BAS RUTTEN: "SILVA WON IN MY OPINION"
Bas Rutten "El Guapo" appeared on MMAWeekly SoundOff Radio Tuesday and talked about Pride's Shockwave New Year's Eve event that took place over the weekend. Bas discussed all the fights, including the impressive display of Rulon Gardner and Fedor Emelianenko; as well as, the two controversial decisions in the Dan Henderson vs. Yuki Kondo and Wanderlei Silva vs. Mark Hunt bouts.
Cutting through the fat, straight to the meat of the interview, when Bas was asked who he thought won between Wanderlei Silva and Mark Hunt, Rutten replied, "Wanderlei." "He got hit, he went down. Right away he went for the arm bar. You know, so he was still in a good state of mind, at least his reflexes were there. I think, especially the last round was his. He got all the takedowns, the aggression. Everything was pretty much the same except he got all the takedowns and the weight difference," explained Rutten.
Bas went on to say, "The best thing would have been a draw, if you think about it later. I thought on all the cards they were pretty much even....The rules say that if there is more than a 10k difference then, how do you say, if it's a split decision, it goes to the other one who's the lightest." He added, "Why they score it, aggressiveness, he wanted to finish the fight, the takedowns, all that stuff. The last one is the 10 kilo difference. I thought it was pretty similar. I thought with the weight, he's (Wanderlei) going to get it."
About Dan Henderson getting the split decision against Yuki Kondo, Bas felt the decision was the right one. Rutten said, "Dan won because he finished stronger and especially because Dan was real sick....Aside from that, I just think he finished stronger than Kondo did."
The biggest story of the night, other than Wanderlei's loss, was Rulon Gardner's win over Yoshida. Most everyone was impressed with Rulon's performance, including Bas. Rutten commented, "He (Rulon) never had a street fight in his life, never, nothing, zero. So, for someone training six weeks of boxing, it's pretty good."
About Yoshida's loss, Bas said it's not so bad of a loss and, "It's not so bad, with 70 pounds weight difference. You know, Rulon's a big guy. I don't think so; especially, in Japan. They let you live a little bit longer."
Fedor Emelianenko defeated Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the second time and received two titles for his efforts. He retained his Pride Heavyweight Championship and sealed the deal on the Pride Heavyweight Grand Prix title. Nogueira seems to be able to beat anyone except Fedor. Rutten stated, "He (Fedor) changes his game plan. He comes back and he fights different which it makes for a very unpredictable fighter. He does everything so good. Every submission attempt from Nogueira, it's like Nogueira's telling him he's going to do it. He's out before it's even on. I don't know, the guy's just real good."
Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic got revenge against Kevin Randleman and with the win, Bas thinks it puts Mirko "way up there." The long awaited match up between Mirko and Fedor should be just on the horizon and Rutten said, "I think him and Fedor should be a real good match."
Further commenting on the possible match up between Mirko and Fedor, Bas said, "I think Cro Cop has a real good chance to win that fight because styles make matches and I really think this is one for Cro Cop. I think he's the crisper striker. Although I think, of course, Fedor hits harder. I think Fedor is so very good, it's a difficult one. I think Cro Cop's going to be a better striker."
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