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[gracie jui-jitsu guy]

Wanderlei confirmed over on shitdog that he'll be fighting Dec 31 but it won't be for the title. He will not be defending the title until the Pride February show in the U.S. and it will probably be against Lil' Nog or Arona. As for his Dec 31 fight, his opponent's name hasn't been revealed yet. Looks like another non-title fight to look foward to.

[NinjaShogunRua]

It didn't take a psychic to see that coming. The poster for PRIDE 33 says in bold print that Wanderlei will be defending his title at the event. It would be kind of hard for him to defend the title if he got beat at NYE. So that makes sense from a money stand point. Plus I am sure Gomi and Henderson's titles will be on the line. So 3 title fights won't be bad IMO.

[dagreat1]

Originally Posted by gracie jui-jitsu guy

Wanderlei confirmed over on shitdog that he'll be fighting Dec 31 but it won't be for the title. He will not be defending the title until the Pride February show in the U.S. and it will probably be against Lil' Nog or Arona. As for his Dec 31 fight, his opponent's name hasn't been revealed yet. Looks like another non-title fight to look foward to.

For me, any wand fight is worth watching, title or non title, same with any of PRIDE's belt holders. It sucks the belt isn't on the line but at least they are still fighting.

I feel it will be Lil Nog and not Arona especially since they are saving it for the US event and the noobie fans love strikers so Arona vs Wand has the capability of being a boring match whereas Lil Nog vs Wand would be a sluggfest and with Lil Nog being the reigning HW boxing champion right now in Brazil and annoucing that he is goign to be fighting on the Brazilian Olympic boxing team if it will not effect his Pride schedule, I for one, am realy excited about that fight. Lil Nog out struck Shougun for all 3 rounds at their fight so he can certainly do the same to Wand.

I am a huge fan of both fighters and would not be at all surprised to see a new MW champion.

[WadoKai]

If Wanderlei sustained a good enough beating at the NYE show, is it not entirely possible he wouldn't even be cleared to fight and defend the title, by the NSAC for the February show?

Is he going in against a pseudo-can for the NYE show then?

Boooooo.

[gracie jui-jitsu guy]

NinjaShoguRua, What the Pride poster seemed to imply to me was that Wandelei would not be fighting at all on the NYE card. That he wouldn't be fighting until the February card where he would be defending the title. Nothing was set in stone about him fighting on NYE. It wasn't an obvious thing that he'd have a non-title fight on Dec 31. The Shockwave card is the most important event of the year for Pride, I did not expect non-title fights on that card.

[NinjaShogunRua]

He's always been scheduled to fight on NYE. He was on the very 1st list of possible fighters that they released. They wouldn't have him not fight from October all the way to February. He would have been on the Real Deal card hadn't he been KTFO.

As far as not expecting a non-title fight on Shockwave, there was a non-title fight last year at Shockwave 05 with Fedor/Zuluzinho. So this is no big surprise. Last years Shockwave had 3 title fights and 1 non-title fight. This years should to. The HW title fight has already been announced. Most likely we'll see a Gomi/Hansen or Gomi/Ishida title fight. We'll probably see Misaki/Henderson III go down as well.

[ANTi]

Originally Posted by NinjaShogunRua

He's always been scheduled to fight on NYE. He was on the very 1st list of possible fighters that they released. They wouldn't have him not fight from October all the way to February. He would have been on the Real Deal card hadn't he been KTFO.

As far as not expecting a non-title fight on Shockwave, there was a non-title fight last year at Shockwave 05 with Fedor/Zuluzinho. So this is no big surprise. Last years Shockwave had 3 title fights and 1 non-title fight. This years should to. The HW title fight has already been announced. Most likely we'll see a Gomi/Hansen or Gomi/Ishida title fight. We'll probably see Misaki/Henderson III go down as well.

I'd love to see gomi/hansen. Hansen has stated that he has 1 fight left on his pride contract and he wants it to be a title fight. So it is a definate possibility. I also am looking forward to seeing kawajiri fight again. we could possibly see ishida vs kawajiri.

[NinjaShogunRua]

Originally Posted by ANTi

I'd love to see gomi/hansen. Hansen has stated that he has 1 fight left on his pride contract and he wants it to be a title fight. So it is a definate possibility. I also am looking forward to seeing kawajiri fight again. we could possibly see ishida vs kawajiri.

Yeah Gomi/Hansen II would be great. I read that interview as well. Both guys are on the list of possible fighters, so this fight could definitely go down.

As far as Ishida vs. Kawajiri fighting, I don't think we'll see that. They are good friends and both fight out of T-Blood. Not often do we see teammates fight eachother. Could see Kawajiri vs Sakurai, or Ishida vs Sakurai go down.

[stanthrax]

any fight for a champion shoudl be a title fight..
no good reason he should lose a fight and still be the champ... besides bein in another weight class

[ANTi]

Originally Posted by NinjaShogunRua

Yeah Gomi/Hansen II would be great. I read that interview as well. Both guys are on the list of possible fighters, so this fight could definitely go down.

As far as Ishida vs. Kawajiri fighting, I don't think we'll see that. They are good friends and both fight out of T-Blood. Not often do we see teammates fight eachother. Could see Kawajiri vs Sakurai, or Ishida vs Sakurai go down.

Yeah you're right, I completely forgot they were in the same camp when i made that post. I just want to see kawajiri up against some good competition. I think kawajiri vs Sakurai, or Ishida vs Sakurai would both be great fights.