The History Of Pride FC: Pride FC Shockwave 2004

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 01.14.2009

Pride FC's annual New Year's Eve event, with Minotauro VS. Fedor for the Pride FC Heavyweight Title! And Olympic gold medal winners, Rulon Gardner and Hidehiko Yoshida, face off in MMA's first ever Olympic gold clash! Plus a whole card of exciting match-ups featuring the past and present stars of MMA.

PRIDE FC SHOCKWAVE 2004, 12/31/2004



Hello boys, girls, and MMA fans everywhere. This will hopefully be the first of many Pride FC DVD events I plan on reviewing for the site. And we begin with Pride FC Shockwave 2004! Shockwave is Pride FC's annual, New Year's Eve event the organization began in 2002. Mauro Ranallo and El Guapo Bas Rutten run down what's been going on with the Pride FC Heavyweight Champion, Fedor Emelianenko, and the Pride FC Interim Heavyweight Champion, Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira who will be facing each other in a rematch from Pride FC: Final Conflict 2004. Mauro and Bas run down the rest of the card.

-From the Super Saitama Arena in Saitama, Japan.

-Nobuhiko Takada dressed in traditional, Japanese ceremonial garb makes a dramatic entrance followed by TAEKO! TAEKO OSHIMA! Lenny Hart and the Japanese announcer introduce all of the night's competitors on the card. Ladies and gentlemen, this is more than MMA. This is the PRIDE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP!

Stefan Leko (0-1) VS. Ikuhisa "The Punk" Minowa (2-3)
Refs have camera headsets rigged up to their noggins for tonight. These are actually really cool, but the angles are mostly used for the replays unfortunately. Ring corners also have cameras rigged up to them, neat. Leko's a K-1 kickboxer and has about 40 lbs. over Minowa. You see in Pride FC since at this time there were really only two title divisions, the weight classes weren't so strictly divided as they are in UFC and most other mainstream MMA organizations. And then you had all these bizarre types of competitors being matched up. Minowa right away goes for a dropkick(!) but whiffs big time. Minowa goes for some crazy looking flips, but Leko goes right in with some soccer kicks. Minowa grabs right ahold of Leko's vulnerable leg and locks in the submission. Leko tries to hold on to the ropes, but that's dishonorable in Pride FC! Leko lets go and Minowa sinks in the heel hook and that is all at 0:27 into round 1!

Mu Bae Choi (Pride Debut) VS. Paulo Cesar "Giant" Silva (1-3)
If you don't remember, Giant Silva is that Giant Silva from the Oddities stable in the WWF. You know, the Vince Russo booking product? After leaving wrestling, Silva decided to try his hand at MMA because I guess being close to 400 lbs. and being over 7 feet tall means you can be a professional fighter, heh. Choi is the first ever Korean fighter to compete in Pride FC, and is giving up like 150 lbs. to Silva. Surely there's no way someone like Choi could topple a giant such as . . . Giant Silva? Silva comes out swinging and isn't really able to hit . . . anything. Choi easily takes Silva down and puts him in the mount. Silva is really unable to mount any kind of defense, comeback, or offense. Choi lands some sick looking body shots to Silva from the top position. Choi eventually locks in a side-choke on Silva and mercifully ends this shit at 5:47 in round 1. The Pride FC keyboard warriors really have no room to complain about Brock Lesnar and the UFC when Pride FC was constantly booking side show freak attractions like this.

Ryan Gracie (4-2) VS. Yoji Anjo (Pride Debut)
Ryan Gracie passed a little over a year ago in December 2007. Gracie had a history of personal problems, violent behavior, crime, and drugs. He was arrested for stealing a car and then found dead in his jail cell. Ryan Gracie was the grandson of Carlos Gracie and the brother of Renzo Gracie. Yoji Anjo was another professional wrestler (you know, a fake fighter) gone into MMA here. And yeah, that God awful joke that is the UFC that has a WWE wrestler as their champion, while the precious, prestigious Pride FC would never sully themselves by using pro wrestlers. Gracie gets Anjo down and holds him there for a while. The ref tries to restart it in the middle of the ring, and Gracie gets a little testy about the position his arm was in. He pulls his arm away from the ref and they jack it up some. Ref hands Gracie a yellow card. Uh-oh, good thing this isn't Bushido. Gracie gets another takedown on Anjo and attains side control. Another restart in the middle of the ring. Anjo turns over, but Gracie gets in the hooks and pounds Anjo's head. Anjo tries to escape but can't get out of Gracie's mount. Anjo tries to get out of Gracie's position looking for a rear-naked choke, but Gracie turns it right into a very sick looking armbar, and Anjo immediately taps to save his arm from being removed from his body at 8:33 in round 1.

