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Hello again and welcome back to DVD World. My name is Brian Sweet and it is my pleasure to present this week's review of "Pride.33: The Second Coming." As always, please feel free to drop me a line at HYPERLINK "mailto:bs2647@gmail.com" bs2647@gmail.com if you have a request for a specific event to be reviewed or questions regarding anything having to do with MMA or DVDs. I may be able to point you in the right direction if you are having problems completing your collection. Without further ado, lets get down to business and have a look at this week's selection.
Pride.33 - The Second Coming
February 24, 2007
Thomas and mack Center
Las Vegas, Nev.
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Nogueira was pegged as a possible future Pride middleweight champ coming into this fight. He was coming off a brutal corner stoppage TKO win over Alistair Overeem and was looking to get a win streak going. Everyone knew that Nogueira was a monster on the ground and that he possessed great boxing skills. In fact, Nogueira won a gold medal in boxing at the 2006 South American Games in the Super Heavyweight division. Winning this fight was merely a technicality as Nogueira came in as a heavy favorite. Sokoudjou came into this brawl as a relative unknown with only three fights on his pro record at the time. Suffice to say that Sokoudjou was a 16-1 underdog, but it was just a matter of time before someone got rich in Vegas. Twenty-three seconds of time to be exact, because Thierry utterly destroyed Nogueira in the opening round and the entire MMA world was left speechless. Let's see how this upset of monumental proportions occurred.
THE FIGHT
Round 1: Both men come out cautiously but Sokoudjou gets the action underway by landing a hard inside leg kick followed by a right high kick that Minotoro blocks well. Noguiera peppers out a right jab but eats another hard inside leg kick. Thierry nearly lands another right high kick that throws Minotoro off balance and leans him into a hard left hook that lands flush on the chops and drops him. Sokoudjou follows up with a massive right hammerfist that finishes the fight in dramatic fashion. Wow. Sokodjou came out of nowhere with this win and easily handled one of the world's toughest light heavyweight mixed martial artists.
AFTERMATH
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira:
Nogueira was destroyed in this fight, but he managed to pick himself up and string together five successive wins. Little Nog even managed to avenge one of the losses suffered early in his career as he earned a TKO victory over Vladimir Matyushenko at "Afflicion: Day of Reckoning."
The names of victims on Nogueira's record are quite impressive as he has defeated top talent such as Tyoshi Kohsaka, Guy Mezger, Kazuhiro Nakamura (2), Kazushi Sakuraba, Alistair Overeem (2), Dan Henderson, and Edwin Dewees. He is scheduled to compete at UFC 106 in late November against Luiz Cane, in what should be an excellent fight as both men are on a roll as of late. Gone are the days of Little Nog being looked upon as simply the little Nogueira brother.
He has come into his own now and presents a serious threat to the stability of the current UFC light heavyweight division. Do not be surprised if Minotoro strings together a few more wins en route to earning a title shot.
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou:
Sokoudjou burst onto the scene with this incredible knockout. He went on to earn yet another upset win over Ricardo Arona at Pride.34. Everything looked golden for Sokoudjou until UFC 79 when he met the current UFC light heavyweight champ, Lyoto Machida and got submitted via arm triangle choke. He then earned a TKO victory over the Japanese judoka, Kazuhiro Nakamura at UFC 84 before dropping his last fight in the UFC to Luiz Cane at UFC 89. Thierry would not find success again until after Renato Sobral submitted him at "ffliction: Day of Reckoning."
Sokoudjou participated in the Dream Super Hulk tournament and made it to the finals after earning big wins over Jan Nortje and Bob Sapp. Neither fight was anything spectacular, other than Sokoudjou proceeding to lay the proverbial smackdown on Nortje after their fight had concluded. Dream officials did not see fit to punish the Cameroonian however. He last fought at the Strikeforce Fedor vs. Rogers event held in Chicago, Illinois in a losing effort to the always dangerous Gegard Mousasi.
Sokoudjou displayed decent striking skills, but was eventually overcome by the counter punching skills of the Dream Catcher. It is hard to say whether or not Sokoudjou's days as being considered a legitimate threat at a championship are numbered. However, he certainly does need to work on his game some and perhaps a little patience in his fights would go a long way toward helping him become successful again.
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