Friday, Nov 02, 2001
Pride Results Are In!
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Pride Results Are In! By Aaron Crecy |
 Zuffa Delivers By Jim Genia Two stunning knockouts. Two submissions. Two referee stoppages and one tap out due to strikes. And only one match going the distance. Playing to an almost full arena, the Ultimate Fighting Championship 34 "High Voltage" show lived up to the expectations of all the fans seeking the best in mixed martial arts combat. There was no denying it: Zuffa delivered. Heavyweight champ Randy Couture retained his belt, stopping Pedro Rizzo in the third round with strikes from Rizzo’s guard. Couture showed vastly improved kickboxing skills, thanks to his time spent training with Maurice Smith, while Rizzo’s own striking never seemed to get off the ground. After some tentative exchanges on their feet, Couture took him down and landed powerful punches, opening up a bad cut on the bridge of Rizzo’s nose and over his left eye. It was the unanswered punches — not the bleeding — that forced referee Big John McCarthy to halt the fight. In the welterweight championship bout, challenger Matt Hughes slammed his way to victory over champ Carlos Newton in the second round. Although reversed and mounted at one point, Hughes displayed phenomenal strength with his powerful takedowns. Finding himself caught in a triangle choke from Newton’s guard, Hughes lifted the crafty Canadian up and carried him to the edge of the Octagon — then slammed Newton to the mat, thereby earning the knockout. It was an unprecedented move and an amazing sight, made all the more amazing by the fact that Hughes himself then briefly blacked out from the choke. Hughes earned the win, and avenged the loss Newton had given to his friend and mentor, Pat Miletich.  On the undercard, BJ Penn further proved his "Phenom" status by knocking out Japanese legend Caol Uno in only eleven seconds into the first round. After avoiding a leaping kick, Penn unleashed a blazing right, left, then four lightning-fast uppercuts, leaving Uno unconscious on his back. Team Punishment heavyweight Ricco Rodriguez showed greatly improved conditioning in his match, and dominated his opponent with superior grappling. He secured rear mount on Pete Williams in the second round, and a barrage of punches to Williams’ head forced referee Mario Yamasaki to stop the fight. The "Baby-Faced Assassin" Josh Barnett defeated Bobby Hoffman with strikes from the sidemount in the second round. Hoffman, the current King Of The Cage heavyweight champ, was forced to tap before ever getting a chance to unleash his own heavy hands. In the preliminary matches, Evan Tanner secured an armbar from the guard, forcing Homer Moore to tap in the second round. Olympic silver medalist Matt Lindland out-wrestled Phil Baroni, earning a majority decision after three rounds — despite Baroni’s display of powerful punches and great heart. In another big surprise of the night, Frank Mir, a wrestler and purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, submitted via armbar Abu Dhabi grappling champ Roberto Traven in the first round. There were an array happy faces at the post-fight press conference, though no one seemed happier than UFC president Dana White. Thanking the fighters and the fans, he was extremely pleased with how the event had turned out — for he had proved to the world that Zuffa is more than capable of delivering one of the best shows in MMA today. Results-
Complete coverage of the event in the November 2001 issue of FULL CONTACT FIGHTER, subscribe now! Check out the FCF Shop for the lowest prices on UFC videos! |
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SuperBrawl XXII: United We Stand Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu, Hawaii November 3, 2001 By Chris Onzuka – Chris@onzuka.com  I am not sure if it was the "United We Stand" title or fighters on the card that brought out the crowd, but Las Vegas was definitely not the only place rocking. While the UFC was being held in Las Vegas, the Blaisdell Arena was rumbling back in Hawaii with a sizable crowd on hand. The night was filled with great fights. In just about every fight the tide turned at least a couple times as to which fighter was in control of the match. Not one of the matches would go to a decision and referees; Haru Shiminishi and Steve English would be working hard on every one of the contests. A couple of the fights that stood out had to be the war between Eddie Yagin and Ryan Diaz. Diaz had Yagin in trouble early and almost finished the fight, but Yagin showed a ton of heart and came back and KO’d Diaz laying him out for a while. The women also came to fight. Beta Yeung showed that going back to the gym and focusing on her unsuccessful debut really paid off when she arm barred Sarah Finaseth in under 30 seconds, causing the crowd to go into a frenzy. And last, but not least, Egan Inoue took apart Joe Doerksen in impressive fashion. Inoue wanted to prove that not only should he be in the middleweight top 10 rankings, but he should be the next one in line to challenge the newly crowned, Dave Menne for his UFC middleweight championship belt. Only time will tell, but T. Jay Thompson’s Super Brawl has always been a hotbed for new talent that makes it to the UFC. In fact, UFC 34’s fight card consisted of five fighters that were featured in Super Brawl at one time or another. I hear that Thompson has a contact by the name of Tommy Dakota that can get people noticed… [sorry, inside joke]. If you haven’t subscribed to Full Contact Fighter, what are you waiting for? The compete fight descriptions will be in the next issue!
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posted by Full Contact Fighter @ 8:00 pm
