For your Average Joe, he sport of mixed martial arts in the US is identified almost entirely by the UFC. While the UFC bills itself as the gold standard for mixed combat sports, it actually lags slightly behind Japan's Pride which regularly sells out 30,000 seat coliseums and puts out a few mega-events a year. It also draws from a larger international talent pool from Japan, to Brazil, Europe, and the US, whereas UFC has a predominately US based roster with a smattering of fighters from other countries.

Since its debut ion 1997, Pride has combined athletics with spectacle and still regularly employs specialty matches, what I and many fans consider freak shows, where they take some popular pro wrestler, sumo star, or kickboxer and put them against a mma fighter. While it often leads to some silliness like tremendously untalented, 7 ft. tall, former basketball player turned pro wrestler Giant Silva, some men successfully make the transition, like Prides first hometown hero, former pro-wrestler Kazushi Sakuraba, K-1 kickboxing stars Mirko Filipovic and Mark Hunt, and Olympic Judo ace Hidehiko Yoshida.

So, here is a brief rundown of the matches on this card, which took place four years ago. The commentary team was former UFC and Pancrase champ Bas Rutten and Steven Quadros.

Bob Sapp Vs. Kiyoshi Tamura- Bob Sapp is 6'5 and 350 pounds of former football player turned kickboxing and mma freakshow phenom. Poor Kiyoshi Tamura, a game but undersized Japanese fighter/wrestler who takes such fights all the time. The fight lasts all of seven seconds

Gary Goodridge Vs. Labzanov Arhmed- Relatively unspectacular bout between kickboxing and mma veteran Goodridge and a Russia RINGS (mma/grappling event, like Pride but the emphasis is on grappling so there are no punches on the ground) fighter. Pride was probably hoping this match would be a Goodridge knockout highlight, but it hits the ground and ends up being three rounds of a basic slow, stalemate where the only interesting thing is watching the ever increasing sweat stain emerge on the back of the Russians trunks.

Alex Stiebling Vs. Anderson Silva- Then UFC heavyweight champ Josh Barnett, who would lose the title when he tested positive for steroids, joins in on the commentary while Bas Rutten corners Stiebling. Quick but fantastic fight showcasing A. Silva's deadly hands and feet. Early on a quick shin to Stiebling's brow opens up a fight ending gash.

Jeremy Horn Vs. Gilbert Yvel- Submission fighter Jeremy Horn has fought, everywhere, and anywhere, just to fight, just to learn and improve, making him one of mma's most well-respected technicians. Yvel is a deadly striker, who gives a good fight, but Horn's ring savvy proves to be just too much. No dummy, Horn secures takedown early and mostly keeps the fight where he is comfortable, on the mat, trying submissions and strikes, keeping Yvel from gaining any momentum. Maybe too cerebral and calculated a match because the commentators say they aren't sure who will get the decision. Strange, because aside from a few explosive moments when Yvel manages a reversal or escape, 95% of the match was controlled by Horn.

Renzo Gracie Vs. Shungo Oyama- The Gracie clan were mma's first legendary family. There seem to be thousands of them and they are all self-proclaimed or widely acknowledged Brazilian Jujitsu aces. Renzo really took up the mantle as the families main coach/cornerman. Scrappy judo player Oyama is another Japanese fighter who seems to take a fight anywhere and against anyone. This one is a tad slow with some moments. Oyama seems to get the judges nod because he showed more spirit and drive.

Fedor Emelianenko Vs. Semmy Schilt- Fedor has become the heavyweight top dog, worldwide, in mixed martial arts. He is the current Pride champion and this is his first appearance on the show versus 6'8 Dutch kickboxer Schilt. Styles make fights, and while Schilt may be an imposing striker with a fearful reach, the grappling/sambo skills of Fedor mean one thing- if Fedor gets Schilt down, the fight will be easy. Basically, that is exactly what happens. Fedor shows impressive ground control, strikes, sub attempts, and positioning over an admittedly outclassed opponent in that area.

Don Frye Vs. Yoshiro Takayama- This headier has gone down as a highlight reel worthy Pride fight. It's a strange turn of events considering the fight was originally scheduled as a mega-fight rematch between Frye and Mark Coleman with Frye out to revenge his beatdown at the hands of Coleman in the UFC. Coleman bakced out due to injury, so Pride lined up Takayama, a pro-wrestler well past his glory days of being physically fit. All signs pointed towards disappointment.

Now, what ends up happening, I believe, was a little suspect. You see, Pride was known for doing fixed matches. In the emerging days of free-fighting, the line between actual athletic event and entertainment was very blurred in Japan, and they would often line legit fight cards with fake matches containing pre-determined outcomes and storylines. I believe, and I have no proof other than logic and my own two eyes, that because their main event folded, they knew they needed to give the audience a show. I think Takayama and Frye agreed to, not a totally fixed fight, but a half-fixed fight. They would go toe-to-toe and pound each other, not hard enough to end the show early, but enough to make it look kinda' real and give the audience five minutes or more of some scrapping worth cheering about.

You know in wrasslin', as we Southermers call it, when two guys grab teh back of each others necks and then fake punch each other in teh head repeatedly? Well, Frye and Takayama do that, only the punches are somewhat landing. Obviously not full force because no one could stand that, but enough to open up some serious welts on Takayama's eye. Its pretty jaw dropping stuff and definitely takes some balls to put on the show. The commentators are alomost at a loss for words. Not the fight I'd show someone to convicine them of MMA's legitimacy but cheap thrill entertaining without a doubt.

The DVD: Brentwood.

Picture: Full-screen, Standard. Pride has good production values and the event looks great. The stark white ring makes for good details, thought he size of the arena means that the wide shots do tend to lack some detail. Technically the disc has some compression and pixelation problems. When I popped the disc in my brand new computer drive, I noticed no pixleation during the Oyama-Gracie match, but on my five year old mid-range/cheap player it stuttered and broke up into digital noise. So, those with more low end players may want to take note.

Sound: 2.0 Stereo. Workmanlike soundtrack. Pleasant sports mix. The commentary doesn't overwhelm the action. The only time the commentators get a little lost tin the mix is during some of the entrances because the music is being blasted too loud in the arena.

Extras: Text features of Glossary, Rules, and Fighter Bios. --- Ring Girl Photo Gallery. --- ‟What is Pride?‟ Featurette (10:05). Prides go to extra, a doc produced roughly around the time of this event that interviews fights and attempts to explain the org to the layman. --- Bonus Fight: Daniel Gracie Vs. Takashi Sugiura. Well, obviously when it comes ot ‟bonus, never-before-seen‟ fights, they were left unaired for a reason, either because they were technically unimpressive or went the distance and were unspectacular. File this one under the latter, an okay but not memorable decision match.

Conclusion: Admission time: I already owned this DVD before requesting to review it. See, they have been releasing the older Pride events on DVD again, usually just a re-release in a cheaper boxset format. But, some of the events like Pride 10 and their 2000 Grand Prix have gotten the Special Edition release treatment, which is what I thought this was. Nope, it's the same old release from a few years ago released at a discount price.

It is a good event, well worth owning for MMA fans and fans of the fighting freaky spectacular (which applies to Bob Sapp and the Frye-Takayama match). But dammnit, they had to re-release a DVD with pixelation problems that they didn't fix? So, buyer beware, but I say take the chance.