It was a great opening ceremony, as usual. You know, the Japanese audience is usually quite quiet. But at the opening ceremony, when "Cro Cop" showed up, the audience was totally hyped up and he got a standing ovation. Mirko has got some charismatic power here in the Far East. I think he can win some political election in Japan, too, and change the national anthem to the “Wild Boys.” (By the way, what’s happened to his parliamentarian job in Croatia? Does anybody know?)
Referee Yuji Shimada got booed as usual. I don’t think people really mean to boo. They just enjoy making noise. But Shimada looked happy with it. And we welcomed K-1, KOTC, UFC Referee Nelson “Doc” Hamilton as a judge for his second appearance in PRIDE.
Alright, that’s about it. Let me just leave you with some backstage comments from other fighters.
See you all!
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P.S.Thank you very much Mr. Yoshinori Ihara from Boutreview.com for all your help.
Heath Herring: "I moved back to America to train in Las Vegas. ... I wasn’t happy about the first break at all. I felt like they kinda tried to make [Yokoi] recover. I felt kinda like that. Kinda look like that maybe. That’s why I got upset about it."
Hirotaka Yokoi: "I was disappointed with myself. And I don’t feel that I had a fight tonight. I don’t really remember what kind of punishment I got in the ring. I don’t remember since the first hook. When I woke up my corner was surrounding me. Before the fight, I wanted to catch his kick, and wanted start from there. I was going to exchange the punch and kick with him. But I got beat up."
Soa Palaei: "[Choi] has a hard head. If I have a chance, I'd like to come back stronger."
Choi Mu Bae: "My face is pretty messed up. But as representing Korea, I couldn't just lose this fight. Korean MMA industry is on my back. Can't just lose. In wrestling, if you back up, you lose. So I always go forward. ... I like John Travolta’s Saturday Night Fever, but not the dance. But I can show you how he dances, right here right now." (He showed off his beautiful dance moves to the press.)
Sergei Ignatev: "First, I got offered that I’m fighting some Japanese fighter, then a couple of days before the fight, we found out I'm fighting Ricardo Arona. And I couldn't really prepare for him."
(Regarding Arona saying you bit him on his arm) "No, certainly not. His choke came over my mouth, and he tightened his arm up. So he felt like I bit him. But I didn't do it."
Ricardo Arona: "My fight went as I planned before the fight. But at the end, there was bit of accident, then I was a bit upset. [Sergei] bit my arm when I went for the choke. That's the accident. I'd like to join the middleweight tourney, so I'll train hard."
James Thompson: "My strategy was rush to my opponent at the beginning. Then pound him in the ground. But I got counter punches, then the referee stopped the fight. The fight went very quick, if I could have five more minute, then the I had a lot of chance."
Aleksander Emelianenko: "My brother gave me some advice for this time: what he told me is shown by how I fought."
Alistair Overeem: "It was an OK fight. I just got the title in the 2H2H. Then I also would like to get PRIDE middleweight title, too."
Dan Henderson: "I trained with a Judo guy because wrestling takedowns and Judo takedowns are a little bit different. I'd like to fight in the New Years Eve show."
Mirko Filipovic: When we went to the ground, I turned my body and hold his arm, and I felt his arm is broken. I am not scared ground fighting. I am ready for ground fighting, too. I have the best trainer in the world."
Quinton Jackson, Josh Barnett, Kazuhiro Nakamura, Dan Bobish and Hiromitsu Kanehara did not speak to the press after their fights.