Gomi vs Ishida has just been announced for NYE.
Pride card keeps getting better and better ....
Ohh..and also Shogun vs Nakamura has been confirmed.
Too bad, I liked the Cro Cop - Shogun rumored match better. Still a good fight though.
NICE!
ishida will be shooting doubles like its going out of style
OH SHIT HOLLA FRONT SON! T-BLOOD GUN RUN THE LIGHTWEIGHT DIVISION!
Nice.
Not for belt?
TTT for Shogun finishing Nakamura's career. That boring mofo sux and wins lame decisions (bwahaha@Kondo v Naka').
would have been good but nontitle fights involving champs are senseless to me
Great fight. THey are really trying to enforce Gomi's undisputed status as the #1 LW in the world.
Wow, there is really no reason Gomi vs. Ishida should not be for the belt. It is still a great fight, but the belt should be on the line. Ishida has earned his shot.
It doens't matter because a title fight is guaranteed for Ishida if he wins.
At least Pride will be correcting the non title bs next year by making them defend thier titles more.
"It doens't matter because a title fight is guaranteed for Ishida if he wins."
Actually it matter a lot if they give their champs a do over before they even fight for the first time. Talk about protectionism. I'm glad they announced they will fix that major problem on 2007.
This makes no type of sense. Ishida is the real Pride champion, if this isn't a title fight and he wins that means he'd have to fight 3 times to finally get the belt around his waist.
""It doens't matter because a title fight is guaranteed for Ishida if he wins.""
lol, it must be nice to be a champ in Pride where you have to lose twice in a row to the same guy to lose your belt.
But who said this is a non-title fight? Fedor vs Hunt is, apparently.
It's obvious that there is a huge difference in the way that Japanese and American cultures view and handle the "title shot."
This much HAS to be obvious to everyone by now.
The Japanese just aren't title defence obsessed. And when they do up a title fight, they make a spectacle of it (with the nat'l anthems, the reading from the scroll by Takada, the flowers, etc. etc.) and draw it up to be some kind of legendary night.
It floors me that American fans continue to come here and go "why, why, why, why... I don't understand."
Well shit... I'm not Japanese, I've never been to Japan... but by now it has to be evident to any rational person that there are big differences, culturally, between the USA and Japanese mentalities.
Take the occasional freak show match.
OR the tragic hero storylines (ie: Sakuraba)
OR the way they handle title defences...
Anyone who continues to look at this through an American perspective and ignore and get pissed off that Pride follows a mandate that is directed at Japanese cultural perspective... well shit, I just don't get the bitching.
Do I think Ishida-Gomi should be for the title? Of course. But I also realize that my perspective on these things probably doesn't jive with the Japanese perspective on it. And that's as simple as it is.
Well, what difference does it make since Pride will be bought out by Zuffa or go out of business after this show.
Considering Pride desperately needs the American market they will be changing their tune.
Besides, not many cultures are as American-like as the Japanese. When they decided to modernize they actually considered banning the Japanese language and adopting English. That whole cultural differences thing is at least 70% bullshit every time it's brought up on here.