Issue 021
January 2007
PRIDE announce NYE plans
PRIDE Fighting Championships have announced the first details of their massive New Year’s Eve event, Shockwave.
Headlining the massive event, which will take place in Japan, will be a heavyweight fight between PRIDE champion Fedor Emelianenko and former kickboxer and K-1 GP winner Mark Hunt.
Emelianenko has fought only once this year due to a reoccurring thumb injury. Having had multiple operations on it earlier this year, he finally stepped back into the ring in October to defeat Mark Coleman.
32 year old Hunt, a former K-1 style kickboxer who has made the transition to MMA, was the winner of the 2001 K-1 Grand Prix. Since then he has taken his hard-hitting style of brawling and applied it with success in MMA, notably defeating Wanderlei Silva and Mirko ‘Cro-Cop’ Filopovic.
PRIDE director Nobuhiko Takada also hinted at fighters who could possibly fight on the show – a list follows, though not all names mentioned will definitely appear on the event. The names are: Hidehiko Yoshida, Kazuyuki Fujita, Takanori Gomi, Kazuhiro Nakamura, Kazuo Misaki, Akihiro Gono, Sanae Kikuta, Shinya Aoki, Mitsuhiro Ishida, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Ikuhisa Minowa, Hayato ‘Mach’ Sakurai, Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic, Josh Barnett, Wanderlei Silva, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, Dan Henderson, Ricardo Arona, Gilbert Melendez, Denis Kang and Joachim Hansen.
Smackgirl moves closer to full MMA
The Smackgirl Executive Committee announced that it’s 29th November bout between Naoko Ohmuro and Masako Yoshida would take place under full MMA rules. Smackgirl fights were always held under the restricted rules of a 30-second limit on ground fighting and the prohibition of ground and pound.
The introduction of this relaxing of rules was explained by Smackgirl President Nagao: “I'd like to expand the number of fighters who can compete under these rules, so far only Yuka Tsuji and Megumii Fujii have experience in them. We'd like to get the OK of more of the top fighters.”
Smackgirl have been criticised for not changing its rules it tune with general opinion. Many female fighters from Japan now seek competition elsewhere due to the restrictive rules hampering their fighting styles. This move from Smackgirl could see high-profile names come back to the promotion, seen as the spiritual home of female MMA.
Nagao further explained the reasoning behind the move: "We've recevied much fan mail and have listened to what they've had to say, so we're considering moving towards full rules with this bout as well as others which will occur next year." On the question of when full MMA rules would become the formal rule, Nagao said "we are still considering it."
Ohmuro, who has experience with full MMA rules, had to say about the bout, "It's a completely different game with punching to the face, but I was glad when I heard the rules announced. I'm use to practicing these rules with men so it's nothing special.”
