MMA Heaven
Although Ikuhiza Minowa's own dream within the theme of "Heaven Revolution" fell many stories short against the hell bent managed anger of Mirko Cro Cop, his dream of conquering as the lightest man in the tournament still places him high in the eyes of world wide fans even if he was struck down early by the Croatian hit man whom he'd been wanting to fight for five years now. Minowa has to remember that Fidel Castro (a good friend of Antonio Inoki's) failed in his first attempt to overthrow Batista, the man who single handedly controlled the biggest brothel in the world at that time; Cuba. So Minowa now needs to keep his chin high and find a Che Guevara for his corner to be re inspire and help him reinvent himself yet again for the fight. Besides, the eventual overthrow of Mirko is inevitable in this tournament; there is no way in hell he is getting into the finals.

Anticipation
The most anticipated return of any fighter, the man formerly known as the Last Heir Of Inokism, Kazuyuki Fujita, was damned well worth the official Vatican phase out of the concept of "limbo" and his come back from behind victory against the usually Gong n Dash English flash James Thompson took a hard head indeed as he single fistedly turned around the mood of the mega Japanese House, Osaka Dome and buckled the big Brit giving Japan more hope for their own. This was a high-class brawl in which fighters put their entire raison d'etre into their fists. It was 100% heart if not technique but sometimes heart is worth the most even in a multi technical sport.

Kosaka dove into Hunt's stand up island like a Kamikazei ready to feel the consequences of his own actions.

TK
Perhaps for the real-die hard fans the greatest anxiety and anticipation was for Tsuyoshi TK Kosaka who announced he would retire from MMA if not victorious in his personal quest. (TK is the only fighter with an actual win over Fedor Emilianenko, which resulted from a cut in the RINGS show.) Kosaka is also the fighter with the most MMA roads traveled, having fought in RINGS, PANCRASE, UFC, and PRIDE. But for Kosaka it had been awhile since consistency of victories had come his way. Typically, when a fighter opens up a dojo it correlates with diminishing returns in the ring for themselves as fighters. That is perhaps because there is no longer a Sensei to direct them in their own struggle as fighters. A fighter needs someone who is objective and can help them strategize in a post modern MMA world in which the competition is getting stiffer, younger, and full time.

A Wall
Aside from the fact that PRIDE seems to have a history of putting the largest or most difficult obstacles before fighters who have entered by way of Pancrase, TK Kosaka had one of the most difficult missions in this tournament against a huge Samoan. This is especially true compared to PRIDE's chosen ones, Hidehiko Yoshida and Mirko Filipovich who were both matched against the smallest men in the tournament. Hum?
Perhaps this reinforced in TK's mind what his road should be, after all, some of his recent losses were unforgivable to him personally "I was mad at myself." He confessed he still couldn't forgive himself for his loss against Mike Kyle, a rather inexperienced and already controversial athlete in MMA. But the problem for TK was that there was no one to call him on it except himself. Because he was Sensei, there was no one to tell him, "TK you can do better," or "you fucked up. You need to work even harder," except for himself that is.

Seppuku
And although TK did begin to work harder, he didn't work harder to perfect his stronger familiar techniques within the grappling game, instead he got himself a pair of boxing shoes and some heavy gloves and learned how to fight toe to toe, knuckle to fist. And this would be the harsh road that Kosaka would take against Mark Hunt, probably the most solid, large, flexible striker in the world today. In an act of masochism or was it honor, TK decided to go to war with Hunt, which meant going to war with himself, it was about the pain and the glory and the upward struggle towards an almost impossible victory. I say impossible only because Kosaka did not rely on his real strength, the ground game. Instead he stood in Mark Hunt's part of the ring, which is vertical, rather than horizontal, although a horizontal sleep is the risk he took. Even more so, it was as if TK wanted Hunt to help him complete the act of Harakiri with the ceremonial Seppuku in which the head must be chopped off.

Barnett may have been getting peppered, but like Bugs Bunny before the evil witch, he didn't get stewed.

The Ritual
When Japanese poet and novelist Yukio Mishima committed Harakiri in front of Japan's "Self-Defense Forces" as protest for the loss of Japanese honor he not only dabbled the knife into his own tender abdomen, but he needed a second man to finish the ritual by chopping his head off. And that is indeed what his right hand man did for him before the horrified shame of those tin soldiers. Tradition is tradition and sometimes it is an ugly thing, as the axe man must strike various times before the head comes clean off. (At least that's what I remember this kid in school telling me. He was a prince from Saudi Arabia or something like that, and his father took him to see an execution.) I'm not saying that TK wanted to lose, but instead he wanted to win by the most difficult means necessary, striking against a former K-1 GP Champion who far outweighed him and whose never been knocked down.

Requiem
TK was fearless and focused during the ritual, he was beyond pain as he bled from Hunt's heavy concrete gloves and what was most stunning was the way in which Kosaka responded, landing some very heavy bombs of his own. By the time Hunt got his own head back on his shoulders he started picking it up and jabbing away with his reach and power. By the end of the war TK seemed more overwhelmed by extreme fatigue and emotion rather than pain or defeat. When the referee stopped the fight, it wasn't because Hunt had finished his job; it was because he did not want to let a man continue in the slaughter. Kosaka was still willing to fight, but his head had been chopped off. The ceremony was over when Hunt put him out of his misery. And now we as fans must mourn the loss of a great MMA fighter whose spirit will continue to roam among the fight ring and will influence many fighters for years to come.

