes, can only be described as 'extremely ill-advised'.
Then again, what is a Coleman fight these days without some kind of melodramatic post-fight drama?
Pride will be returning to Vegas in February, it has been announced, and hopefully by then they will have improved upon what can be seen as the failings of this first card and its uncompetitive matchmaking. Then, hopefully, we will see something a lot closer to an A-grade Pride FC card in the States.
