Pride Bushido 11

Decided to take a break from honkey fights (UFC) and fired up the pay-per-view last night to catch Pride. Turned out to be a really good night for the Japanese fighters. Results here.

I was particularly impressed with Kazuo Misaki. Phil Baroni lost by unanimous decision to Kazuo Misaki after 15 minutes of Misaki demonstrating what it looks like to completely take a fighter apart. Misaki’s stand-up game was reminiscent (kinda) of Mahummad Ali, complete with hands down at the waist. Almost every punch Baroni dished out caught nothing but air, and it was apparent that Misaki had Baroni’s number. Misaki also had his front knee on a hair trigger, and used it to stop Baroni every time he came in for the overhand. Somebody’s been watching fight tapes!

WHOOOOSH! Photo from Sherdog.com

Most of the fights were decent, but one that stood out in particular was Matsuhiro Ishida and Marcus “Maximus” Aurelio. Ishida put on a strong showing, pressing Aurelio the entire time with his wrestling skills, a really impressive standup game, and an even more impressive ground and pound game. Aurelio coming off a victory over Takanori Gomi, was completely bulldogged by Ishida with the fight ending in another unanimous decision for the Japanese.

As a sidenote, we think Aurelio’s nickname is sort of cool but mostly lame. About a 30:70 ratio of cool:lame. Just kind of obvious right? I mean try putting some effort into your friggin nickname… like Twinkletoes or something. Geez.

The most impressive part of the evening was by far Akihiro Gono’s shorts. Oh yeah, his choreographed entrance was good too. Oh right, and the fight… it was alright. BUT THE SHORTS!!

Our theory is that Lombard was initially going to fight cautiously, but instead came out charging like a bull because he was enraged by the zebra pattern in Gono’s shorts. Perhaps it tripped a primal instinct in his brain that made him go berserker. Lombard punched himself out and lost the fight by yet another unanimous decision.