Issue 014

June 2006

Ariake Coliseum, Tokyo, 2^nd April 2006

By Andrew Garvey

Last October’s Bushido 9 was possibly the best PRIDE show in the company’s decade-long history. Bushido 10, held in front of more than 9000 fans, never quite reached the same heights, yet another immensely satisfying Bushido event featured a pair of truly wild brawls, the Japanese debut of British star Mark Weir, some fantastic finishes, several enjoyable matches and was topped off by an early candidate for upset of the year.

Yves Edwards vs. Seichi Ikemoto

Less than 4 weeks after his shocking UFC 58 loss to Mark Hominick, Edwards bounced back with a winning display of fluid, composed striking to open the show. Aside from a few fleeting instances where one of Ikemoto’s ragged, hopeful kicks landed, Edwards controlled the entire fight. Mixing effective leg kicks and knees with some sharp punching, Edwards hurt Ikemoto a few times but never quite enough to finish him and had to settle for a very comfortable unanimous decision.

Paul Rodriguez vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida

Ishida made an impressive Bushido debut, submitting Rodriguez with a guillotine choke in just 2:29. Ishida scored a nice takedown early. Rodriguez showed some good defensive skills on the ground but when he tried to get back up walked straight into an Ishida guillotine, which the Kawajiri-trained Shooto Pacific Rim champion clamped on for a quick and easy win.

Jens Pulver vs. Kenji Arai

Late substitute Arai, fighting on just a few days notice, put up a spirited fight in a furiously paced scrap before Pulver finished him with an emphatic soccer kick to the face in the first round. Arai did stagger the American with a punch early on but Pulver fired back with punches to the head and body. A neat left hook floored Arai but Pulver’s follow-up knees failed to finish him and Arai survived for a little longer. 

The finishing sequence was painfully beautiful to watch as Pulver bashed Arai with a lovely left hook. Arai staggered and then went down after Pulver hit him with a straight right. Pulver missed a wild kick to the falling Arai’s face but quickly followed up with a truly brutal hoof to the face that prompted the referee’s intervention.

Mark Weir vs. Denis Kang

Britain’s top 185-pounder Weir made a painful Bushido debut, tapping out after suffering some heavy facial damage at the hands and knees of a rampant Denis Kang. Weir went for his usual early high kick, which Kang only just blocked. Weir took Kang down and landed a couple of nice punches but the Canadian/South Korean was soon back on his feet and the pair of them started throwing bombs. Kang’s shorter hooks and uppercuts seemed to do more damage and the Englishman lurched forwards right into Kang’s tight Muay Thai clinch. Kang then threw some great knees to Weir’s unprotected face. It was all Kang from there as he used his greater wrestling skill to control the fight on the ground and some patient but brutally effective ground n’ pound to win the fight. Mixing meaty body shots with some hard rights and lefts to the face, Kang really started working Weir over. With Weir’s nose and eye bleeding Kang bashed him with a heavy right hand, followed by a short and nasty knee that prompted Weir, leaking blood and with his right eye horribly bruised and swollen, to tap out at almost five minutes into the fight.

Luiz Azeredo vs. Joachim Hansen

Hansen sparked out a wild Azeredo in a tremendous back-and-forth brawl with a single left knee to the face. Azeredo had his moments against the more disciplined, relaxed Norwegian, but picked up a yellow card for some blatant top-rope-assisted stomps to the face. Both men came close with submissions and used kicks from all kinds of positions in a thoroughly entertaining fight. Hansen almost finished it earlier, dropping Azeredo with a neat punch combo and a knee to the face before following up with some vicious ground n’ pound, but as the round wore on, he seemed to tire. Moments before the knockout, Azeredo whipped in a nice kick to the body and some good punches to the face, but he then lowered his head straight onto a Hansen kick (intended for the body) and took a hard knee right in the face. Falling backwards, arms outstretched, he looked out before he even hit the mat as Hansen calmly turned and walked away.

Paulo Filho vs. Murilo ‘Ninja’ Rua

Filho thoroughly dominated on his way to a unanimous decision win by using his vastly superior BJJ and effective gameplan, but did little to win any new fans in by far the worst fight of the night. Rua showed up in far better condition than ever before at his new weight of a ripped 183 pounds. It was just a shame he seemed to have no idea how to stop Filho’s incessant takedown attempts, or how to mount any offence whatsoever. Aside from a classic headlock takedown early in the first and a huge double leg takedown at the start of the second round, Filho did little of interest, beyond some weak striking on the ground and working just enough to avoid restarts. Filho’s performance was a great display of grappling skill but a total bore for the spectators.

