Wow. Well, I just got done watching the whole ppv of Pride Final Conflict 2005. It was truly a surprising event each round and battle of the way.
First of all, I was under the impression that I'd have to wait a week for the ppv to come out in USA.. but then I decided to double check, and lo and behold, I discovered that my cable company offered it today at 5:30 pm. Gleefully, of course, I decide to order the hell out of that! And this was yesterday, mind you, so all of you MMA fans can imagine how suspenseful and damn near tortorous the wait was, let alone the fights themselves.
I made sure to stay away from all the MMA sites, and I was even hesitant to browse the Pub today.. Thank God the Shroomery isn't filled with too many MMA-noob-fans; my whole night could've been spoiled. Hell, I even refused to open a PM from Liquid Smoke, just out of spoil-paranoia. Interestingly, directly thereafter, I see the Pub's current thread on the forum index: "Pride GP 2005 Discussion Thread..." Created by Boo.
I stopped right there, and decided to exit the Shroomery for the day. I suspect Boo wouldn't ever dare to spoil another's MMA-veiwing, of course... But this was the most anticipated MMA-fight in history!! I just had to go the whole nine yards in beefing up the spoil-prevention security.
So, finally came the PPV..
I was thrilled, pumped up and ready... You'd almost think I was going to be fighting in that ring, if you saw me, heh.
Then comes the first fight...
Igor, a very popular, well-liked and favored fighter amongst many. Such a genuinely nice guy, as almost any could easilly tell. Yet, he's quite the assbeater to be taken seriously. Personally, I thought this fight was going to be pretty darn lopsided with his opponent Nakamura. But boy was I surprised at the neck-to-neck leads, by the two fighters. I coulnd't tell if Igor just wasn't having his night that night, or if Nakamura was just that good. So I was a bit surprised when Igor lost... Although, in retrospect, it was still a pretty close fight. Igor made some surprisingly good armbar escapes, very rapidly. I was impressed.
Moving along..
Wanderlei Silva vs Ricardo Arona.
Oh man, I was stoked to see these two fight.. Especially after the intense animosity shown between the two at the weigh-ins... I was really unsure of how this fight was going to turn out. I knew Arona was going to give Wandy a hard time.. And I was somewhat surprised at the performance of Wandy, or more specifically, the lack of the usual aggression and Wandy-style fighting. But the more and more Arona laid on top of Wandy over time, the more I realized it was easily going to be a judges decision for Arona. And indeed I was correct. Even after that suspicion was confirmed, I was still in a slight shock at the fact that Wandy lost. But, this is MMA after all... and if there's anything that MMA has taught us, it's that anybody can be taken out - and I'm not talking about a dinner and a movie.
Mauricio Shogun and Alistair Overeem... I thought Overeem was goingto get Shogun in his guillotine choke, and win it in a rather short amount of time.. Boy was I wrong. Again, I was surprised. Shogun prevailed. Enough said.
Tank's fight with Yoshida. Eh, well, I was excited just to see Tank fight.. but not all surprised at the outcome. I suppose Tank did control alot, but y'know how Tank mixes with guys like Yoshida. Overall, it just wasn't a good matchup for Tank. I'd rather see Tank fight Hunt or the like.
Pretty decent fight with Fabricio Werdum and Roman Zentsov.
Was sorta expecting Roman to win. Yet, again, I was surprised. Did I mention this whole event has been...surprising? 
Ah.... And then....
THE FIGHT
Fedor Emelianenko vs Mirko Cro-cop
The fight I was anticipating the most.. just as everyone in the World that was watching. By now, I was starting to worry that I was going to have yet another "surprise", as I was really hoping that Fedor would emerge victorious... and with the way things have went all night, I was almost having second thoughts. I literally talked to Fedor on the screen: "C'mon Fedor... Win! Don't let me down now... Beat him!" as he was walking to the ring.
Then the bell rings. Fedor is actively leading, and starts pulling out his strategy, and did he ever execute the just the *ideal* strategy for Cro-cop beautifully. And wow... I couldn't freakin' believe some of the things I saw! Fedor even gave Mirko a taste of his own medicine, with some high kicks of his own!
My jaw dropped in amazement. "What the hell is going on? This is almost too backwards!!"
His Muay Thai training shined through, and in Cro-cop's defense, I think his ground-game training showed well too, as Fedors GnP attacks were somewhat neutralized. I also really have to give Fedor serious credit for even taking Mirko down at all - which is something most fighters have never, ever been able to pull off. On top of that, Fedor took 2 or 3 liver shots - clean shots! Fedor's teammate Magedemov couldn't even stand after just ONE hit to the liver.
I think Fedor was even grazed/cut on his head by Cro-cops attempted left-high-kick... and the machine is still fighting, of course. Extremely impressive.
Mirko CroCop, in his defense, is still a phenomenal fighter, which conversely, only exemplifies how good Fedor is.
Fedor has once again lived up to his Terminator stigma, and showed the world that he IS one unstoppable fighting machine, with his dominating win over Mirko Cro-cop. I gained even more respect and impression for Fedor, which is saying quite a bit. Although, the KGB Headquarters could really use some Dermatological-scientists to implement better skin-technology on Fedor. Fedors skin once again showed its sensitivity, with a mildly battered up face and cut. I almost dreaded that the fight would end in a No Contest, due to doctor stoppage for all the bleeding. Thankfully, that never happened. Anyway, congratulations to Fedor. Fedor, you are THE Man. The Greatest HW in MMA History.
FEDOR>God>Everyone else.
THE ENDAnd then the final conflict for the GP. Well, I thought it was going to be another somewhat lopsided match, similar to Arona vs Silva. Once again, I was surprised! What the hell kind of fancy fucking kick was that from Shogun? That was something else. Pretty ballsy too. Anyway, I was expecting Arona to take it to the ground and dominate... But Shogun just wasn't letting that happen. He even got some knees to Arona's head - something didn't even pull off. And so.. Shogun managed to get Arona down, and started pounding on Arona's face till the referee stopped it. Good job by Shogun. Although Arona could've been a little better, methinks. Anyway, after Shogun won, something dawned upon me. A suspicion. A suspicion that.. perhaps.. Just maybe.. Silva might've gave the fight to Arona, so his protege' Shogun, could hold the belt, and this way, Silva wouldn't have to fight Shogun, who is on his same team. In retrospect, I remembered Silva seemed a little less reactive of the loss to Arona, than I'd expect him to be - on top of his lackluster performance [although it was still a very heated one]. Ah, well, the world may never know. Any big fight will always have its own questions and wonders. All in all, 'twas a good fight. It was a good show, and easily worth the $30 for the PPV. I am a satisfied MMA fan. The Endor... is it?
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Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.
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but then rua is a handsome bugger :P
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