Pride 33 Thomas & Mack Center Game
Frank Trigg vs. Kazuo Misaki
Saturday February 24, 2007
Trigg +200
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Frank Trigg has been on the sidelines doing color commentary for Pride for the last little while and has fought and lost to some of the biggest names in MMA like Matt Hughes and Georges St Pierre. He will make his return to the big stage fighting Kazuo "Grabaka Hitman" Misaki who is one of the most underrated fighters the world and probably a candidate for fighter of the year in 2006.

In MMA, styles do make fights and this is a very good fight for Trigg. He will have the home crowd on his side and he has a great wrestling background. In the past, Misaki has had problems with high quality wrestlers like Dan Henderson. Even though Misaki is the Grand Prix Champion his fights were fought when his opponents fought his game and Trigg will not try to stand up and trade punches and fall into his game. Trigg is a better wrestler and much stronger than Misaki and will be able to ground and pound him at will once he takes him to the ground.

Trigg has been training with John Lewis, Randy Couture and Forrest Griffin and has found the passion to fight again. If you look at Misaki’s record his wins against Kang and Henderson are deceiving since it was in a tournament style and when he fights Trigg on Saturday this will be one match under North American rules.

Bottom line: Trigg’s time off from MMA has put him in a better mental state and now he wants to fight because he loves to fight not for just a paycheck. His TKO win over Jason Miller has sparked a fire in Trigg’s eyes to find the passion to fight and train again.

Misaki had a great 2006 but Trigg is rejuvenated and WANTS to fight again. Look for an upset with a referee stoppage in the second round

Hayato Sakurai vs. Mac Danzig

Pride 33
Thomas & Mack Center Game
Hayato Sakurai vs. Mac Danzig
Saturday February 24, 2007
Sakurai -600
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Who hasn't Hayato Sakurai (29-7-2) fought? He has beat Joachim Hansen, Jens Pulver, Shinya Aoki, Daiju Takase, Dave Menne, Frank Trigg and Carl Uno. He has fought and lost to Takanori Gomi (one of the best pound for pound fights in the world), Crosley Gracie, Rodrigo Gracie, Ryo Chonan (destroyed Anderson Silva), Jake Shields (top ten fighter), Matt Hughes (best welterweight in history), and Anderson Silva (UFC middleweight Champion). Sakurai has fought in the best organizations in the world and has great stand up and ground skills. His last 3 fights he won by KO.

He will be fighting a submission fighter in Mac Danzig (16- 3-1) who has only fought in North America in the King of the Cage organization and his list of fighters does not match the resume of Sakurai. His last 2 fights he won by a decision which shows that he is not an overpowering finisher like Sakurai is.

Bottom Line: A fighter like Sakurai won’t take his opponents too little and Danzig’s power does not fear Sakurai and his ground skills are not on the same level as some of the people Sakurai has fought in the past. Sakurai wins in first round KO with a knee and then ground and pound until referee stops the match.

Pride fighters versus KOTC fighters is like kissing the cheerleader vs kissing the old librarian

Mauricio Rua vs. Alistair Overeem

Pride 33
Thomas & Mack Center Game
Mauricio Rua vs. Alistair Overeem
Shogun -500
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Mauricio Rua (15-2) is so good that he is the best middleweight/light heavyweight in the world. If you do not know mixed martial arts Rau comes from the Chute Box camp in Brazil where he studied under probably the meanest fighter in the world Wanderlei Silva. Rua is younger, stronger and almost as mean as Silva and I don’t see anyone in the middleweight or light heavy division even touching this guy because A) he is young, B) he has lethal kick and boxing skills and C) he has a great ground game.

Rua's only major defeat was against Mark Coleman (a heavy weight) where he fell awkwardly and landing in a weird position where he snapped his arm; nevertheless he was awarded the loss. I have seen this clip so many times and I still can’t figure out how he broke his arm. Shogun will be facing a very dangerous fighter in Alistair Overeem (24 – 9) who comes from the famed Golden Glory team in Holland. If Overeem was fighting anyone in the world except Rua he would be the favorite. The online sportsbook odds makers have Rau at -500 which shows how good he is against a very very tough opponent.