Ryo Chonan (1-1) VS. Anderson "The Spider" Silva (3-1)
Here we go, Josh Barnett's favorite MMA fight of all time. Chonan's coming off a win over Carlos Newton at Pride FC Bushido 5. Silva has not fought in Pride since Pride FC 26 in June 2003 where he lost to Daiju Takase. Silva and Chonan feel each other out at first before Silva lays in a vicious combination of strikes. Silva applies a deep body scissors, but Chonan stays away from the RNC. Chonan reverses and gets on top of Silva's guard and goes for some strikes. Chonan's able to hit some more strikes from on top, but the ref breaks it up and gives Silva the yellow card because he didn't work hard enough to improve his position. Chonan and Silva take it back up. Chonan misses on a discuss punch, and Silva gets Chonan down. Chonan avoids a ground and pound with an up kick, and they go back up to their feet. Some light exchanges but nothing major as Round 1 comes to an end as this is the first fight of the night to make it out of the first round. Good round for both guys, but I give the slight edge in that round to Silva since he seemed to cause more damage and had more takedowns.

Round 2. Silva aggressively goes after Chonan, and gets a waist-lock takedown. Silva lands some more aggressive strikes standing up. Chonan manages to put Silva on his back, but Silva doesn't allow Chonan to cause any damage from his guard, and it stays that way until the round comes to a close. I still say this is Silva's fight so far, but Mauro and Bas don't seem to agree. I mean, Chonan definitely looks tough from taking some wicked hits from Spider-man.

Round 3. They start slow. Silva hits some sick punches on Chonan. Chonan ducks a big spin-kick from Spidey. They slow it down again with some light kicks and exchanges. Silva tags Chonan again with some rights. Chonan's not going down, and he continues with some leg kicks to Silva's right leg. And then out of nowhere, FLYING HEEL HOOK-OOOOOH! Ryo Chonan submits Anderson Silva at 3:08 in round 3! Chonan beats Anderson "The Spider" Silva! Unbelievable! Ladies and gentlemen, this is why MMA is awesome. Crazy upsets as Jim Rome says. Even Mauro Ranallo is ZOMG'ing.

Of course, this is Silva's last legitimate loss in MMA, not counting the DQ against Yushin Okami because of an illegal head kick. No one has been able to submit or beat Silva since this. This would also end up being Silva's last fight in Pride, while Chonan would stay in Pride until the end before eventually moving over to the UFC. Silva would later become one of the most dominant UFC Middleweight Champions of all time as well as one of the best fighters in the entire world.

Rulon Gardner (Pride Debut) VS. Hidehiko Yoshida (3-1-1)
Yoshida won the Olympic gold medal for Judo at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. Gardner won the gold for wrestling at the 2000 games. So we have wrestling gold vs. judo gold for this fight. Yoshida's had some MMA and experience in Pride, while Gardner makes his first and only foray into MMA here, with Randy Couture in his corner. Gardner knocks Yoshida down earlier with a left, and Gardner pounds him on the ground. Yoshida looks for an armbar but can't get it. Gardner holds Yoshida down for a while. They take it back standing up for a while, and it's a little boring. Yoshida gets taken back from the ground and goes for a leg lock and kind of gets it, but Gardner holds on until the end of round 1.

Round 2. Yoshida's gi is getting quite lucky. Close-up shows the results of the leg lock submission on Gardner. Bruises look quite nasty and purple. They keep it standing. Gardner uses his 70+ lbs. over Yoshida and keeps him against the ropes, and Yoshida almost gets punched out at one point. They exchange some blows against the ropes, and Yoshida tries to work in the clinch, but Gardner just tosses him to the floor and the round ends.

Round 3. They do very little standing up and the ref gives them both the yellow card for failing to engage. Following that Gardner and Yoshida go for some wild swinging exchanges. Yoshida grabs Gardner in a headlock against the ropes, but Gardner takes Yoshida down. Ref moves it back to the center of the ring, and Yoshida is unable to get out Gardner's control as the fight comes to an end.

Gardner is awarded the victory in a unanimous decision. Fight was decent if a little boring. Both guys were pretty green and didn't really know what to do out there. Gardner would never fight another MMA fight again following this bout.

