Oct. 12 The MMA Report - PRIDE 1 Review w/ Stephen Quadros

[Deleted]

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0:32 – John Pollock opens the show and chats Mark Hunt’s removal from his fight in Australi and the announcement of Robbie Lawler vs. Rafael dos Anjos for Winnipeg.

5:37 – Fight Network’s Cody Saftic joins Pollock to recap Bellator 184 with Darrion Caldwell winning the bantamweight title, the big topic of weight cutting following Kevin Lee’s cut, Tony Ferguson wins the interim lightweight title and we chat Demetrious Johnson’s incredible submission.

38:11 – This week is the 20th Anniversary of PRIDE 1 from the Tokyo Dome and to mark the occassion, Pollock & Saftic re-watched the card and provide a full review of the card that was headlined by Rickson Gracie vs. Nobuhiko Takada and featured a horrendous fight between Dan Severn and Kimo Leopoldo.

1:40:38 – “The Fight Professor” Stephen Quadros joins the show to share his recollections of PRIDE 1, calling the show with Bas Rutten, their immediate chemistry, handling the Severn vs. Kimo fight, how big Takada was to the audience, the immediate reaction to the show, the worked fights on the show and tons more in this great chat.

[RKing85]

I don't listen to the MMA report very often (sorry John), but as soon as I saw the description for this show I listened. Pride never die. Full props to you for sitting through Kimo/Severn. One of the worst fights in the history of MMA.

[RKing85]

When I posted yesterday, I had only listened to John and Cody's part. Today I listened to the rest with Quadros. Holy shit. Quadros with the biggest lie of omission that I have ever heard in my life.

The commentary for Pride 1 was not done live as the event happened.

Maybe Quadros was there at the show, but he certainly didn't do commentary that night.

Pride 1 was not shown on PPV in the United States. The first Pride that was on PPV in the States was the 2000 Grand Prix finals (on a tape delay). Pride 1 through 8 were released on dvd AFTER the 2000 GP Finals. Quadros and Rutten did all the commentary for those first 8 shows in a booth from LA years after they happened for the American dvd release dates. John at one point said that this said DSE, and mentioned it must have been a re-release. It was DSE that released it in the fall of 2000, but it was not a rerelease as it had never been released before.

Through out the first part of the show, I noticed John and the other guy mention Pride 1 was on North American PPV and they raved about the commentary. I figured Quadros would then in his segment say that the audio track was taped later. But nope. The first time John mentioned the commentary, Quadros didn't take the opportunity to say that it was done years later after the event happened. And then every other time throughout the interview, Quadros would kind of deflect away from it.

He even not knowingly admited to it. At one point he said that he did K-1 before he did Pride, and then he said that he started with K-1 in 1998. Pride 1 was in 1997.

The tape overs let to a few memorable continuity issues. The most famous moment is on the Pride 3 dvd, Quadros gives away the result of the Amir Rahnavardi/Gary Goodridge fight during the match. On another one of the dvd's, Bas Rutten is in the ring talking. Either both guys on commentary lay out, or else Quadros just talks like Bas isn't with him (can't remember which), and then when Bas exits the ring, he jumps back in on commentary a few seconds later like he had just returned to the commentary team. However in the background on the tape you can see Bas in the background ringside talking to some guy.

One other thing, one of you guys said Severn was pulled from WWE Brawl for All by the company. I have always heard that he pulled out on his own, frusterated with the rule set. Don't have that confirmed obviously, but that is how I have always heard the story.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the notes, Rob - wasn't aware and I definitely left with the impression that Quadros was at least at the Tokyo Dome for the show, whether it be on behalf of his magazine etc.

It's pretty impressive as they call the show as though it was 'present day' with specific references to the time period (Renzo just having the fight with Eugenio Tadeu and the riot, a Sen. John McCain reference that way more topical in 1997 than 2000).

When I said it was on PPV, I was making reference to SkyPerfecTV in Japan.

Regardless, wanted someone that was on the scene to provide the context of the card and Quadros was.

[RKing85]

oh I'm sure I'm the only person that was bothered by it. And as I said, he might very well have been in the venue that night. Quadros was definitely around during that era and was a good perspective of that time frame.