PRIDE 34: Kamikaze

Introduction

PRIDE 34: Kamikaze was the final event for an MMA promotion that was unquestionably, at one time, the pinnacle of the entire sport. Now, sadly, it is no more. To look at the card, the reasons for its demise seem obvious; gone are its true fighting superstars Kazushi Sakuraba, Mirko CroCop, Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, and Wanderlei Silva.

What caused the downfall was not just the rise of the UFC in North America - in fact, that's one of the lesser reasons. The Japanese tabloid Weekly Gendai is the main culprit, as its reporting of PRIDE's unsubstantiated links to the Yakuza, caused Fuji TV to cancel their contract with the organisation. With no television, there was no way for PRIDE to sell their product.

On 8th April, 2007, with the UFC having purchased the PRIDE organisation - a purchase that would later become the subject of a lawsuit from Zuffa, the UFC's parent company - it was almost a UFC vs PRIDE bout that headlined this final event, as former UFC competitor Jeff Monson faced Kazuyuki Fujita.

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen PAL, and is excellent for a DVD of this genre. Despite this being the last show, without the aid of Fuji TV, the production values are still very good indeed, with a much different and refreshing look from the average UFC event.

The transfer to DVD is also very good, with little in the way of digital artefacts.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, and is also very good. The audio is well-mixed, so that crowd noise, in-ring action, and commentary (provided by Sean Wheelock and Frank Trigg) can all easily be heard alongside the other.

Extras

The intial two fights from the PRIDE 34 card are included here as extras, having not been included on the American PPV broadcast due to rights restrictions. Neither are anything special, a fact that is only accentuated by a soundtrack that does not include commentary. Yoshihiro Nakao vs Edson Drago is a ground-based affair which drags somewhat, and Butterbean vs Zuluzinho is a battle of the freak-show fighters that the Japanese seem to love.

The Pride Retrospective music video is an enjoyable 2 ½ look back at the history of the company, though I would have preferred a little more fight footage to be shown, rather than just the haze of quick-flashing clips. In the Fighter Photo montage, there are some shots from both the fights and from backstage, again set to music.

Main feature

This DVD version of PRIDE 34 is, at just 1hr 18mins including extras, completely different from the version that originally aired live on American pay-per-view television. That may not be a bad thing, in one sense, because on that broadcast, the first 35 minutes were dedicated to previewing the fights.

The first bout of the main feature here is a short-but-sweet bout between Makoto Takimoto - an Olympic Gold medallist in judo - and Zelg Galesic, who had much success competing in the UK for the Cage Rage promotion. Fans of UFC will find it odd that kicks and knees are allowed when an opponent is down - a facet of MMA that is banned under the current Unified rules as used in the United States.

After Gilbert Yvel and Akira Shoji then engaged in a bout where the former outweighed the latter by 30lbs, England's James Thompson took on PRIDE legend Don Frye, in an exceptionally brutal bout, which for many people, may step over the line of what is safe, and what is not.

Submission prodigy Shinya Aoki vs Brian Lo-A-Noje proceeded in excitingly quick fashion, before Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, known most commonly by his last name, looked to prove that his defeat Antonio Rogerio Nogueira was no fluke, as he took on another Brazilian in Ricardo Arona. There was some incredible striking in this bout, all of which led to an exciting knockout.

The main event of Jeff Monson vs Kazyuki Fujita - who will forever be known as the man who came the closest to defeating the seemingly-unstoppable Fedor Emelianeko - was rather anti-climactic, but in many ways, it was also fitting. As the fighters entered the ring for the final time at the end of the show, they each knew that it was the end of an incredible era.

And even though in edited form here, it's an end that is very much worth viewing.