Kevin Randleman (4-4) VS. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic (10-2-2)
Randleman actually gets his entire entrance in while Cro Cop is shown already in the ring. Such disrespect for Cro Cop that Randleman of all people actually gets his entrance shown on the main video of the event. Randleman scored a KO victory over Cro Cop at Pride Total Elimination 2004 earlier in the year. Cro Cop is looking to avenge that loss tonight. Randleman rushes toward Cro Cop. Cro Cop simply applies a front guillotine choke. Big knee. Cro Cop wrenches it on deep. Randleman passes out. Cro Cop wins 0:41 seconds in the first round. Wow, Randleman sucks so much that he gets submitted easily . . . by Cro Cop. When does Cro Cop ever submit anyone?! Kevin Randleman gets the epic fail of the evening.

Dan "Hollywood" Henderson (6-3) VS. Yuki Kondo (1-1)
Henderson starts strong with some knees and a guillotine choke. Kondo is able to hold on and escape. Henderson goes for some punches from the mount, but Kondo gets up to take the fight back to the feet. Kondo gets the better of the leverage and falls on top of Henderson, but isn't able to do a lot of damage. Henderson is able to keep himself moving on the ground and is able to escape on top. Thai clinch and a knee by Henderson, but he falls back again with Kondo once again on top. Henderson does his best to keep Kondo in his guard, but Kondo's able to get some shots in. They break away and that's the end of round 1. Close round, but since in Pride you don't necessarily win by laying on top of a guy and doing little, it's a bit of a toss-up. I'll give slight edge here to Kondo though.

Round 2. Henderson comes out with some wild swings and Kondo checks them. Body lock and a takedown by Hendo. Henderson turns his body around and lays in the knee strikes. Henderson looks to the have guillotine again, and they are both going to the ground. Henderson loses the hold. Kondo works from on top, but again scores little damage. Henderson works some knees in from on bottom and sweeps his way back up. Henderson lays in his trademark fists, and Kondo answers with a knee. Kondo goes for a takedown, but Henderson reverses it and stays on top position before the end of the round. Round 2, I'd say goes to Henderson for the takedowns and the submission attempt. Standing up, Henderson looked to get the better of the exchanges.

Round 3. Henderson comes out with a strong series of combination and some knees. Kondo responds with a strong combination of strikes of his own. Henderson works in the clinch for a takedown and gets it. Henderson looks for the guillotine choke again, but doesn't quite have the right position. Ref feels they aren't doing much, and has the guard broken to take the fight back to standing up. Henderson isn't happy about that. Another takedown to Kondo. Kondo kicks Henderson away and comes up with a big standing front kick and some wild strikes. They go into a clinch, and Henderson gets another takedown off the side, and Kondo sickly lands right on his head. Ouch. Henderson gets in crossface position but isn't able to do much before the clock runs out as they take it to the judges for the decision.

Mauro tries asking Rutten who has the fight: "Both of them, I guess." Damage? "Both of them." Aggressiveness? "Both of them." Thank you Bas. The fight goes to the judges for the decision, and Henderson gets the split decision victory. It was close, but I think it was the right way to go. Henderson got more takedowns and made more sub attempts with the guillotine. Kondo had a nice stand-up game, and he was able to control Henderson on top at certain points, but again that's not going to get you an automatic victory in Pride. Henderson did look a little sluggish and tired here at times and was unable to really turn it on against Kondo. From here, Henderson would go on to compete in not one, but two Pride Grand Prix tournaments in 2005. Bigger and better things lay ahead for Henderson that would immortalize him in the history books of MMA.

Takanori "The Fireball Kid" Gomi (4-0) VS. Jens "Little Evil" Pulver (Pride Debut)
Oh, tastiness. This is baptism by fire for Pulver who is definitely not in Kansas . . . er . . . the UFC anymore, after having relinquished his UFC Lightweight Title which he never lost. Bas Rutten, "This is not a warm-up match." You got it Bas. Pulver's gone up a little to 160 lbs. for this fight. This is Gomi's first non-Bushido fight in Pride. The Gomi upholds his pre-fight ritual of not looking his opponent in the eyes before the opening bell. A lot of wicked standing punch exchanges. Gomi avoids a guillotine choke. Pulver complains about an inadvertent eye poke and takes a powder. They don't let up with the boxing. The Gomi looks like he's getting the better shots, and Pulver's face is starting to look a little raw. The Gomi lands a knee to the midsection and then a knee to the head of Pulver. Pulver doesn't let up, but the Gomi is relentless with the big headshots and the knees. The Gomi is picking Pulver apart. Sickening bodyshot by the Gomi, and a big right finally knocks Pulver down. And that's the KO win for the Gomi at 6:21 in the first round. Ouch, hell of a first fight in Pride FC for Pulver, but what a great brawl that was. Back at this time, Gomi's stand-up game looked near perfect. Pulver came to fight no question, but he did not protect his head enough from Gomi. And when you take that amount of shots it is only a matter of time before you go down. Pulver would be in Pride for a while longer, and the Gomi would have one of the most dominant and impressive runs in MMA ever for a fighter in his weight class.

