Lei Tong

Frank's matches seemed mostly legit. And yes, that's Ken sporting the ponytail.

It wasn't worked, Pancrase matches really weren't worked per se, but sometimes fighters like Funaki, Suzuki, and Shamrock were asked to "take it easy" on their opponents, i.e. make them look better than they were. In early Pancrase, there was a big disparity in the talent level. You had Funaki, the Shamrocks, Bas, and Minoru Suzuki at the top, and they pretty much ruled the roost, with guys like Manabu Yamada and Mo Smith sometimes gettin' in on the action, but those first fighters were usually the cream of the crop. RRR, I love ya, but lots, and I do mean LOTS of early Pancrase matches were works. Suzuki was one of the worse offenders, though not alone in this case. There were some fighters (Bas comes to mind) who seemed to be involved in few-to-no works, but many guys who either faded out or simply left as Pancrase started to phase out works in '96 are up for debate. And yes, that includes Kenny Sham:

One match I love that most others don't (at least not to the same extent) is Hayato Sakurai vs. Tetsuji Kato.

True enough. I would argue that he hasn't been set-up with a good fighter in the <190 range since he defeated Minowa in DEEP. IMO, he could put up a good fight with quite a few of the best 185lbs. fighters in the world. See, now this is where we disagree. Penn, Ludwig, Kondo & others are guys who were brough in to lose matches that most people believed they had almost no chance to win. Some overcame the odds, some didn't. But regardless of what was epected of them, I don't consider those guys cans. On the other hand, you could have an evenly matched bout between KENGO & Wes Sims, yet both guys would still be cans.

Yeah, Arona took down Fedor a few times in their fight.

I did. Are you saying he wasn't expected to lose against Sapp? People gave him as good a chance as they gave BJ vs. Hughes. I would like to think referring to Tamura as a can was a creative liberty along the lines of saying Coleman was the first guy who could take Fedor down, but I guess not. And damn, the stink of some of these guys' ground games permeates through the screen. I mean, at least Leben knows how to pull guard. How some of these guys have submission wins on their records boggles my mind.

I think only UFC has fighters' pay made public. Other groups' payments come mostly from word-of-mouth.

Chuck has never had above-average cardio, IIRC. Also, I don't think a few months with Bravo are going to help much. The gap between him & Randy on the ground is not going to get much closer with that much training. Personally, I think he would've been better off finally learning how to tighten his punches & defense up.

My need to be correct < My laziness

Wild guess: Was supposed to fight Tank, but got injured and they went with Kimo instead.

Oh *smacks head* I forgot. Tomato Cans are what Tamura gets because he hasn't been able to beat legit competition in years. I always forget that. Hey, I doubt he wasn't owed some sort of payback for putting acting like he can't defend the dreaded Ezekial choke.

I actually referenced that Wiuff interview before his recent Euphoria win. Seems like his new emo lifestyle has caused some memory problems, because not only did Vladimir treat him like a ragdoll, he did it with a 30lbs. weight DISADVANTAGE. And what do you know... I'm rewatching the fight now for a good laugh.

I mentioned Terrell still being under Pancrase contract and probably returning a while ago, though I may have made a typo. Also, the Matyushenko/Wiuff match was a mugging. Plain & simple.

While I'm not familiar with the UG stuff, the basic consensus of the RITC fans that I mentioned is that while he always was something of a cocky bastard w/a tough guy attitude, but it got exponentially worse as he slimmed down. While beating Salaverry would further prove the guy's skills, 185 has a lot of talented fighters in it, and compared to fighters out there who have consistently beaten top competition, Riggs' resume is a bit lacking.

It wasn't even mentioned on the UFC 40 telecast, and was instead later aired on the UFC's 2002 New Year's Eve show. I have the fight on my comp somewhere, and it's quite a fun thrashing.

Also, I wouldn't go so far as to say Riggs has great wrestling or submission defense jsut yet. So far, it looks like he's proficient in both areas, with both being supplemented by his strength at 185lbs.

- One dimensional or not, Rodrigo had solid wins over Sakurai, Takase & Sasaki, and was widely considered a top 10 MW. Hughes, while he's looked beatable, still actually HASN'T been beaten yet since BJ did it, and is once again the #1 WW in the world. While BJ's fought mostly 10-20 guys since the Hughes fight, the fact is he's still been successful while moving up in weight when few MMA fighters can win even a single meaningful fight at a higher weight class than where they start their careers. - Actually, a few guys i know who've followed RITC for a while have said that Riggs is indeed an asshole outside of the cage, so take that for what it's worth.

Riggs' loss is long forgotten because aside from Doersken, his competition has been as solid as BJ Penn's belly. I'll admit Riggs could be a force at 185, but I'll wait until he beats a couple more top 15-esque guys before I stop loathing him enough to give him praise. I'm not disagreeing that Ryuta could beat Murilo at this point in Busta's career, but the sheer fact that he could is simply sad. That's all I was really getting at.

I stopped reading when Tamura was reffered to as a "tomato can," regardless of chances against Sapp. In regards to TUF, does anyone knows what other fighter's tried out for this show? The only name I remember is Denis Kang, but I've rumours about Nathan Marquardt, who (along with most guys in Pancrase's 183lbs. top ten) more than likely could've tore the MW's currently on the show, and put on exciting matches while doing so.

Let's put it this way: I dislike Alex Steibling and HATED the amount of hype this kid was getting at one point. Needless to say, I laughed my balls off as he rattled off 4 losses in a row. But I laughed even harder when Riggs utterly blew it against him.

I pray Salaverry's spinning back kick has improved since the Gono loss, and that he hits Riggs with one so hard it collapses a lung. UH!

Let it be known that Ryuta sucks, and a loss to him would be as sure a sign as any for Murilo to hang them up.

Your TUF MW winner:

Usually replays around midnight on Friday/Saturday & Saturday/Sunday, as well as sometime in the early evening on Sunday, I think.

If Diego were less even slightly less idiotic, he'd probably me much easier to root for.