In addition to the close-up article: The Professionalism vs. The Amateurism, I would like to discuss the meaning of losses by two strikers, Mirko Cro-Cop and Stephan Leko.
Both of them came from K-1, top strikers in their game.
They have absolute confidence in their striking skills but in the opening round of the PRIDE GP, they both went down from the standing battle and ultimately, were hunted on the ground.

A cause of defeat, for both Cro-Cop and Leko, was in fact, identical.
Leko was finished off, after little bit of friction on the ground, with a shoulder lock and Cro-Cop was KO'd with a pounding he received on the ground. The endings were different but in both fights, just one punch from the standing position decided the outcome.
I thought it is quite intriguing because similarity, both these fights, which ended in situations that where too good to be true, actually brought a distinction between PRIDE and K-1.
Let's omit the superficial attributes and list the common elements of the two fights.

1. Striker (K-1) vs. Grappler (Ogawa = Judo, Randleman = Freestyle Wrestling)

2. Grappler's strike in the standing position was a danger.

3. The striking bout, early in the fight, decided the outcome.

It's not a "spitting image," but it is exactly the same.
Although there was an intermission between the two, I believe spectators were quite surprised to see two identical bouts in a row - identical in terms of structure of the fight. (Fifth bout: Ogawa vs. Leko, Sixth bout: Randleman vs. Cro-Cop)
Now, I would like to analyze these three elements in order.

1. Striker vs. Grappler

First, Naoya Ogawa, in 1992 Barcelona Olympics captured a silver medal, and was "The Ace of Japan Judo." He is indeed one of world's leading grapplers, and even in the vast field of today's professional MMA, in terms of amateur sports, no one, except Hidehiko Yoshida, has that kind of a dazzling record.
Kevin Randleman's career in freestyle wrestling is also way better than just good.
He won the national title when he was at Ohio State University, undoubtedly one of the top elite athletes in the country with a potential to become an Olympian.
After turning pro, he defeated Maurice Smith and Pedro Rizzo, two of the greatest strikers in the history of the UFC.
Randleman is off when he is off, but when he is on, he notably does very well against strikers.

He is not afraid of punches, steps forward and throw bombs. Many experts and fans, till this date, still talks about his "rocked but rugged" performance against Rizzo in the UFC heavyweight championship bout back in June of 2000.
Pedro Rizzo, by nature, is a super striker, who is also a sparring partner of Peter Aerts in Holland. And Randleman did overwhelmed Rizzo with only striking in that bout, one can imagine his striking ability is way better than average.
In that fight, Randleman proved that he is a hard-puncher who can strike at close range against top strikers.

Even Ogawa is a regular at the Ihara Gym/New Japan Kickboxing; cultivating his striking technique he left a big impression in his pervious PRIDE appearances standing and exchanging strikes against Gary Goodridge and Masaaki Satake.
In fact, both Ogawa and Randleman are grappling specialist and the type of fighters who have no fear of strikes.
Strikers, facing this type of a fighter, might think they can win a striking battle but are concerned with the fact that once the fight is on the ground they would be in definite disadvantage. Therefore, strikers must be cautious with opponents shooting in.
Both Cro-Cop and Leko knew it wasn't smart to take a chance at getting caught by superior grapplers.
I'd say both fighters studied so much about their opponents, as strikers, that they were too cautious with being taken down. And I believe that is the reason why both fighters were exploited in a gap created by themselves, in the early stages of the fights.

2. Grappler's striking from the standing position was the dinger.

On the other hand, the grapplers didn't feel even a speck of intimidation.
Especially Randleman's countermeasure-plan-for-Cro-Cop, which was near perfection.
He initiated offensive moves shooting in on Cro-Cop, and in the standing bout always left his right hand high avoiding Cro-Cop's lethal left high kick. And always moved parallel against the opponent keeping his distance.

