I guess PRIDE has a lot of good fighters — or still is able to catch lots of good fighters. But how about the plan for Bushido’s future? Let’s take a listen to what Mr. Sakakibara, the President of Dream Stage Entertainment, thinks about the future of Bushido.
Oh boy, if there are 16 men, isn’t that a bit difficult to bring this tourney to a final by New Years Eve? I like tournaments, but I don’t like fighters fighting more than one time a night. But that’s just my idea. So if there are 16 fighters there’s still a lot of spots to fill the in the tournament I guess. UFC better have a multiple-fight contract with their fighters if they wanna keep anyone good, otherwise DSE’s gonna take ’em all.
Well, they’ll decide it. But anyhow, PRIDE’S going to have a show almost every month from now until the rest of the year. Keep me busy as hell with other shows. In June there’s the Middleweight GP second round. July has Bushido 8. August we’re supposed to see Mirko vs. Fedor. September has the lightweight and welterweight GP opening rounds. October we haven’t heard any yet, so I can enjoy the beautiful autumn. But in November, the second round of light/welterweight GP. And December, there’ll be a New Years Eve show, which is one of the biggest events of the year. Can’t beat it. Tokyo maybe the best place to live in the world if you like fight shows.
All right, that’s about it. Sorry for not writing more of a backstage report this time. But I’ll finish this story with other fighters’ comments. Please enjoy it.
Tomomi Iwama:
I woke up half way to the mat. But the way I fall down looked bad. I can’t say anything if the referee stopped the fight. I was bit embarrassed after the fight so I quickly came back to the locker room. Jens’ punch was heavy. PRIDE’s ring is a big. That atmosphere brought back the memories from when I was in a band. So I was very excited before the fight.
Milton Viera:
“Mach” read my mind, and defended my armbar attempt very well. I think his mind was very sharp today.
Ryo Chonan:
I wanted make the fight more fun. But I couldn’t. I’m very frustrated and pissed. I won today, but I feel like I just found a lot to improve.
Luiz Azeredo:
I think it was a good fight. My hand was connecting and thought I can KO him.
Question: Your fight style was very different from your last fight. What happened to that?
Answer: I want to be a fighter who can handle stand-up and ground game; I want to handle any situation like a joker of trump. Today I decided to fight on stand-up. And I did.
Trainer Rudimar Fedrigo:
My anger is gone now. But today Gomi’s attitude was very bad. Very disrespectful to his opponent and very bad for the show. If he has same situation in our side, he won’t be calm. That was very disappointing action as a professional fighter.
P.S. Oh! I almost forgot. This time the post-fight interview space was right next to everybody’s idle Eiko Koike’s waiting room or makeup room or whatever. So I ran into Eiko Koike in the hallway. She walked by my bro Akira Fujimoto and I. Man, I give her 10! No, 10 on the right, 10 on the left! And I had a good dream that night. Hahaha.