Kurtanidze is the New Year’s sacrifice and comes to the greatest show on Earth with no MMA experience. Will he play his role and get taken out in a blink or will he throw Fujita on his ear and use the PRIDE stage as his coming out party?
Kazuyuki Fujita (Pictures) was an amateur freestyle wrestler and took many titles during his stint as an active competitor in the sport. Fujita (13-5-0) has recently trained with Marco Ruas (Pictures), Pedro Rizzo (Pictures) and the rest of the Ruas Vale Tudo camp.
He entered PRIDE and submitted Hans Nyman by choke at PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 opening round. He would stun viewers by beating Mark Kerr (Pictures) by decision at the PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 Finals and advanced in the tournament to face Kerr’s long-time training partner Mark Coleman (Pictures). We would later find out Kerr went into shock during the bout and was helpless for much of the battle. Injured, Fujita stepped into the ring to earn his purse, but withdrew from the bout and Coleman advanced to the Grand Prix final with a virtual bye.
Fujita returned to stop Ken Shamrock (Pictures), defeat Gilbert Yvel (Pictures) and submit Yoshihiro Takayama (Pictures) before leaving the promotion for two years. He returned to face Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) in a brief but entertaining war. Fujita had the Russian hurt but like a champion, Fedor recovered and brought the pain, choking out his victim in the first round.
Earlier this year we saw Fujita stop James Thompson (Pictures) with strikes. He advanced to face Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) last July, but Silva dropped the Japanese hero with strikes late in the opening round.
Eldari Kurtanidze is a six-time European, two-time World champion in freestyle wresting, and competed in the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympics, earning bronze medals in Sidney and Athens.
Despite being considered incredibly strong and possessing a huge heart, the 234-pound Kurtanidze is just five-foot-six, ensuring a low center of gravity thus aiding in his takedowns. But it is a huge disadvantage in the stand-up game against a six-foot Fujita, who comes with heavy hands and no neck. If Kurtanidze finds this MMA game is for him, he may want to gradually drop down in weight, where he could maintain much of the strength he currently possesses without getting outsized by all the huge heavyweights in PRIDE. As for this bout, I don’t give him much of a chance. Fujita baptized Egyptian wrestler Karim Ibrahim to the sport two years ago, and this encounter will likely have similar results. Fujita by KO.