Review of Pride FC 28: High Octane

Introduction

"Pride FC: High Octane" was held on 31st October 2004 in the tried and tested Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. A crowd of 25,000 fans were on hand for one of the biggest re-matches in Pride history, as Middleweight Champion Vanderlei Silva put his title on the line against Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.

Other bouts on the card included Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic against Josh Barnett and Dan Henderson versus Kuzuhiro Nakamura. In full:

Vanderlei Silva vs Quinton Jackson
Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs Josh Barnett
Dan Henderson vs Kazuhiro Nakamura
Mark Hunt vs Dan Bobish
Alistair Overeem vs Hiromitsu Kanehara
Aleksander Emelianenko vs James Thompson
Ricardo Arona vs Sergei Ignatev
Heath Herring vs Hirotaka Yokoi

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen PAL and is excellent, especially considering that there are over three hours of matches available here. As one would expect from an NTSC source, the image is a little soft, but still wonderfully clear, and the presentation of the event by Pride is second to none.

This is about as good as a sporting event can look on DVD.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and is very good for a DVD of this genre. Commentary - which is provided expertly by Bas Rutten and Mauro Ranallo - can be heard clearly, and the same can be said for all the action that takes place inside the ring.

Features

Extras on this disc are limited by the length of the main feature. That said, there is an excellent fifteen minute preview of the Silva vs Jackson main event, including highlights of their astonishingly brutal match from November 2003. There are also photo galleries, fighter bios, Pride FC rules, a glossary of fight terms, and the artwork from the show`s poster and program.

Also included as a bonus was the bout between Mu Bae Choi and Soa Palalei.

Conclusion

"Pride 28: High Octane" was an event which had tremendous hype in the months before it took place, and unfortunately did not quite live up to those expectations. The opening contest between Heath Herring and Hirotaka Yokoi was a hard-fought one, although I was somewhat disappointed by the fact that there appeared to be several illegal blows to the back of the head in the conclusion of the bout, which went relatively unpunished by a lenient referee.

The bouts between Ricardo Arona and Sergei Ignatev, Alistair Overeem and Hiromitsu Kanehara, and Aleksander Emelianenko and Englishman James Thompson, were all quite good, but rather one-sided. The latter Emelianenko vs Thompson bout was also way too short to be awarded any significant plaudits.

More than anywhere else though, it was the middle of the card that the event fell apart. Unfortunately, this was the result of bad luck more than anything, as Kazuhiro Nakamura and Josh Barnett sustained nasty injuries (resulting in the referee stopping the bout) in their respective matches with Dan Henderson and Mirko CroCop.

To a large extent, however, the main event saved the day. Whilst not quite as good as their brutal bout of a year previous, Silva and Jackson waged a stand-up war against each other in their contest, which was decided by a tremendous knockout. Both men displayed admirable staying-power and it was unfortunate - for them, although not for us - that one of them had to lose.

Overall, "High Octane" was quite a good event, that was let down by two unfortunate injuries, resulting in the virtual cancellation of the quarter and semi-final matchups. Therefore, perhaps it would be advantageous to pass on this one, unless you were as excited as I was about the Silva vs Jackson re-match.