Yves Edwards. I am so happy that Yves is in Japan and fighting. He finally deserves the sort of attention in which a fighter like him is supposed to be paid. I mean in America he’s already a hero. But in Japan, he was thought of as a guy who was choked by Rumina Sato, the guy who lost against Caol Uno by a hair in UFC 37. Or some Japanese fight fans can’t tell the difference between Din Thomas and Yves Edwards. Man, he’s beaten so many tough warriors. Hermes twice. Knocked out Josh Thomson. Stopped Hiroyuki Kotani.
And Yves finished Mishima, who even Ralph Gracie couldn’t catch. Wasn’t that a beautiful armbar? Can the UFC put this armbar footage in their Ultimate Submission DVD Vol. 4?
Mishima is a guy who is famous for strong takedowns and good ground game. But the way Yves submitted Mishima was more than beautiful. I’ll give it 10 points! And he gave put a major note on Mishima’s fighter career with these three words: “first submission loss.” Way to go.
Who expected Yves to submit Mishima in the first round? I have no doubt that now he caught a lot of Japanese MMA fan’s hearts. And finally they know Mr. Yves Edwards.
Hey, have you guys checked out his post-fight interview? If you haven’t, check this out. You can hear his interesting comment about adjusting from UFC to PRIDE rules. Actually, I wanted to ask more questions at the post-fight interview but the interviews were cut short. So I wonder how he felt in the 10-minute first round … etc, etc.
Oh well, maybe next time.
On the other side of the ring, Mishima seemed really sad during his interview, almost as if he was going to cry in the next moment. He said that his fight style doesn’t fit to PRIDE rules anymore. “I worried about that green card too much,” he said. “Then my whole ground game plan were f___ed up. I’m so disappointed by myself. Not because Yves submitted me. But I lost by my game plan, my mentality.”
“I think if I don’t change my fight style, PRIDE won’t use me anymore,” he said quietly. “So I have to change my fight style.”
I was sad to hear such a voice. He is supposed to be a fun, tricky, exciting fighter. I hope Mishima will find his confidence and come back stronger like when he beat Marcus Aurelio.
Aside from Yves, who could be a good fighter to join the Bushido tournament? I’m thinking about a guy you can see alongside Mark Coleman and Phil Baroni’s during their post-fight videos.
There was my boy as Baroni’s corner man, the one and only Joe Stevenson. I’ve been waiting a long time for him to come out in some major league fight scene. I heard the rumor that Joe will be in TUF 2. But some say he won’t. I don’t know the truth yet. I think he’d be good spice for the Bushido tournament. If he can’t come to Bushido and instead joins TUF 2, that’s good for him also. Either way, I’m looking forward to see him on my TV screen.
Who else? If there’s Gomi, Hansen, and Kawajiri, why don’t we throw this name into the bowl: from the SHOOTO organization, Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro. Four different SHOOTO welterweight champions — sounds great doesn’t it?
Who else, yeah, that guy, a regular of UFC lightweight division, Hermes Franca. Now he’s in BTT so it won’t be that difficult for him to fight in Bushido. Also, how about Josh Thomson? Ryan Schultz? If he can gain bit of weight, “Pequeno” could be a classic piece. Oh wait what’s happened to the PRIDE Los Angeles tryout winners? Haven’t seen them in PRIDE yet. When are they coming out?