Pride News

Underground
1

TOTAL ELIMINATION 2004 MATCH UPS!

From Dream Stage Entertainment
April 14, 2004
LOS ANGELES, California - Seven match ups have been announced for the sixteen man heavyweight tournament, TOTAL ELIMINATION 2004, which will take place on April 25th, 2004 from the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.  The event is scheduled to debut on North American pay per view on same day delay.

In addition, a new participant has been added to the card---Naoya Ogawa.  The 6'4", 253-pound Ogawa is a silver medallist in Judo (at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games) and brings in a mixed martial arts record of 5-0.

Fight Card:

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mark "The Hammer" Coleman
Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira vs. Hirotaka Yokoi
Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Kevin "The Monster" Randleman
"The Texas Crazy Horse" Heath Herring vs. Yoshiki Takahashi
Murilo "Ninja" Rua vs. Sergei Kharitonov
Naoya Ogawa vs. Stefan "Blitz" Leko
Paulo Cesar "Giant" Silva vs. Henry "Sentoryu" Miller

Previously announced participant Ron "H20" Waterman is still on the fightcard.  The remaining participants and match-ups for the opening round will be announced shortly.

The schedule for the tournament is as follows:

PRIDE FC 16-Man Heavyweight Tournament

TOTAL ELIMINATION 2004
April 25, 2004
Saitama Super Arena
 (Opening Round)

CRITICAL COUNTDOWN 2004
June 20, 2004
Saitama Super Arena
(Second Round)

FINAL CONFLICT 2004
August 15, 2004
Saitama Super Arena
(Semi-Finals and Finals)

PRIDE FC: TOTAL ELIMINATION 2004 will premiere on North American pay per view through iNDEMAND, DIRECTV, DISH NETWORK, UrbanXtra, TVN1, Bell Express Vu, and Viewer's Choice Canada on Sunday, April 25th, 2004.  The premiere time is 9:00pm EST, 6:00pm PST and the count down show is at 8:30pm EST, 5:30pm PST.  For additional replay times, please contact your pay per view provider or pridefc.com. 

Participants and fight card are subject to change.

For more information on PRIDE FC, visit pridefc.com!

2

miller is the only pointless addition to the tourney, but he will make for a comical match against the giant.... i am actually looking forward to every fight on this card so far. if sylvia gets added to the 8th fight this will be the greatest tournament of all time.

3

Nougeria gets a can thats fair.

4

Yokoi Vs. Noguiera will be a surprisingly good matchup...those of you who've seen Yokoi know he's know slouch on the ground, though I don't think his standup can compare to Noguiera's after all the training he's done lately.

5

no, its the brazilian giant pro wrestler with long curly hair

6

lol.

Some good matchups, but I'm still left wanting, just a bit.

7

wait for the 8th match, chances are that's the missing link you need.

8

waterman might be an alternate, might not. same with mcgee.

9

This card sounds like a lot of fun to me. I hope Heath kicks Takahashi into next week.

10

except for mino's and crocop's fights, i think they're all actually pretty evenly matched. not to say that i can't predict the winners, but it certainly won't be an easy task beyond the two i mentioned.

11

"The 6'4", 253-pound Ogawa is a silver medallist in Judo (at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games) and brings in a mixed martial arts record of 5-0."

LOL
5-0 ? How about 0-0-0.

But I suppose they needed someone since Yoshida doesn't seem to be interested. Now one can only wonder who Ogawa is going to face... my bet is Otsuka.

12

buddy... it says who ogawa's opponent is in the first post of the thread.

13

"Paulo Cesar "Giant" Silva vs. Henry "Sentoryu" Miller"

Why on earth does this fight even exist?

14

I saw yokoi fight in afc against an ATT black belt and he was really good. I dont think he can beat mino but he isnt a can.

15

Definitely not a bad match-up between Yokoi and Minotauro as long as Yokoi doesn't get too many jitters, but he seems to be a calm guy. I'm excited for this card.

16

"buddy... it says who ogawa's opponent is in the first post of the thread."

Yes I read the first post :)

What I was trying to get is that Leko seemed like an unusual opponent for Ogawa when one thinks of Ogawa's past matches and for that reason I wouldn't be surprised if his opponent changed to someone else.

17

LOL you were wrong about Yoshida working his fight and you will be wrong about Ogawa. There is no way known Leko would throw/work this fight. It is extremely disrespectful of one of the top 5 kickboxers in the world.

18

ohh yeah .. to call Yokoi a can is just ignorant in the extreme. Mino has problems against skilled sub artists - Volk Han & TK - so I see this one going to the judges.

19

"LOL you were wrong about Yoshida working his fight and you will be wrong about Ogawa."

I was? I've always been correct on how his little prowrestling matches with Satake, Frye and Tamura had nothing to do with MMA.

I did, however, say quite some time before the GP that I didn't believe that Yoshida was going to show up against Silva and if he did, it would be worked.

When I saw the fight I came here and acknowledged that I was wrong about that. However, after I saw what Royce did to Yoshida I've my doubts about the Silva match as well...

" There is no way known Leko would throw/work this fight. It is extremely disrespectful of one of the top 5 kickboxers in the world. "

I didn't say he would. All I said that I wouldn't be surprised if Ogawa didn't end up fighting him.

20

Leko is only like 210-215. He is very under-sized for a K-1 HW. Part of the reason he is one of the best but not the best.

Ogawa is 6'4 253 lbs. And is a more well-rounded fighter.

Having more overall skills and a 40 lb weight advantage makes me think Ogawa will take leko down easily and sub him.

But I will be rooting for leko to pull an upset.