No Judgment Day
I suppose the most amazing thing about this show is that the judges where utterly perfect and useless at the same time; their opinions had no relevance in the outcome of any of the fights. There wasn't one fight that went to the judge's decision in this Absolute GP; seal it with excellent match making and it was a show to be remembered with almost every fight going beyond expectation.

After trying a few of his traditonal takedown attempts, Fujita's Samurai armor proved to have no kinks as he beheaded the saxxon mothers son.

Past
Curiously enough many fighters in this event had a tie or relationship to 'M-1's Too Hot Too Handle' and the former RINGS show, including the "alternate" show starters, Roman Zentsov and Gibert Yvel for example. For Roman it was a de ja vous styled short left hook that attracted yet another striker into his supposed grappling web. His victory keeps the hope alive of two Red Devil fighters still in the field of competitors incase of injury striking those who have already advanced. It is interesting to note that two of the fighters that advanced are from K-1, while Fedor and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira also budded out of the RINGS ring. On the other hand, the only other former UFC talent aside from Kosaka, was dethroned of his title by Zuffa.

Duality
And it was indeed as if Josh Barnett came back from the dead, and although he said that Alexander Emelianenko was "already dead," he knew that Alexander walked among the living with great fury and stiff solid jabs. For a dead man, Alexander was extremely well grounded and it seemed that Josh did not stand a chance of taking him down. With the grim reaper and baby death at his back Alexander started utterly punishing Josh repelling any attack that he initiated. As Barnett started bleeding from the facial sphere he got his head together and started using motion and the ring. For Alexander it was time that would weigh heavy on his arms as a result of his own striking game.
Somewhere in the depth of the first round Emilianenko had broken his right hand, and it became his sinister left that began delivering the damage to comic book hero like Barnett. Josh seemed resigned to stand and strike, as he seemed almost rubbery compared to the solid concrete stance of the Russian Red Devil man. Slowly Josh got his wits about him, grew more confident and became more intelligently aggressive coming in with short attacks into the ten minute bell as Alexander heaved heavily trying to breath. In the second round Barnett finally got the big bear hug, which led to a take down and an eventual tap out. It was a big turn around victory. Alexander was definitely done for and seemingly in pain by the time he called it quits. But after all, he was "already dead."

Always classy and calm, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is on a mission against the MMA gods.

Already Dead
And will it be Nogueira whom Josh will face next? After all he did already utter this to Minotauro years ago, but only a couple people really noticed. But everyone did notice the ease with which Minotauro handled his 380 lbs. fellow countryman Zuluzinho, forcing the tap out and making a painful point to the controversial son of Zulu. In the last Heavy weight GP Nogueira was not so lucky in his tournament final gig when Fedor came in head first for a cut that was deemed a no contest. It should have been a GP victory for Nogueira in my eyes. After all, Fedor could not continue and it was a tournament. So there is no doubt who the hungriest fighter in this Absolute GP is as far as I'm concerned.

By The Way
And speaking of Brazilians, Fabricio Werdum who has expressed admiration for Minotauro and said he wants to model himself after someone like Nogueira, finally proved that he can submit an opponent, and it was against a still sometimes careless Alistair Overeem who had never been tapped this way before. Overeem always starts so strong but seems to make essential mistakes, which cost him wars. With all his up n downs let’s hope Overeem doesn't fall into hard times in MMA.

MMA Balance
So if MMA were a building and you were to place the most popular MMA organizations in the world higher up, PRIDE is in the clouds of their luxury planetary penthouse with a ring open to the stars while the UFC heavy weight division has become a ground level store front gallery abutting a basement clearing house of MMA talent in the desert gambling sands. And now that the UFC has promised so much frequency of shows and finally busted out of the casino circuit, it seems that they only want to deliver us a couple awesome artists at a time. Why so conservative? Hum, don't you ever wonder MMA fan? Yes, you!

The always exciting all around Alistair Overeem made an Alistair styled mistake and wound up paying on the ground against first time finisher Werdum.

Luxury Condos
I know I'm sounding like a cheap salesman or realtor right now and I realize it is a harsh analogy, but lets face it folks, PRIDE just put on a show with sixteen of the top open weight fighters in the world (you can debate some of them perhaps) and there wasn't one boring fight. As a matter of fact every fight was a highly technical or heartfelt war in which the matchmaking was almost impeccably balanced and that added up to another awesome GP opening round tournament by the big men in PRIDE. And to prove my point, I won't even get into the fact that they could have had a tournament twice as big, and I'll leave it up to you to imagine whom else that would include.

More
Sometimes in life, less is indeed more – In PRIDE's case with less shows, it equals a huge display of talent per show. On the other hand in the case of the U Know What, more is now less. Many more shows, with talent that is only thinly above many other current MMA organizations in the USA, such as MFC, KOTC, etc… Basically said, the biggest MMA show in the US is merely plucking and picking from the local crop of talent from more regional American shows to fill in their gaps. That is not to say there isn't talent within that field except they are tying it up and not letting it shine elsewhere or even at home in the octagon. If an organization has talented fighters they should showcase that talent, not make them fight preliminary non-televised bouts. We can handle more than just one big rock act at a time. As PRIDE keeps showing us, people prefer a mixed bag of music, and they want sensory overload.

Or Less
PRIDE presented only some of the bricks on its structure of talent in the open weight division, for which its American counterpart only has enough bricks for a ground level pad among the heavies. I won't deny that the UFC is loaded with welterweight talent, but that is another story.
So if you believe in heaven n hell or just hell on earth as being hot as the dessert sands, we already know where MMA heaven is, and its even hotter. And I can't wait for the final rounds.

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