Mark Hunt (1-1) VS. Wanderlei Silva (18-0-1, 1NC)
Then UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Randy "The Natural" Couture, hands out flower bouquets to Hunt and Wanderlei. Ah how sweet. Couture then moves to the booth to do commentary for this fight. Silva was originally set to face Kazushi Sakuraba. Sakuraba had to drop out at the last second due to injury, so Mark Hunt stepped up to face the Pride FC Middleweight Champion, Wanderlei Silva. Hunt was previously a kickboxing champ in K-1, and had recently debuted in MMA and Pride at Pride Critical Countdown 2004 with a loss to Hidehiko Yoshida. Hunt then went on to defeat Dan Bobish at Pride 28, before accepting this fight in the 11th hour. Silva's undefeated in Pride, and is still the reigning, undefeated Pride Middleweight Champion. He's also giving up about 70 lbs. to Mark Hunt for this bout.

Round 1. Early takedown by Wanderlei. Silva's able to get a headlock and a couple quick knees to the head, and Hunt quickly gets out of there. Another takedown by Wanderlei and the dreaded head stomp of Doom! Hunt tries to avoid Silva's kicks like they've got cooties on them. Wanderlei lands a couple big shots and yet another takedown on Hunt as he's having no trouble tossing the big kiwi around. Silva works on side control and works for a kimura. Hunt turns it over on top of Silva. Silva makes Hunt work in the guard, and Hunt nails a couple big shots. Silva avoids a stomp by hitting some up kicks. Hunt then does what any 275 lb. Samoan would do in this situation. ATOMIC BUTT DROPOHHHHH!!!! Randy calls it, and Bas and Mauro go nuts! Silva gets back in control on top. Silva goes for another foot stomp, but Hunt gets a drop toehold(!) to dodge it. Wow. Silva advances, but it looks like he either slips or goes down from a right by Hunt. Hunt goes into Silva's guard. Hunt stays on top until the end of the round. Turned out to be a heck of a first round. Randy and I give the first round to Wanderlei. Hunt did well, but he didn't have control or dominance significantly more than Wanderlei. When Hunt was on top of Wanderlei, he did little damage. Wanderlei hit all his takedown attempts on a much heavier guy, and got the better of the standing exchanges. Round 1 easily should go to Wanderlei Silva . . . who likes the chicken and the rice.

Round 2. Hunt comes out with some big right and left combinations on Silva that knock him down. Hunt goes to pound Silva, armbar! Agh, no. Hunt gets out of it just in time. Action slows down after this sequence. Silva gets back up and gets Hunt down with the takedown again. Silva works from on top, and Hunt is able to sweep out and totally reverse it. Hunt hits a couple shots from on top, and Silva tries to slip on an armbar just as the bell rings. Tough call on this round. But I'll give it to Hunt for the early knockdown on Silva, and the strong reversal and ending the round in dominance. Silva got the successful takedown, but was not able to capitalize much. Mauro argues, "Yeah Hunt's a big guy, but you have Pride World Heavyweight Champion, Wanderlei Silva." Now you know why Mauro doesn't work for the UFC, kids.

Round 3. Silva gets sort of a takedown and has the hooks on Hunt. Silva looking for the submission, but Hunt slips out. Hunt and Silva are rocking each other standing up. Silva goes in low and gets the double-leg on Hunt. Ref calls them back to their feet after a while. Single-leg pickup and another beautiful takedown by Silva. Silva puts on the hooks from the mount and lays in some rights on Hunt. Silva continues with this and rides it out until the bell, and the fight is over. Silva is already celebrating like he won. Couture says he would love to fight Silva.

The fight goes to the judges' scorecards, and Mark Hunt gets the victory via split decision. Ugh. OK, this was a surprisingly good, fun fight, but Silva had it won. Randy clearly agrees. Hunt looked good. He was very resilient against Silva, and he really rocked Silva early in the second round. However, despite the size Hunt never really had Silva beat. Considering that Silva is giving up like 70 lbs. to this big, kiwi Samoan, and Silva pretty much scored 100% of all his takedown attempts that should be impressing the hell out of the judges. Silva clearly won round 3, and it was close but he won round 1. Silva won this fight. But oh well. In the record books, this goes down as Silva's first ever defeat in Pride FC. Even Hunt looks surprised that the judges thought he won. Good fight, crappy decision by evil Yakuza judges.

