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[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

** Isn't totally confirmed.

 

But just the thought of it... OH BOY MOTHERFUCKER!

 

Winner gets Fedor at the November Tokyo Dome show,

[Guest Last Warrior]

That would be a fantastic match. I think that Noguiera will take Cro Cop and get his rematch. Its a shame as I would really like to see a Cro Cop / Fedor fight because I think Cro Cop has probably the best chance of beating him in the world at the moment.

 

Noguiera will have to have really made some improvements if he is to come near to Fedor next time around because I was amazed by the seeming comfortability with which Emelionenko beat him at PRIDE 25.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

When I first heard this I was like "YES!", then I was like "WHAT?", because it's such an odd - yet natural - match.

 

It's like this:

 

Cro Cop has no chance on the ground.

 

Nog has no chance standing.

 

The fight will be decided on whether or not (a)Nog can take Mirko down and (b)whether or not Cro Cop can get up from Nogs guard.

 

Cro Cop will not play the ground-game with Noguiera and will most likely sprawl like a motherfucker to avoid it and stand-up whenever possible if he gets taken down.

 

Nog (hopefully) will not bang with Cro Cop and will (probably) try to take him down quickly. Nog had a bit of a problem taking down Fedor, and while Fedor is the superior wrestler to Cro Cop, I don't see Cro Cop making it easy for the brazilian.

 

Hard to call, but I'm going with Noguiera.

[Guest benoitrulz4life]

Where did you get this info? I haven't seen anything about it on Sherdog yet.

[Guest Lei Tong]

Well Noguiera has always had mediocre take downs, so getting Cro-Cop down is going to be EXTREMELY difficult for him.

 

I'd say his best bet is to try the shoot-to-pull-gaurd transition that guys like Ricco & Mir have tried when they fail to get the takedown normally. From there, he'll either have to quickly to try to slap on a submission or go forthe sweep, giving him top position and a bit more time to figure out what to do next.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

It's on the Sherdog MB.

 

Meltzer said it was in negotiations and the LAW also reported it - nothing in terms of 'mainstream' confirmation.

 

Needless to say, if Mirko vs. Nog happens it's gonna be a dance.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

*BUMP* - Not much MMA discussion going on the board as of right now, so I say we use this as an official thread for the PPV or something.

 

I too, would have to take Cro Cop in this battle. I love Minotauro, but I think his takedowns aren't good enough, and on top of that Filipovic has pretty much the best sprawl in the game right now. He's so quick and has such good reflexes that it's scary, considering how big he is. Speaking of which, WHEN Nog gets frustrated he will resort to the "guard takedown", like someone said earlier. Since Cro Cop is so big, he will use his strength to pull out rather quickly, and just throw Nog away. We all saw how he shrugged off Herring in at the last PPV.

 

I look forward to Fedor-Cro Cop, but I'm really hoping Nog proves me wrong and somehow pulls this one out. I think his only chance is to outlast Cro Cop, as his endurance can be somewhat of a factor. He has to take it slow, since I still believe Herring could've had the victory had he not rushed into things. Mirko's endurance is somewhat of a factor, since he hasn't been involved in a match that has gone three rounds, at least when fighting under rules similar to Pride. Also, as shown due to his fights with Sapp and Fedor, Nog can take a beating and keep on working. So in other words, I think his only hope is to take it slow and push the fight to it's limit. I doubt he can, but I'm hoping. Maybe I'm just jumping on the Cro Cop bandwagon too soon.

 

Isn't this taking place on two nights? So does that mean there will be two PPVs? Or will they just show a taped version of both back to back, resulting in like four hours or something? Actually, the only other match announced not including the GP is the Minotauro-Cro Cop match, so I'm assuming that they want to keep it as short as possible, and therefore will not include many other matches. Finally, is Fedor expected to fight?

 

Heh, sorry for all the questions, just had to ask. Here's hoping Arona takes the GP....

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

 

He'd post....fuckers.....

[Guest Brush with Greatness]

Pride announces tournament bracketing

 

[email protected]

 

Dream Stage Entertainment just announced the bracketing for the Pride Grand Prix tournament on 8/10 at the Saitama Super Arena:

 

*Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Vanderlei Silva

*Kiyoshi Tamura (announced officially as the final competitor) vs. Hidehiko Yoshida

*Quinton Jackson vs. Ricardo Arona

*Chuck Liddell vs Alistair Overeem

 

Apparently the brackets for the next round have not been set though.

 

Thoughts?

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

I heard that there aren't technically official brackets, that they are going to take the winners and match them up as they please right after each round. Am I the only one who doesn't like that decision?

