Customer Rating:  
Summary: Watch the nose, Bas
Comment: This tape is historic in that it shows the torch being passed from Mark Coleman to Antonio Minotauro Nogueira for the title of world's toughest man. True to form, Nogueira excels with submission holds working on his back. That didn't work for him against Fedor Emelianenko years later, when Fedor became the world's toughest man.
It's a shame that there really is no world championship, that the UFC champ never fights the Pride champ. It's like in boxing when the WBC, WBA and IBF just never get together to decide the true champ. But I think the fans in the know realize that Pride FC is the American League, and the UFC is only the National League.
The Mezger-Arona fight is a good one, though both fighters are gassed long before the end. If Mezger didn't run out of gas and basically forfeit the entire third round, he would have won the decision. As it was, he nearly won it anyway, and I thought he should have. But in retrospect I wasn't nearly as sure of that as the announcers were. You don't completely give up the third round of a three round fight and expect to get the decision. Mezger was a more dangerous and dominant fighter, but when there's nothing left in the tank, what are you gonna do?
Semmy Schilt vs. Akira Shoji was a mismatch. Schilt was originally supposed to fight someone more his size, and so was Shoji, but injuries to the other two competitors led to these two being paired against each other. Schilt is a good striker with those knees and fists, and he is a giant compared to the roly poly Shoji. This is not the way matchmakers work.
Don Frye returned to MMA years after his successes as world champ of the UFC. His opponent here is Yvel. Or is that Evil? Yvel messed up Frye's eyes with his thumbs, and the referee was on it and eventually disqualified Yvel, who also had his hands and arms grasping the ropes illegally to try to avoid the takedown. Yvel is a great standup fighter but Frye is better on the ground, so Yvel did what he could to fight his fight.
In the pre-fight interview, Yvel predicted that Frye would be a coward and try to take the fight to the ground rather than stand with the self-proclaimed best standup fighter in the world. Assuming that Yvel is correct and is the best standup fighter in the world, I don't think that "coward" is the right word to use for someone who would try to take him down. I think "moron" would be the word for someone who didn't try to take him down.
Goodridge, A. Silva, and Ninja show their stuff. It's a pretty good fight card. My favorite moment comes during one of the interviews when our friend Bas stuffs the microphone into Don Frye's nose on purpose. That's funny.
Customer Rating:
Summary: as good as pride 10
Comment: after reading some of the other reviews on the video i was shocked by the ignorance of the reviewers. aLTOUGH THIS is not the most exciting event that i've seen i can't think of a single boring fight. yes some of the fights were mismatches; but they were still exciting. THAT SAid i view the last four fights as being worth the price of the whole event. The mezger vs. arona fight was definately good and the victory was given to the wrong fighter. the frye vs. yvel was likewise exciting with yvel trying to knock frye's head off his shoulders and frye constantly trying to bring him down. The last fight: coleman vs. nog is probably the best fight on the dvd,altough relatively one sided it did foreshadow the years to come.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Average show, could be better ...
Comment: Here's the short breakdown:
Yatsu vs. Goodridge: match could have gone longer but Yatsu was no match.
Silva vs. Yamamoto: match is a dud. Yamamoto was done before being KO'd
Rua vs. Matsui: one of the better yet more brutal match in the card, Matsui did all he could but still lost at the end.
Arona vs. Mezger: best match in the card, both men gave it all.
Schilt vs. Shoji: Goliath (Schilt) slayed David (Shoji), that's all I can say.
Frye vs. Yvel: Good match, could be better if Yvel stopped acted like a whiner and breaking the rules and Frye was healthy the whole time.
Coleman vs. Nogueira: tough match and Nogueira was better than Coleman on that day.
Overall, it's a good show and the opening scene was very emotional (held shortly after 9/11), but the flaw was that the first two match were too short.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Here is a fight listing for Pride 16 "Beasts from the East"
Comment: The fights may not be in this order on the DVD. Fairly short card and missing some of the bigger names, although Akira Shoji rarely has a bad fight, the same for for Daijiro MatsuiAntonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs Mark Coleman
Don Frye vs Gilbert Yvel
Semmy Schilt vs Akira Shoji
Ricardo Arona vs Guy Mezger
Murilo Rua vs Daijiro Matsui
Assuerio Silva vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Gary Goodridge vs Yoshiaki Yatsu
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