"You know I don't pull no punches, I was nervous as hell going out there. But I practiced with the greatest coach in the world, Mark Coleman, so when I was out there, I knew he was gonna throw that (left) kick. So I just wanted to protect that kick. I came out and shot so he would think more about me shooting. And then, as you know, all kickers have to open the hip to throw a kick. I saw him open up his hip, and when I raised my arm in there, he dropped the right side of his arm, which left it open for my left hook."

As Randleman said, his left hook was right on Cro-Cop's chin.
Cro-Cop got caught when he moved, trying to put pressure on Randleman.
Within ten seconds into the fight Leko's back was against the ropes and he got caught by Ogawa's left cross counter punch, when he forced in a straight right, his most lethal blow.
Just like Cro-Cop's left high kick, Leko's right straight punch is, as the Japanese call it, an "heirloom sword" that sent many top fighters including Peter Aerts to the canvass.
When he was mentally cornered, it was a natural reflex for him to throw his best shot but I guess it is fair to conclude that this moment was the most dangerous situation for Leko.
MMA novice Leko and Cro-Cop, who has defeated many grapplers in PRIDE rules, probably never expected such a sophisticated striking technique from their opponents.
Leko's temple was wide open, and so was Cro-Cop's chin.
Everybody knows that if you get hit in these points, anyone can go down, and also, the thinness of open finger gloves made it more effective.
The picture of both Leko and Cro-Cop going down is almost identical to playing same sequence in video.

3. The striking bout, early in the fight, decided the outcome.

At this point, I hope I convinced most of you out there that both these victories by grapplers were no flukes.
However, if I must note the luck factor in these fights, I'd say the grappler's early attacks, ultimately determined the outcome of the fight.
If Leko had coped with Ogawa's early attack, he could've settle down and played for the long haul standing, then I don't know if Ogawa could have taken Leko down as easily as it occurred in the fight.
Just like Futbol (soccer), the beginning of the round and the end of the round is a "bewitching time" where fighters often create this "mental gap" which opponents can capitalize on.

Leko went down in less then thirty seconds into the fight, and Ogawa, with tremendous tactical sense, quickly capitalized on the situation with continuous offensive moves. Ogawa's attack was so perfect that I heard some fans smelled a little bit of pro-wrestling in this sequence. However, I think that's thinking too much about this pre-programmed "worked fight" issue and not really looking into what actually happened.
When I saw a replay aired by Fuji television, after Ogawa's hard left counter punch, Leko's eye was swimming in the air.

I don't care how much money you get, no one will expose his head in that manner. It is just too dangerous.
And this was Leko's first fight in PRIDE after leaving K-1 so after loosing this fight; it wouldn't be too wondrous if he lost a place to fight.
First of all, Leko's self-conscious isn't low enough to accept such an easy gimmick.
When he was disqualified for constantly punching below the belt in the fight against Sam Greco, he repeatedly complained, "I was just unlucky. Just unlucky. I didn't do anything wrong," and also decided, "The reason why I can't win K-1 tournaments is because of training methods" he then trans-ferred to Golden Glory Gym in Holland located on the other side of the border. Now, he takes the bus all the way across the border to Holland to train. Leko indeed is self-centered but has a strong belief in himself. A man like Leko would never involve himself in a fixed fight, an absolutely altruist-like behavior.

Let's return to the subject.
The turning point of the fight, for Cro-Cop, I believe, was Randleman's stamina and how long his quick reflex would last.
The reason why Randleman, who is sort of like an agglomeration of fast muscles, was slumping in his past few fights because these fights were all against strong grapplers and his lack of endurance also played a factor.
On top of that, Randleman's personality is like a kid so he really doesn't have long duration of concentration, (maybe that's why his girlfriends change all the time as do his addresses?) therefore, if Cro-Cop had taken him the distance, I think he couldn't have carried out his countermeasure plan effectively.
By all these means, both fights were battles between top athletes at their limits – both striker and grappler searched for a gap and were willing to step into the opponent's territory to score a win.
That's how difficult it is to score a win in PRIDE now.
If both fights happened again, in the same day, I don't know if the outcomes would be the same. It was that close, I think.
The antagonism between two forces, PRIDE and K-1, the politics behind the scenes, might have all created these miscalculations.