[Guest Army Eye]

OMG.. Poor Sakuraba. How could they do this to him?

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

*Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Vanderlei Silva

 

This is... um... interesting... I know _why_ they are doing it again, but I don't know *why* they are doing it again... ya know??? Though I haven't seen all of their second fight I heard that Sak was winning before he got slammed - hopefully it will be a competitive fight... *crosses fingers*

 

*Kiyoshi Tamura (announced officially as the final competitor) vs. Hidehiko Yoshida

 

This is the worst fight on the card (though still good). It's clear they just wanted to feed someone to Yoshida so he (a japanese fighter) could advance. Which I don't have a lot of problems with it if he fights an exciting fight.. I'll leave that one up to fate.

 

*Quinton Jackson vs. Ricardo Arona

 

WHY?! Well, we'll see how good Rampages ground skills are. Arona beat Henderson and Henderson is a better wrestler, but Jackson has better stand up, and I don't know if Jackson will play the ground game... This is probably the hardest fight to call.

 

*Chuck Liddell vs Alistair Overeem

 

Coincidence two kickboxers are put up against each other?? It should make for an exciting fight, but the winner is obviously going to face Yoshida - a master grappler. Pride just booked Yoshida in the finals in my view. Whether he will make it their or not is up to him, but the match makers have set the easiest path possible

 

Final Thoughts: Not the card that I would have made (of course, I don't have a hard on for Yoshida) but you can't really make a bad card with that amount of talent. Pride made 4 very different matches, a kickboxer vs kickboxer, Japanese vs. Japanese, Jackson vs. Arona , and a revenge match. A great deal of variety, let's hope it pays off.

[Guest Army Eye]

I heard that there aren't technically official brackets, that they are going to take the winners and match them up as they please right after each round. Am I the only one who doesn't like that decision?

That smells pretty bad too me..

 

And note that Yoshida has the easiest match. Not a surprise there.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

That's what I meant, it makes it very obvious that the thing is heavily favoured for Yoshida, let's hope we get Silva and Jackson moving on with Liddell. I don't think Yoshida would handle that too well, in any of those situations.....

 

What am I saying?!? A-RO-NA! A-RO-NA! A-RO-NA!

[Guest benoitrulz4life]

I don't like this, these matchups just puzzle me.

 

Yoshida vs. Tamura (work)

Saku vs. Silva (I think Saku can pull this out).

Rampage vs. Arona (Rampage by TKO)

Liddell vs. Overeem (Liddell by KO)

 

Yoshida and Tamura have no business in this tournry. Much rather would have seen Randleman and a Gracie instead, but I can understand the former's inclusion.

 

As for superfights, I've heard rumblings of a Cro Cop/Vovchanchyn and Fedor/Coleman matchups. This would seem to leave Nogueira out in the cold, but take these matchups with a grain of salt. Yet, the Cro Cop/Vovchanchyn matchup has been "confirmed" by one of Cro Cop's training partners, and Fedor may have an eye injury from the Fujita fight, so who knows.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Apparently, Yoshida and Tamura are very over in Japan...

 

...I don't like it either, but if it's true it makes sense.

[Guest The Son of Sting]

I dont like the brackets, so here is what i would like to see.

 

Jackson vs Silva - if one or both lose and dont meet in the tourny it would lessen the match if they did it at a later date.I just want to see it from the get go.

 

Yoshida vs. Tamura - fine because they want a native to go on,altough i would have put Sakuraba vs Yoshida.

[Guest Dangerous A]

Personally I thought they should've gone with Yoshida v Sakuraba in the first along with Jackson v Silva. Get the grudge out right now. It looks like they are trying for one of two things in the finals

 

1) get at least one japanese in the finals, if not two

 

2) if number 1 can't happen, then they are hoping for a Jackson v Silva final.

 

As for Cro Cop vs Nogueira, WHOO HOO!! Yeah for me and all other MMA fans. What a match to have. This Pride is a definite must order on my list. Fuck Summerslam. My money is going to Pride.

 

Also, I'm going to go out on a limb and say Jackson will win the whole thing with Silva as my close second.

[Guest Jimmy Saint]

Looks fairly good to me. Sak taking another beating from Silva again is'nt really something I really am desperate to see though. Neither is the Yoshida vs. Tamura fight. Although I expect these pairings will create some cracking fights in the first round.

 

 

I think if Yoshida can win [or when he wins] his first round match, then whoever he draws in the second round will prove to everyone whether he is the real deal or not. I hope its Silva

 

 

Can't really understand why Silva vs Jackson in the first round would make any sense. They are the two favourites for the tournement and its obviolsy hoped by Pride they will meet in the final. Which if it did happen would be a pretty epic way to finish the comp.

