Pride Openweight GP 2006 [DVD]

Pride FC of Japan was once a great rival to the now well known UFC of the US and both organisations used to boast of having the best fighters. At the time it was widely agreed Pride did boast the best fighters and every year a tournament GP based on weight would be hosted ala the old UFC days as well as the traditional boxing style title based matches.

Pride GP 2006 Openweight was the last GP hosted by PFC before they were bought out by the owners of UFC. Reason they folded was because of alleged Yakuza involement. As a result sponsorship and funding from the main TV channels was revoked.

This particular GP boasted of some fantastic fights that only Pride FC could have allowed for. Pride did not allow elbows to the head so stoppage by cuts was very rare. However they did allow soccer kicks and knees to downed opponents heads which made for a more complete fight.

All in all a great GP with some fantastic fights and a fitting winner at the end.

This is a very good set to buy, containing all 3 events (Total Elimination, Critical Countdown, Final Conflict) of the 2006 open weight grand prix. It does have a fair number of duds on it (mismatches, strange endings, etc), and not having Fedor competing does take something away from it, but it's still and excellent tournament all around with some very good fights.

For the sake of any possible new fans who don't know the outcomes, I won't give it away.

TOTAL ELIMINATION:

Roman Zentsov vs. Gilbert Yvel - very entertaining fight, lots of action. This is an alternate match (winner to step up if one of the tournament fighters gets injured)

Fabricio Verdum vs. Alistair Overeem - best fight of Total Elimination, very good striker vs grappler matchup.

Mark Hunt vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka - bit of a mismatch, but the "lesser" fighter ends up making quite a fight of it... up to a point.

Josh Barnett vs. Aleksander Emelianenko - good back and forth action, grappler vs striker.

Kazuyuki Fujita vs. James Thompson - again, good back and forth action.

Mirko Filipovic vs. Ikuhisa Minowa - mismatch.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Zuluzinho - big mismatch.

Yosuke Nishijima vs. Hidehiko Yoshida - biggest mismatch. Yoshida against a former professional boxer, in his Pride debu if I'm not mistaken.

CRITICAL COUNTDOWN:

2nd round matchups between the winners of round 1. Fedor was supposed to enter the tournament in round 2, having received a bye in round 1. He can't due to a hand injury and is replaced by Wanderlei Silva. All four fights are good entertaining fights, no duds, but no "classics" either.

Non-tournament fights:

Edson Drago vs. Pawel Nastula - Olympic Judo gold medalist Nastula is 0-2 in Pride, going up against a dangerous striker. 3rd time lucky?

Yoshihiro Nakao vs. Lee Eun Su - OK fight, nothing special.

Vitor Belfort vs. Yoshiki Takahashi - Explosive fight, doesn't last long.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Alistair Overeem - very odd unsatisfying finish.

Kazuhiro Nakamura vs. Evangelista Santos - good striker vs judoka matchup.

FINAL CONFLICT:

Contains the semi finals and final. Semi-finals are both classic matchups. Final is OK. This is definitely the best of the 3 events.

Non-tournament fights:

Yosuke Nishijima vs. Evangelista Santos - OK fight I guess.

Sergei Kharitonov vs. Aleksander Emelianenko - very exciting striking matchup.

Mauricio Rua vs. Cyrille Diabate - OK fight.

Ricardo Arona vs. Alistair Overeem - another odd finish.

Overall: this event get's a lot of criticism for some of the mismatches and the fact that Fedor is missing, but it's still a very good tournament IMO and has more than enough good fights, and even a few classic ones, to make up for it. Worthy buy for sure.

Im a massive fan of mma and Pride in particular and although this is a great tournament and fitting that it's the last one Pride held, i do feel the experience is slightly tainted by quick editing to fights, lack of entrances etc.
Over all good fights and as usual great entertainment as only Pride can (did) do!