This is a MMA fans dream match up as both parties love to stand up and trade, the only difference is that Rau has so much power with such ferocious leg kicks that will chop the big Dutchman down.

Overeem has always had bad cardio due to lack of training. In the past he has relied on his skills, however, as he faces tougher and tougher opponents he needs to learn had to train. Overeem should have KO’ed Chuck Liddell but he got too tired and was eventually knocked out by the Iceman. Also, Overeem’s ground game is very weak even though he has been able to submit opponents lately. Rua can fight on the ground but prefers to KO people, which does not sit well for Overeem who is stand up fighter.

Bottom Line: Rua already KO’ed Overeem in the Pride middleweight tournament and he is too vicious with his stand up for Overeem or anyone in the world to compete.

Late first KO by Rau. Out of 17 MMA match ups he has 13 KO’s. Who else can even touch Rau at this point in time?

Takanori Gomi vs. Nick Diaz

Pride 33: Second Coming
Thomas & Mack Center Game
Takanori Gomi vs. Nick Diaz
Sat 2/24 11:00 PM (EST)
Gomi -330
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I really don’t know why Gomi is a favored so low. He should at least be a -500 by the online sportsbooks. Takanori Gomi is one of the top 10 pound for pound fighters in the world who fought a who’s who in the mixed martial arts world. Nick Diaz is one of the top welterweight fighters in the world but will have to cut a lot of weight to fight Gomi who fights at 154.

Diaz has great skills on the ground and can stand up and trade but when he has faced top level opponents he has not been able to rise to their abilities. Gomi is a world class fighter and many in North America don’t know how good this person is.

Diaz will put up a fight but he has a certain swagger about him that if people tell him that he doesn’t have the power to stand up and punch he will do so. In most instances it has worked but if he stands ups and trades with Gomi he will get knocked out. Gomi loves the KO and has KO’ed some great fighters like Ralph Gracie, Mitsuhiro Ishida, and Hayato Sakurai.

In the first round Diaz’s height will pose a problem for Gomi but he will be able to figure it out. Diaz has probably a more fluid ground game then Gomi but Gomi’s take down defense is on par with Chuck Liddell’s; he is that good. Look out for Gomi’s sprawl, it is a thing of beauty.

By the second round Gomi will knock out Diaz.

Bottom Line: Gomi just has too much experience and skill.

They don’t call him the Fireball Kid for nothing.

Wanderlei Silva vs. Dan Henderson

Pride 33: Second Coming
Thomas & Mack Center Game
Wanderlei Silva vs. Dan Henderson
Sat 2/24 11:00 PM (EST)
Silva -275
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Wanderlei Silva is one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world and he will be fighting Dan Henderson who he already beat before in a 3 round decision. Silva has too much power and his Jujitsu is much better than Henderson’s despite the fact that he likes to stand up and trade. Henderson is one those elite fighters that is good at everyone thing but not great at one particular thing.

He is the most underrated fighter in the world but he will be facing a fighter who is top 5 pound for pound in the world. Henderson has a huge heart and will never give up but he will be facing a fighter that A) he already lost to B) has to much power and C) is too aggressive to a more relaxed fighter like Henderson.

Silva doesn't care who he fights, he is a fighter’s fighter and has fought people outside his weight class lost like Cro Cop, Mark Hunt who are heavyweights. Silva has not lost to a middleweight fighter for his belt in 6 years and looks to be unstoppable in that division.

Henderson should try to take this fight to the ground but he will stand up and throw with Silva, however, he does not have the power that Silva does. In the end the Silva will land the harder, heavier shots to Henderson. This will be a close fight with 2 of the greatest MMA fighters in the sport today.

Bottom Line: This will be one for the fights of the year. Both guys will stand and trade and will put on a show for the Las Vegas crowd.

Silva will win a third round decision but landing more power shots and for being more aggressive

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