Pride Fighting Championships: Bad to the Bone [DVD]

June 8, 2003Tokyo, JapanAnother great Pride fight card and another night of great fights.Nino "Elvis" Schembri vs. Kazuhiro Hamanaka:Schembri is fresh off of his upset victory over Sakuraba. Hamanaka is making his Pride debut. This fight has some very good action and Schembri shows some of the same great knees that stopped Sakuraba. He constantly pulls guard when he gets into trouble, which is annoying and also stalls the action temporarily. This is a very close fight until the 3rd round, when it truly gets interesting.Anderson "Spider Man" Sliva vs. Daijyu Takase:Silva is making waves in Pride by this time. He is expected to walk through Takase. Takase dedicates the fight to a man who is suffering through a terrible disease and he does far better than is expected of him. Silva looks out of sorts in this fight. Almost the whole fight takes place on the ground and it ends there, also.Alistair Overeem vs. Mike Bencic:This one ends in exciting fashion with a flying strike in the first.Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Mikhail Ilokhine:Mikhail looks stiff coming into this fight, whereas Jackson looks determined and unwaivering, as usual. In this bout, we actually see Jackson lift Mikhail up from the guard and attempt a slam. This is not something I'd ever seen before, but that is the kind of fighter Rampage Jackson is: exciting, very talented and very different. He tries things that other fighters don't even think of. Rampage gets this fight to the feet after spending some time on the ground. Here, he almost ends it, but Mikhail falls through the ropes to escape the barrage. Rampage takes over... He tough-talks Wanderlei Silva after the fight, commenting on Silva's shoving him in the ring after his win over Kevin Randleman. He goes at Silva hard, verbally, which will stir "The Axe Murderer", I'm sure.Emelianenko Fedor vs. Kazuyuki Fujita:This is an exciting fight!!! For the first time, we see Fedor get rocked. How does he handle it? It he a TRUE champion? It is all revealed in this fight. A must-see!Mirko CroCop vs. Heath "Texas Crazy Horse" Herring:This is a great matchup that I was hoping to see for a while. Herring comes out a bit overexcited. CroCop remains calm and eludes Herring's attacks, before beginning to launch his own offense. There are a lot of kicks thrown in this fight and it is a kick to a very specific area of the body that ends up stopping the fight. Awesome striking display. Great fight!Mark "The Hammer" Coleman vs. Don "The Predator" Frye:This is a rematch 7 years in the making. Frye lost to Coleman the first time around. Frye trains for this fight with Frank Shamrock, hoping to get the edge this time. There is a good buildup to this fight - perhaps too much. The fight itself is a slow-paced battle for positioning. The fight doesn't have any distinguishable high points. The man who wins simply does just enough to squeak out the win. Nothing too interesting and I would call it something of a letdown.Great bonus footage, as always. I highly recommend this DVD.

Pride Fc event that had more fights go the decision than kncockouts or submissions.

PRIDE 26: BAD TO THE BONE is an outstanding fight card packed to the gills with past, present and future MMA stars. It is a worthy and perhaps even superior follow-up to PRIDE 25: BODY BLOW, which was a very good show. The (spoiler-free!) lineup includes:Kazuhiro Namanaka vs. Nino "Elvis" Schembri: This was a match between a guy coming off the biggest win of his career and a guy trying to avenge the upset loss of his mentor. Good drama, good fight.Daiju Takase vs. Anderson Silva: Takase was a respectable fighter from the Sakuraba camp.Silva was the "Roy Jones of Vale Tudo." Together they made a kind of history.Alistair Overeem vs. Mike Benic: The Reem takes on a pupil of Mirko Cro Cop.Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Mikhail Illoukhine: The always-amusing (in this case, extra-amusing) Rampage tackles a wrestler from Fedor's then-crew, the Russian Top Team.Fedor Emilianenko vs. Kazuyuki Fujita: A really terrific fight between the Pride heavyweight champ and the man known as "Iron Head."Mirko Cro Cop vs. Heath Herring: One of the biggest bangers in the heavyweight division takes on one of the scrappiest heavyweights out there in another good fight.Mark Coleman vs. Don Frye: Two former UFC kingpins (and MMA legends) meet in a much-anticipated rematch of their their original fight, which took place seven years earlier.As you can see, on this card you have not only top-class fighters and legends but actual Hall of Famers, some of whom are still fighting and dominating today. When you couple that with the amusing (and occaisonally silly) commentary of Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros, you end up with a really good show with high stakes and plenty of action. How can you go wrong with that?

At Pride 26: Bad to the Bone, Don Frye seeks redemption from his loss against Mark Coleman. Winning this fight is imperative for both fighters. Ever since Frye lost to Coleman at UFC 10, he's been obsessing and begging for a rematch. But Frye's not the only one with personal demons. After losing the Heavyweight Title to Minotauro Nogueira at Pride 16, Mark Coleman's done his share of time through two years of soul searching.Although the historic finale between Coleman and Frye is less than memorable, you still get to witness a barnburner between the "Russian Experiment" Fedor Emelianenko and the hardheaded Kazayuki Fujita. The show also marks the return of Heath Herring, as he is met by daring opposition from Mirko Cro Cop.The fight card is as follows (reviewed on a scale of 0-10):COMPLETE CARDAnderson Silva vs Daiju Takase (8/10)Alistair Overeem vs Mike Bencic (8/10)Elvis Schembri vs Kazuhiro Hamanaka (8/10)Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs Mikhail Illoukhine (8/10)Heath Herring vs Mirko Cro-Cop (9/10)Fedor Emelianenko vs Kazuyuki Fujita (8/10)MAIN EVENTMark Coleman vs Don Frye (1/10)

the reason I dont give this dvd 5 stars is because it was a short event.bad to the bone features the best fighter of the world fedor emelianeko ,also features mirko cro cop top 10 heavyweight ,the legends mark coleman and don frye.Others fighters in this event are: the ufc lightheavyweight champion quinton jackson and the middleweight champion anderson silva.best fights:1)heath hearing vs mirko cro cop 2)fedor vs fujita 3)takase vs anderson silva 4)coleman vs frye

Pride 26 is an unbelievably good event. Fedor/Fujita is the best fight as you see something you would never expect to see. Mirko/Herring is an awesome fight that really introduces Filipovic as the threat he is. Hamanaka avenges his master by facing off against Nino.

This event had some very exciting fights! I was very impressed with this event as it is yet another example of how far Pride has come. Highly recommended!!

this was a great event, lots of good matches, something that kiiiiinda ruined it for me was Bas Rutten and the other commentator guy trying to pretend they were drinking throughout the intermissions, it was cheesy.