One of the best fights of the Pride OWGP 2006 in my opinion.

Josh Barnett vs. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera was pretty close, but I think the knee bar attempt by Barnett at the closing seconds of  the fight secured the victory.

Josh Barnett vs. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera Part 1

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Josh Barnett vs. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera Part 2
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It’s been over 4 years since Mirko Crocop fought Wanderlei Silva, and boy, has Cro Cop improved.

He’s no longer hesitant to go to the ground, and his takedown defense is possibly the best in all of MMA.

Check out the comparison of their first fight (the 1st video) and the second fight that just happened at the Pride Open Weight GP finals, where Crocop won the tournament (on his birthday too!)

Wanderlei Silva Vs Mirko Cro Cop I

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Wanderlei Silva Vs Mirko Cro Cop II

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Somebody sure has a deathwish…

From Sherdog.com

“[Ortiz-Shamrock II] had a lot of buildup and a lot of hype and it ended in a minute,” White told Kevin Iole. “Nobody got to see the fight they paid to come to see, so we’re going to give it to them.”

I’ll be honest…I’d like to see Ken Shamrock win this one (he was one of my favorite fighters in the early days of UFC and Pancrase, and he was my favorite character in the video game Fire Pro Wrestling!), but I think he’ll get beat up once again (reminds me of Sak Vs. Silva…)

Chances are after this fight, he’ll be retiring.

Wow…check out what happened backstage after Pride 31 between Mark Coleman and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (this is where Coleman when berserk after Shogun dislocated his elbow, and there was mayhem in the ring between Hammerhouse and Chuteboxe).

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Silva looks pissed, even though Coleman apologized to Chuteboxe, saying that it was his fault. But heck, I would be pissed too I had my neck stepped on.

I wonder if things will ever be what it was before between these two…

From the Yahoo Buzz Log:

The World Cup wasn’t the only sporting event kicking up buzz over the weekend. Elbows and knees were also flying at UFC 61—the latest mixed-martial-arts extravaganza. We’ve already covered how the UFC has kicked traditional boxing to the curb in terms of buzz, and we see no signs of it slowing down.

The main attraction at UFC 61 was the grudge match between beyond-brash Tito Ortiz and living legend Ken Shamrock. Searches on both men were up over 150%, but Ortiz won the battle—both in Buzz and in the cage, scoring more than double the number of searches as Shamrock. “Tito ortiz pictures” and “tito ortiz and ken shamrock video” were especially hot.

Other fighters putting a chokehold on buzz included Tim Sylvia (+211%), who vanquished Andrei Arlovski (+96%); intimidating Brazilian Wanderlei Silva (+444%), who will return to the UFC this fall; and legendary Chuck Liddell (+175%), who is set to throw down at the upcoming UFC 62. We’re sure buzz will be beaten to a pulp yet again in late August when the countdown to 62 ends.

What’s the Yahoo Buzz Log?

A subject’s buzz score is the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read. Weekly leaders are the subjects with the greatest average buzz score for a given week.

Yahoo is right…UFC is picking up momentum and is becoming a Juggernaut.