Saitama Super Arena plays host to PRIDE’s New Year’s celebration. The 10-bout card features two heavyweight battles (Emelianenko-Hunt and Barnett-Nogueira) and two lightweight tilts (Gomi-Ishida and Kawajiri-Melendez) that could each serve as the main event in any promotion on the planet. But wait, there’s more.
In part one of Sherdog.com’s look at PRIDE “Shockwave,” which airs on pay-per-view in North America on Dec. 31, we’ll examine the first half of the card that features a predominantly Japanese line-up.
The night opens with Olympian Hidehiko Yoshida (Pictures) taking on the wild and unruly James Thompson (Pictures). “Iron Head” Fujita, now referred to as “The Beast,” will make his return. He’ll meet Georgian wrestler Eldari Kurtanidze in the Olympian’s MMA debut.
Then the triple bill of rematches begins. Barnett and Nogueira’s second meeting in four months will follow Akihiro Gono (Pictures)-Yuki Kondo (Pictures) II. And rounding out the first half will be Ikuhisa Minowa (Pictures) against Kiyoshi Tamura (Pictures).