Yarennoka (spoilers)

**saku39** · Posted On: 1/01/2008 5:35am

so this was my first, and i suppose last, pride event. it was awesome. a few key moments.

akiyama/misaki fight. dude, when akiyama got his face kicked in everybody jumped to their feet screaming, high-5ing, hugging. it was out of this world. i never thought i'd see that in japan. also, the lead up video for akiyama was hilarious, i dont know if you canfind it on the internet, but it kept splicing in pictures of an oil of olay bottle and squirting lotion, very funny. also, misaki kept doing this faint double front kick thing, but it looked more like he was skipping rope or something.

aoki was in deep **** in his fight. everyone was stunned, and it kind of put a damper on the evening, it being the last fight and all.

melendez got beat by ishida, that is all there is to it. i would say though that ishida didnt do much damage to melendez besides for one big slam.

on the way back home, i ended up on the same platform as sakurai. its pretty cool that he rides public transportation. anyways he is a cool guy and was happy to shake my hand and accept my congrats. fucking awesome.

overall a great event, and they seemed to keep hinting about another event, but i think it was just talk.

**yodaman** · Posted On: 1/01/2008 5:14pm

Oh, in case everyone was wondering about the kids Akiyama supposedly let down, this was his intro before fighting Sakuraba. Apparently getting a lot of child MA practitioners to follow you out is a popular ring entrance (Park Yong Soo has a bunch of little TKDers doing a kata before an entrance in a K-1 Korea fight)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m4IL2KDptA

Oh, and here's the prefight video, complete with disturbing bottle of Oil of Olay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDtm9ZqGAU4

**feedback** · Posted On: 1/01/2008 11:00pm

What the **** was up with Kazuo Misaki vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama? Akiyama fucking puts Misake down with shots that would have any UFC referee (or non biased Japaneses ref) stopping the fight- but they let it go, he recovers and turns the fight around with a kick to the head and the ref stops it immediately. This is either a great demonstration of unfairness, or how not being so quick to stop a fight can change the outcome.

**Fighting Cephalopod** · Posted On: 1/01/2008 11:48pm

Originally Posted by feedback

What the **** was up with Kazuo Misaki vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama? Akiyama fucking puts Misake down with shots that would have any UFC referee (or non biased Japaneses ref) stopping the fight- but they let it go, he recovers and turns the fight around with a kick to the head and the ref stops it immediately. This is either a great demonstration of unfairness, or how not being so quick to stop a fight can change the outcome.

Misaki hit the ground immediately trying to establish guard, Akiyama hit the ground with his arms at his waist and limp legs.

**The Fake Macoy** · Posted On: 1/02/2008 1:03am

Yeah, while Misaki was in serious trouble at that point, he was still able to defend himself which is different from being motionless.

Also, Saku39, you were on the same platform as Sakurai? That is so awesome. I sort of wanted another KO win for Mach, but I guess complete domination is good enough.

**saku39** · Posted On: 1/02/2008 1:33am

yep, same route home as sakurai. he eventually got off the yamanote at sugamo if anyone wants to play stalker.

did anyone else see jean claude van damme in the ring with fedor after his win. i could have sworn it was him, except he seemed maybe too tall to be van damme. anyone know what i am talking about?

**SpringHeeledJack** · Posted On: 1/02/2008 1:46am

I never saw JCVD, but I heard one of the commentators mention him being there.

**saku39** · Posted On: 1/02/2008 1:50am

fedor looked happy to see him! happier than winning actually...

**SpringHeeledJack** · Posted On: 1/02/2008 1:51am

After the armbar, I fast forwarded it to the next fight, so I must have missed that. I'm going to go back and watch it now.

edit - Yeah, that was him