Pride Heavyweight Grand Prix Finals And Undisputed Pride World Heavyweight Championship Match: Fedor Emelianenko (c) (8-0, 1NC) VS. Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira (c) (12-1-0, 1NC)
It's a little confusing, but at this point Nogueira is the Interim Pride Heavyweight Champion, and Fedor is the Pride Heavyweight Champ, after defeating Nog for the title at Pride 25: Body Blow in 2003. In the finals of the Pride Heavyweight Grand Prix at Pride Final Conflict 2004 in another fight between Nog and Fedor, Nog inadvertently cut Fedor with an accidental headbutt which made the fight end in a No Contest. So here we have the final rematch to crown the winner of the 2004 Pride Heavyweight Grand Prix, and the undisputed Pride World Heavyweight Champion . . . I think. *Whew*.

Video package. Fedor: "Yes, I'm ready to fight." Nogueira: "Me too." I'm ready. I was ready for this fight if it was going to happen yesterday (Trademark, Minotauro). Takada-san does the super-special ring introductions. Couture is doing commentary here as well, so he can drool over Fedor even more. Here we go. Fedor gets a hiptoss after a quick exchange. Back up. Nice takedown by Fedor followed by a soccer kick to Nog's noggin. Fedor pretty much tosses Nog around at will. Nog gets nailed with some big shots. Fedor's not even holding his hands up, but continues to smash Nog whenever he wants; he even hits Nog with both fists at the same time. Geez, Mir was right, Nog doesn't have very good head movement. He's just letting himself get hit. Nogueira shoots and gets a takedown. Nog gets some shots on top, and round one ends. Good comeback for Nogueira at the end, but that was total and utter Fedor in that round.

Round 2. Nog and Fedor exchange. Fedor reverses a takedown attempt and gets one on Nog. Fedor stays in control and avoids Nog's submission attempts. Fedor is like Nog's rubix cube. Fedor stays in brutal control of Nogueira.

Third and final round. Fedor pounds Nog on the ground. Nog tries for the armbar and almost gets it, but Fedor spins and slips out of it. Darn. Nogueira can't mount any sustained or significant offense against Fedor. Nog knows he's running out of time, but he's not going down either. They exchange knees and more shots. Both men are still standing and the bell rings. Nogueira puts his hands up. I don't know why. He should know he didn't win. However, I guess he considers not getting finished by Fedor a victory in itself. Fedor is awarded the unanimous decision to become the Undisputed Pride World Heavyweight Champion and the 2004 Pride Heavyweight Grand Prix Champion. Fedor celebrates, and Randy I think is still drooling.

BUT WAIT!

BONUS FIGHT: Henry "Sentoryu" Miller (1-1) VS. Makoto Takimoto (Pride Debut)
Miller's a former sumo wrestler facing off against the judo practitioner, Makoto Takimoto, another Olympic gold medal winner at the 2000 Olympic games. The first round is a lot of boring ass circling and very little exchanges. Takimoto is at one point able to work for and get a big judo takedown on Miller. The rest of the round is like watching paint dry.

Round 2. Clinch and more of the same shit from the first round. Miller gets Takimoto down and does . . . absolutely nothing. Back on their feet, and more circling nonsense. Takimoto going to the ref to get his glove fixed is probably the most exciting thing to happen in this fight. Rutten and Ranallo are struggling more trying to get something out of this fight then Miller and Takimoto. The ref gives out a yellow card to Miller before the round ends. Good God, that bloody ref should've been giving out yellow cards in round 1 like it was 2006 and Pride was going out of business . . . oops.

Round 3. More boring nonsense. They clinch in the corner and Takimoto suplexes Miller out of the corner. Miller chases Takimoto around and Rutten goes nuts: "This is what I'm talking about! Go!" Damn, Bas. Round mercifully ends, and I could care less who wins. I'm just glad it's over. Judges give the unanimous decision to Takimoto, and I could still care less.

The DVD also has over an hour of pre and post-fight interviews. Also some additional little montage videos. The press interviews are good. Check out what the Gomi did to Pulver's face.

UP NEXT: Pride Bushido Volume 9! Also Shockwave 2005, Pride 32, and Pride 33.

The 411: A very good show for Pride FC. There was some junk in here, but Chonan/Silva, Hunt/Wanderlei, Pulver/Gomi, Fedor/Nog, and Kondo/Henderson were all good to very good or great fights. I mean, you have Chonan subbing Silva in one of the greatest MMA highlight reel moments ever. The Gomi was on the rise, and Pride FC was rocking it pretty hard. The problem I think is the horribly mis-matched opponents and some of the ridiculous decisions, but oh well. A lot of fun, and an easy DVD buy if you want to get into Pride FC.

Final Score:  8.5   [ Very Good ]