As usual, the year's final event from Pride will take place on New Year's Eve in Japan, and, also as usual, will happen at Pride's homebase of Saitama Super Arena. The show will air on Japanese network TV, going up against K-1's New Year's Eve show and the popular NHK Red & White concert special. Both shows will outdraw Pride, but this is more so about how well Pride can do in third place in the ratings rather than usurping either show of its ratings dominance.


The card itself features a combination of quality fighters and freakshow appeal, although it is laden with more Japanese fighters and Japan vs. Japan bouts than usual with under half of the fighters on the card being foreigners. Generally, this is unusual for Pride as they are usually top-heavy with main event foreign fighters.


However, the gang is still all here. Fedor Emelianenko, Wanderlei Silva, and Mirko Filipovic are all competing on New Year's Eve. There will also be the finals to the two Bushido tournaments from autumn, along with a yet to be announced fight for Kazushi Sakuraba (reportedly against Kazuyuki Fujita).

Let's take a look at each fight:

Takanori Gomi vs Hayato Sakurai: This is the finals for the Bushido lightweight tournament and clash of former SHOOTO Champions. A few years ago Sakurai was one of the best fighters in the world, but isn't near that level anymore. He's still very good, though. Gomi is undefeated in Pride, and is probably the best 155-pounder out there. I don't know if he will be able to finish Sakurai, but he should win the ground game and do well standing to win the decision. I don't see Sakurai as being the guy to end Gomi's unbeaten streak. Pride really needs Gomi to break out and become a star, and this is a pretty big fight for him in terms of exposure, but I still don't think this is going to do it.


Wanderlei Silva vs Ricardo Arona: This is a big fight for both guys. Silva lost to Ricardo Arona earlier this year in the semi-finals of the Grand Prix. I'm unclear on whether this is for the Middleweight title, but it should be. Arona is the better fighter, and should get this on the ground and slow it down to a halt. Silva does have superior striking and could knock Arona out, but odds are Arona should take this one to the ground and control it for a decision victory. I don't see this as being much different than their first match. I also don't know if putting an Arona fight on a major network TV special is such a good idea since he has a reputation as a boring fighter, which may cause a lot of channel changing unless Silva lights it up.


Hidehiko Yoshida vs Naoya Ogawa: This is the big ratings draw for Japanese TV and the main event. Ogawa is a terrible fighter, former judo olympian, current pro wrestler, and has participated in at least a handful of worked victories in Pride. Yoshida is a great judoka and also top olympian, but he is also a great submissions fighter. He will win this one, but it's just a matter of how much of a show these two guys will give the Japanese audience. The real battle here is in TV ratings, not in the ring.


Fedor Emelianenko vs Zuluzinho Zuluzinho: Zuluzinho is the guy from Brazil who beat Sentoryu, Henry Miller. He's big, but Fedor is inhuman and should mop the floor with him.


Mirko Filipovic vs Mark Hunt: This is one of the bigger matches from a U.S. perspective, although both men are megastars in Japan. Hunt has fought three times in Pride, looking good in all three matches although a couple of the performances can be explained away. He was submitted by Hidehiko Yoshida in their fight, with Yoshida taking longer than expected in putting him away. Yoshida also took awhile to put away Tank Abbott, as the Japanese fighters are instructed to give the fans a show before finishing a fight. If they fought against Yoshida could realistically submit him very quickly. Hunt also came in on short notice and fought Wanderlei Silva, delivering Silva's first loss in Pride. Hunt had a huge weight advantage on Silva, and although he rocked the smaller man he was still not able to knock Silva out. Mirko will be his hardest opponent yet. Hunt will not be able to strike with Mirko as he did with Wanderlei Silva. This, however, will be a very good stand-up fight. Mirko is more experienced on the ground, which is rare for him. Hunt is a hard guy to KO and has a good chin so it looks like this should be a decision win for Mirko, who is in the middle of another comeback.


Dan Henderson vs. Murilo Bustamante: This is the finals of the middleweight Bushido tournament, and also a rematch of a fight they had a couple of years ago in Pride. That fight ended quickly when the two accidentally bumped heads and then Henderson followed up with a knee for the knockout. Bustamante would not have gotten his rematch if this fight didn't happen in the finals of this tournament. Bustamante is a former UFC Middleweight champion, having never lost the title. He holds a submission win over Hendo's teammate Matt Lindland, in a fight that Bustamante dominated from the outset. Henderson has excellent submissions defense, but tends to inevitably fall victim to the submission. He's got a knockout punch, although Bustamante is also a very skilled boxer. Henderson has great wrestling skills, although that did not do much for Lindland against Bustamante. I picked Bustamante to win their first fight, and although he lost, it was a freak accident and I pick him again to defeat Hendo, either via submission or decision.


Kazuhiro Nakamura vs. Yuki Kondo: Another Japanese vs. Japanese fight. Kondo is a good striker, but not world class. Nakamura is good with submissions, being a judoka, and has ground and pound skills. It's possible that he could ground and pound Kondo to a decision win. Kondo can be submitted, which is another possiblity here. Kondo's chance should be via knockout, although I see this ending up going to a decision in Nakamura's favour.


Makoto Takimoto vs. Sanae Kikuta: Takimoto is a terrible fighter, but has a rich background in judo. That has meant nothing for him in Pride, though. Kikuta is a veteran fighter, and the kind of guy that Takimoto should be able to defeat easily if he were suited for MMA. Kikuta is being brought in to lose to Takimoto, but I think he'll end up with the victory anyway.

Jeremy Wall can be contacted at mmachronicle@hotmail.com

Source: MaxFighting.com