In his bout against Brazilian Top Team fighter Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (Pictures), Alistair Overeem (Pictures) came to the ring with a lot of tape along the back of his neck and shoulders. The Dutch fighter seemed to have the advantage on the feet, scoring with hard low kicks that nearly swept Nogueira’s feet out from under him at one point. “The Demolition Man” mixed in knees with his hands and kicks, and by the second Nogueira’s boxing was looking a bit sloppy.
At first appearance, this looked like a premature call by his corner, but later in his post-fight interview, Overeem revealed that he suffered a neck injury day during his final training, hence the taping. He further stated that this hindered his movement on the ground and affected his performance during the fight.
Yoshida dojo member Kazuhiro Nakamura (Pictures) exercised complete ground control in his fight against Cage Rage veteran Evangelista Santos (Pictures). The Japanese fighter scored a single-leg takedown early on, passing to side and pinning Cyborg’s arm to the mat with his knee. From here he fired punches down to his opponents head and applied a vicious keylock.
Cyborg was totally trapped with Nakamura’s weight across his head and chest. The Japanese fighter continued to crank on the keylock, twisting it fully backwards. This thing looked painful it was amazing that Santos didn’t tap. After repositioning the technique and giving it another try, Nakamura eventually got the submission at 4:49 of the first round.
PRIDE and UFC veteran Vitor Belfort (Pictures) made short work of former Pancrase heavyweight champion Yoshiki Takahashi (Pictures), scoring a knockout from a left hook at the 0:36 mark of the first round.
Yoshiro Nakao had a successful PRIDE debut, defeating Korean Eun Su Lee at 4:16 of round one by doctor’s stoppage.
Judo legend Pawel Nastula (Pictures) defeated Edson Drago (Pictures) by armbar at the 4:44 mark of the first.