| Pride 34 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for Pride 34. | ||||
| Information | ||||
| Promotion | Pride Fighting Championships | |||
| Date | April 8, 2007 | |||
| Venue | Saitama Super Arena | |||
| City | Saitama, Japan | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
Pride 34: Kamikaze [1] was a mixed martial arts event held by Pride Fighting Championships on April 8, 2007 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
This was the last Pride show promoted by Dream Stage Entertainment before the sale of the company (see Pride Worldwide). However, in the end it turns out that this event would mark the final show in Pride FC's history before the folding of the promotion itself.
Although Wanderlei Silva and Mauricio Rua were negotiating with Pride to compete, [2] neither did. Silva did not participate because of a medical suspension received from the Nevada State Athletic Commission. [3] The commission had stated that if a Japanese doctor cleared Silva for competition, they would consider lifting the suspension three days early, but this did not come to fruition. [4]
Gilbert Yvel was originally slated to fight Bazigit Atajev, but Atajev withdrew due to an internal disease. [5]
Nobuyuki Sakakibara's "surprise announcement" at the event turned out to be a guest appearance by Kazushi Sakuraba who had left Pride nearly a year ago to join rival promotion Hero's. Kiyoshi Tamura joined Sakakibara in the ring and teased a potential matchup in a future Pride event. Sakuraba had initially expressed his wish to fight either Wanderlei Silva or Kiyoshi Tamura on the card but in the end neither fight materialized. Though Tamura would end up fighting Sakuraba at Dynamite!! 2008
| Card | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| Heavyweight | Yoshihiro Nakao | def. | Edson Drago | Submission (neck crank) | 1 | 9:51 | |
| Heavyweight | Eric Esch | def. | Zuluzinho | Submission (americana) | 1 | 2:35 | |
| Middleweight | Makoto Takimoto | def. | Zelg Galesic | Submission (kimura) | 1 | 5:40 | |
| Heavyweight | Gilbert Yvel | def. | Akira Shoji | TKO (punches) | 1 | 3:04 | |
| Heavyweight | James Thompson | def. | Don Frye | TKO (punches) | 1 | 6:23 | |
| Lightweight | Shinya Aoki | def. | Brian Lo-A-Njoe | Submission (armbar) | 1 | 1:33 | |
| Heavyweight | Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou | def. | Ricardo Arona | KO (punch) | 1 | 1:59 | |
| Heavyweight | Jeff Monson | def. | Kazuyuki Fujita | Submission (rear-naked choke) | 1 | 6:47 | |
Pride Fighting Championships was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion company. Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts events, broadcast to about 40 countries worldwide. Pride held the largest live MMA event audience record of 91,107 people at the Pride and K-1 co-production, Shockwave/Dynamite, held in August 2002, as well as the audience record of over 67,450 people at the Pride Final Conflict 2003. For ten years PRIDE was one of the most popular MMA organizations in the world.
Kazushi Sakuraba is a Japanese mixed martial artist and professional wrestler, currently signed to Rizin Fighting Federation. He has competed in traditional puroresu for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and shoot-style competition for UWFi and Kingdom Pro Wrestling (KPW). He has fought in MMA competition in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Pride Fighting Championships, Hero's and Dream. He is known as the "Gracie Hunter" or the "Gracie Killer" due to his wins over four members of the famed Gracie family: Royler Gracie, Renzo Gracie, Ryan Gracie, and Royce Gracie. In particular, Sakuraba is famous for his initial fight with Royce, which lasted ninety minutes and ended after Royce was unable to continue due to damage received from Sakuraba.
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