Several New Bouts Added To PRIDE Bushido WWGP Card
 

The following is the updated line-up for the upcoming PRIDE Bushido show featuring the second round of the Welterweight Grand Prix tournament:

-Dan Henderson vs. Kazuo Misaki (WWGP)
-Akihiro Gono vs. Gegard Mousasi (WWGP)
-Paulo Filho vs. Ryo Chonan (WWGP)
-Denis Kang vs. Amar Suloev (WWGP)
-Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Chris Brennan
-Gilbert Melendez vs. Nobuhiro Obiya
-Jason Black vs. Shinya Aoki
-Jeff Curran vs. Hatsu Hioki

Also scheduled to compete, but yet to have opponents announced:

-Takanori Gomi
-Hayato Sakurai
-Mitsuhiro Ishida

I havent seen Gilbert Melendez yet but heard great things, looking foward to this event.

Unfortunately you probably still won't see Melendez fight. FSN bought the rights to air this event. It's only gonna be in a 2 hour time slot/w commercials. Most likely we'll only see the 4 tourney matches and Gomi's match. I hope FSN airs the rest of the fights on a later date.

Hatsu Hioki vs Jeff Curran should be an entertaining match. Hioki is the Shooto fighter that is coming of a victory over Mark Hominick, in between Hominick's 2 UFC victories.

This card is definitely showing alot more potential than when the 1st 4 matches were announced, just too bad we won't be able to see it all.

I'll have videos off all the non-televised fights in the Pics & Videos sub-forum most likely.

I gotta say, this card sucks. PRIDE must not be taking their U.S. introduction very seriously, because they have nothing that's going to attract a casual American MMA fan (not to be confused with a fan who would know a Takanori Gomi by name, as a casual MMA fan wouldn't) other than the promoting of an MMA-fight card, which on its' own isn't going to do shit. This is their introduction, the first REAL TV they've done in the U.S. since everything else was from PPVs or taped and on long delays and shit. They're coming to the U.S. to promote a show in October, and this could be a good outlet, this FSN-Bushido deal upcoming, to introduce yourself as a major player. Well, let's hope the fights at least turn out good. The only two fights I'm looking forward to legitimately on this card is Kang-Suloev and to a lesser extent Filho-Chonan.

This card sucks? lol that's taking it a little too far. All the non-tourney matches look good to me. Curran/Hioki, Black/Aoki, and Melendez/Obiya should all be entertaining. Kawajiri should handle Brennan pretty easily. We'll probably see Ishida/Sakurai in some sort of #1 contender match for Gomi's title, and Gomi will be in action as well. Those LW non-tourney matches along with the Tourney matches make for a great card IMO.

You have to remember that this card isn't 100% catered to the "casual American MMA fan". Pride still has to sell tickets and make money at the gate.

No I know it's not for casual American MMA fans, but I'm an American MMA fan and I don't give a holy jack shit about most of the fights you said should be good. I can go to a high school and see good scraps if that's all I care about. Don't get me wrong, I'm as die-hard as anyone else, but I like a little more versatility in a card. Henderson re-matching someone he already beat just because the dude beat Baroni? Gono and the new dude. Filho-Chonan are good fighters but the style clash screams boredom. Kang-Suloev should be awesome, no doubt. Kawajiri and Brennan is a mismatch, even though Brennan is good on the ground. Melendez versus who? Jason Black versus who? Jeff Curran is decent and I guess you said his opponent beat Hominick. Big deal lol. And you can almost bet Gomi and Sakurai will be matched up with nobodies and Ishida probably the same since he "beat the guy who beat Gomi". Compared to almost any past Bushido card, at least the recent ones, this one sucks in my opinion. If it was on PPV, I wouldn't buy it. It's on free TV and I don't even know if I'll give up my weekend (if that's when it airs) to watch it. It's one of the events like a ROTR or something that I'm perfectly content just waiting to download online at my convenience. The idea of a PPV is to put together fights that make you want to spend money. Watching a bunch of people I know next to nothing about fighting people I kinda know doesn't get me running for the wallet.

Sucks might have been a strong word, but this card definitely doesn't kick ass - which is something you can almost always say about a Bushido line-up.

This is a solid card. I don't know why you feel the need to take a dump on it just because you don't know much about the fighters. Some of these fighters you've never heard of are top young fighters from Shooto and DEEP that are getting their shot on the big show. Obiya is a 6-0 DEEP fighter he should give Melendez a tough fight. Aoki is a top young fighter who has fought in Shooto and DEEP. He has very good BJJ and has taken Mach Sakurai to a decision in his short career. Sure these guys aren't big stars yet, but they are solid up and coming fighters, and that's what I like to see. I get tired of the same old names.

I personally find this card better than the last Bushido card that had Olaf and Krazy Horse on there for pure entertainment purposes only. This card's non-tourney matches are way better so far.

Seen this at youtube you might like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSrU3...elated&search=

Like I said I like versatility in a card. I went out of my way to explain that because I figured you'd respond like that. My point is, mix it up. You don't like cards filled with nothing but exciting "entertainment purpose only" fights the same way I don't like cards from big organizations full of a bunch of unknown newcomers. Mix it up, give something for everyone. This card is designed simply to draw in Japan and if it catches the eye of some of the die-hard fans, then it's just a bonus.

I understand your point, and I know that 95% of the people out there couldn't give a shit about this card. I just didn't know why you personally thought it "sucks" in comparison to recent past Bushido events(not counting Bushido 9 because most events suck compared to that one).