RIO DE JANEIRO — While several Brazilians flew to Japan last week to fight in PRIDE, many, like Wanderlei Silva (Pictures), kept up their lives and followed their rhythm of training.
In the Rain Forest, renowned international fighters like Ryoto Machida (Pictures) and Tony DeSouza (Pictures) had to face tough opponents. Also, this month Brazil will invade Slovenia, but the war will be in the ring.
Wanderlei talks about absence
Wanderlei Silva (Pictures)’s absence in the Grand Prix is one of the most important and noticeable for any fighter.
“I wanted to fight, by the size of the event and stuff like that, just to make money,” said the Chute Boxe star. “But [PRIDE] didn’t want me to pay what I asked for. They offered me another amount of money, and I didn’t take it. Actually, I’m stressed. I wanted to have some time to spend with my family, my wife and my son, to stay for a while with nothing to do.”
The middleweight champion said he doesn’t know what to expect from the show.
“Actually, the promoters have been setting some matches in order to make possible to some guys to get to the second phase.” Silva said. “I’m not seeing any classic on this first phase. When two real good fighters are ready to fight, like ‘Minotauro’ and ‘Cro Cop’ — up to this moment I haven’t seen any fight like those. I guess on the second phase things would get better once it’s a real tough tournament.”
In 2006, one of Silva’s plans is to defend his title, which could take place in the American edition of PRIDE, set for October in Las Vegas.
“I would really like to face Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (Pictures),” he said. “I think he must beat a top [fighter] to get his ‘credential.’ I feel it will be him, someone I really wanted to fight with, because he’s courageous, just like his brother. He holds the punches, gets into the game and I’m sure that I will do with him a very technical fight, with lots of punches on the face than the one I did with Arona. It will be a very exciting fight. He’s definitely someone on my level.”
“The Axe Murderer” also commented about the skirmish he had with Mark Coleman (Pictures) and his team at PRIDE 31.
“Actually, the problem with Coleman will be solved by Shogun himself,” promised Silva. “This fight will happen again and he’s gonna do what he was supposed to do on the first one for good, which didn’t happen the first time. No doubt Shogun still is one of the best fighters in the world.”
Jungle Fight 6 Recap
Jungle Fight 6 took place on April 29 in Manaus and reunited many experienced international fighters like Ryoto Machida (Pictures), Tony DeSouza (Pictures) and Marcos “Louro” along with Thales Leites (Pictures), Danilo “Indio” and BJJ world champion Ronaldo Jacaré. The event, managed by Wallid Ismail (Pictures), did not disappoint and was the best edition ever made.
The Peruvian DeSouza made an exciting fight against the excellent Muay Thai fighter, Vitelmo Kubis Bandeira. After suffering a knockdown, DeSouza kept himself calm, threw his opponent to the ground and submitted him with a perfect kneebar.
Leites, a rising middleweight star from the Nova Uniao Team, was unaware of the experienced Jose Landi-Jons (Pictures). That didn’t stop him from taking “Pelé” down, passing his guard, and overtaking him after lots of punches. Leites put an end to it with an arm-triangle choke in the first round.
Considered one of the present day Brazilian jiu-jitsu phenoms, Ronaldo Souza (Pictures) made his third MMA fight of his career, this time against Russian Alexander Shlemenko.
The Brazilian gave Shlemenko a jiu-jitsu lesson, taking him down, passing his guard, and securing an arm-triangle choke. Shlemenko didn’t give up and was choked unconscious by “Jacaré,” as the referee was forced to stop the contest.
In the main event “Lyoto” Machida faced 20-year-old Dimitri Wanderley. Machida, an excellent stand-up fighter, had a bit of a hard time during the beginning of the combat. But as time passed he imposed his game, opening some cuts on his opponent’s face. In the third round, Machida kept his rhythm up to the moment that the referee interrupted the combat and declared him the winner.
Full Results
Davina Maciel def. Kanako Inaba KO R2
Bryan Rafiq def. Shinzo Machida guillotine choke R2
Tony DeSouza (Pictures) def. Vitelmo Kubis Bandeira kneebar R1
Danilo Villefort def. Froid Hansen rear-naked choke R2
Marcos Galvao (Pictures) def. Fredson Paixao (Pictures) decision 3R
Adriano Martins def. Steve Reyna rear-naked choke R2
Thales Leites (Pictures) def. Jose Landi-Jons (Pictures) arm-triangle choke R1
Ronaldo Souza (Pictures) def. Alexander Shlemenko arm-triangle choke R1
Ryoto Machida (Pictures) def. Dimitri Wanderley TKO R3
WFC defines its card
Promoted by the renowned physical trainer Paulo Caruso, the World Free Fight Challenge will take place May 20 in the city of Kooper, Slovenia, and will showcase many Brazilian fighters, like Evangelista “Cyborg,” “Pelé” and the new heavyweight sensation, Edson Drago (Pictures).
The WFC will give 23,000 euros as prizes and promises two other events this year, including a belt dispute.
Full Card:
Dennis Siver vs. Paul Jenkins (Pictures)
Micheli Vergenelli vs. Dave Phillips
Igor Araujo vs. Jean Francois Lenogue (Pictures)
Moise Rimbon vs. Michael Martela
Rafael Feijao vs. Miodrag Petkovitch
Carlos Baruch vs. Damir Mirenic
Baga Agaev vs. Grzegorz Jakubowski
Evangelista Santos (Pictures) vs. Tomasz Drwal
Jose Landi-Jons (Pictures) vs. Alexander Shlemenko
Edson Drago (Pictures) vs. Valdas Pocevicius
Hermes Franca (Pictures) celebrates good fortune
After a string of bad luck, Hermes Franca (Pictures) has gotten back on track in 2006, winning two fights thus far against Gabe Ruediger (Pictures) (WEC 19) and Ryan Schultz (Pictures) (AFC 16).
He believes that the bad time has passed. “I feel happy,” said the always-smiling lightweight. “I’m training hard and I’m definitely back.”
“The change of team made me feel better,” he continued. “Nowadays I’m an appreciative person. We train everyday at the Team Armory, discussing ideas about the training and I always believed that the bad luck was coming to an end.”
Franca’s next fight will be on May 13 against Adam Lynn (Pictures) on the Total Combat card in San Diego, Calif.
News and Notes
Having trained in Brazil for the last five months, rumors are increasing about the return of Rickson Gracie to the ring. These rumors are pointing to a fight between Rickson and Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures) in HERO’s. …
Alexandre Franca Nogueira (Pictures) will soon open his new training center, which features the teaching of various martial arts like wrestling, judo, Muay Thai, etc. Besides that, they will teach computer and other classes for the athletes, preparing them, according to “Pequeno,” not only to become great fighters, but also to make them ready to the world. Nogueira was scheduled to return to the ring on May 12 against Canadian Antonio Carvalho (Pictures), however a last minute change has seen the reigning 143-pound king forced out of the fight. And SHOOTO has stripped him of the belt. …
Out of action since 2002 when he beat Jadson Costa (Pictures) at MECA 7, Cristiano Marcelo returned to the MMA ring on Saturday. The Chute Boxe BJJ trainer stopped Korean Do Hyeong Kim in just over one minute. The combat was the main fight of MARS, which took place in Seoul, South Korea. …
After losing to Paulo Filho (Pictures) at PRIDE Bushido 10, Murilo Rua (Pictures) went to Munich, Germany, where he gave a MMA seminar. It was the first time the Chute Boxe fighter traveled to Germany and 30 people took part on the seminar.