Kim Dae Won vs. Akihiro Gono

The underrated Gono struggled early as the South Korean Judoka Kim scored a nice takedown and went to work with punches. Gono had a great defence though, blocking and slipping punches, even with his head pressed against the corner. It was a strong performance from Kim but a second takedown only gave him a brief advantage as Gono reversed him and started to turn the tide. The Pancrase veteran scored with some hefty punches on the ground and knees to the head before transitioning into a textbook armbar for the submission win exactly nine minutes into the match.

Phil Baroni vs. Yuki Kondo

Charismatic showman Baroni scored easily the biggest win of his career, blasting out the light heavyweight King of Pancrase Kondo in a stunning twenty-five seconds. Every one of Baroni’s punches was thrown with murderous intentions, and he floored Kondo in the corner with a short right hook before pausing slightly then whaling away with five more for the TKO win. The always quotable Baroni has since claimed he paused because he was thinking if he finished Kondo off with kicks his match would be edited off PRIDE’s monthly highlights show on America’s Fox Sports Net due to the channel’s policy of editing out stomps and soccer kicks.

Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Giant Silva

Easily the barmiest fighter on the planet, Minowa was giving up more than twice his bodyweight against the monstrous Silva but still battered his unskilled opponent to defeat just over two minutes into their ludicrous freak show match. Minowa exploited the middle-aged behemoth’s slow reflexes with a hilarious forward roll into a single leg takedown. Neatly taking side mount, Minowa threw some fast knees to body and head that forced the Brazilian monster to tap out.

Dan Henderson vs. Kazuo Misaki

Bushido welterweight champion Henderson earned a unanimous decision in an absorbing fight with the lively Misaki by doing more damage and coming far closer to finishing the match inside the distance. The Japanese fighter controlled most of the first round and landed more strikes, even if none were especially powerful, while the more patient, determined Henderson seemed content to defend and throw his trademark right and left hooks. He did try a couple of spinning backfists to little effect but he blasted Misaki with a beautiful right hook, dropping him heavily. Misaki was soon defending himself though, and even caught an attempted stomp and tried a leglock. The second round saw Henderson land plenty of those hooks, despite his obvious fatigue, but to his credit, Misaki stayed upright and even looked the fresher of the two fighters at the final bell.

Takanori Gomi vs. Marcus Aurelio

Aurelio pulled off a genuinely stunning upset in a non-title bout with the ‘Fireball Kid’, literally choking him out four minutes and forty-three seconds into what most expected would be a fairly routine fight for Gomi. Little happened in the first couple of minutes until Aurelio ducked under a Gomi punch with a fast double leg takedown, landing in Gomi’s half guard. Aurelio worked hard to pass, constantly moving and throwing plenty of punches. At one point, still from that position, Aurelio looked to have Gomi in trouble with an arm triangle but the favourite powered out of it and slipped into a full guard. Using his excellent groundwork, Aurelio wriggled into half-guard, then a mount and went for the arm triangle again. This time he was free to jump over to one side and apply the hold properly. With Gomi hopelessly trapped but refusing to tap out, Aurelio held on until the referee ordered him to let go of his now-unconscious opponent for the TKO victory.

Full results

Yves Edwards def Seichi Ikemoto via Unanimous Decision

Mitsuhiro Ishida def Paul Rodriguez via Submission (Guillotine choke) 2.29 Round 1

Jens Pulver def Kenji Arai via KO (Soccer kick) 3.59 Round 1

Dennis Kang def Mark Weir via Submission (Strikes) 4.55 Round 1

Joachim Hansen def Luiz Azeredo via KO (Knee) 7.09 Round 1

Paulo Filho def Murilo "Ninja" Rua via Unanimous Decision

Akihiro Gono def Kim Dae via Submission (Armbar) 9.00 Round 1

Phil Baroni def Yuki Kondo via KO (Punches) 0.25 Round 1

Ikuhisa Minowa def Giant Silva via TKO (Strikes) 2.23 Round 1

Dan Henderson def Kazuo Misaki via Unanimous Decision

Marcos Aurelio def Takanori Gomi via Technical Submission (Choke) 4.34 Round 1