 

 

Anyway can't wait and heres hoping QJ slams Arona on his head and out of the tournement in the first round.

[Guest The Son of Sting]

Meltzer says in latest observer that Cro Cop will fight Vovchanchyn.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

That's A LOT better than Cro Cop vs. Nog... stylistically speaking.

[Guest Doomsault]

Yeh, like I said earlier, Crop Cop/Igor has been confirmed by a training partner of Mirko's. Take that for what it's worth, though this guy did confirm Mike Bencic (on Cro Crop's team) as Arona's replacement at Pride 26 and nobody believed him.

[Guest benoitrulz4life]

Fuck, my brother needs to sign out when he's done posting. All the above info was actually from me, since Doomsault just lurks in the General Chat folder and dosen't even follow MMA.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Suuuuuure...

 

Quit trying to steal Doomies thunder BR4L, that's just sad

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

I guess I'm not the only one who uses that for the wink thing, only to end up with a disappointed smiley.

 

Sak has stated that he has been training for six hours a day, NOT in the Takada Dojo, and he has made statements where he has actually talked some trash. He mentioned something about getting his two wins back and than some. With all that said, I still can't imagine him tapping out Silva. But he really should've won the fight with Elvis, which humbled him, and he may surprise. I still expect Silva to TKO him within the first five minutes though.

 

Yoshida will probably choke out Tamura, but we've already said enough about that situation.

 

I expect Arona to beat Jackson by submission, most likely a keylock or armbar. There's too much hype on Jackson, and I believe that Arona's ground skills are something that Rampage has never come across. To me, this is the best fight of the first round, with the seeds 1 and 3 squaring off (at least by Vegas oddsmakers). I still think Jackson will rip apart in the pre-fight interview though.

 

Liddell will use all of his intangibles to beat Overeem, who just doesn't seem to have 'it'. He doesn't have that edge that seperates a good fighter from a great fighter. Chuck learned a hard lesson against Randy, and has probably been training for this GP longer than anyone else has.

 

Odds for Pride Total Elimination:

 

101 Kazushi Sakuraba 9.25

102 Hidehiko Yoshida 5.40

103 Vanderlei Silva 4.15

104 Quinton Jackson 4.00

105 Chuck Liddel 5.00

106 Ricardo Arona 4.50

107 Alistair Overeem 7.25

108 Kiyoshi Tamura 10.50

 

Interesting to say the least....

[Guest benoitrulz4life]

Yeah, but odds show who people are going to bet on the most. Jackson is the most popular choice of victory, so therefore he has the lowest number. After the bookies get bets placed on the fighters they then tweak the numbers based on amount of money placed on a fighter and their own personal decisions.

 

As for Arona beating Jackson, I see Arona getting a couple takedowns but not controlling the fight to any extent. Jackson has good takedown d and good sub d.

 

Sak sounds pumped for his fight with Vanderlei, for obvious reasons. A loss for Sak could mean the end of his career as well. Barring any freak injuries, I see Sak taking this one by late 3rd round submission or decision.

 

Don't give a shit about Tamura or Yoshida. At least if the match is a work it will be entertaining. Here's hoping neither one of them can continue to the next round and one of the other losers takes their place.

 

Liddell will knock out Overeem. Everybody jumped off the Chuck bandwagon after his loss to Couture, and I don't see Overeem beating a seasoned fighter like Chuck.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Minotauro Comments on Cro-Cop

7-10-2003 6:34 PM PST

 

Tatame Editor spoke with Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira today. According to Minotauro, his match against Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic at the upcoming PRIDE Grand Prix is almost confirmed.

 

But, the brazilian fighter is still waiting for Cro-Cop's response. "I accepted the fight as soon as PRIDE contacted me, but Mirko didn't give his "ok" yet. I have being trainning bigtime for this fight. If he accepts, it will be the confrontation of Giant Hunters!" said Minotauro in an exclusive interview to Tatame magazine just a few minutes ago before this news posting.

 

Minotauro and Cro-Cop are the only two fighters who have defeated Bob Sapp.

 

-sherdog

 

http://www.sherdog.com/viewnews.cfm?newsid...ZlAplAAqFMnVdAs

 

?????

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

"Giant Hunters"? Good thing Minotauro can kick ass, he's no Arona on the mic...

[Guest The Son of Sting]

Cro Cop vs Herring drew a 70.0 (not a misprint) in Croatia.

 

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