In yet another edition of my weekly (well, sort of weekly) column dubbed “Just My Thoughts,” I was looking forward to thrashing PRIDE: Bushido 9 for luring us all into some hokey duel tournament consisting of eight welterweights and lightweights.

It’s not that I have anything against PRIDE or its Bushido offshoot, it’s just that these past few weeks both professionally and personally have been, well, painstaking. And nothing is more relieving than tearing into some super wealthy corporation/promotion and exposing all their flaws. Well, there are some other things in life that are more relieving, but this is a family Web site so I won’t go there.

I must say, though, that I found virtually nothing to gripe about. I have always favored the smaller guys in the fight game and having a double tournament consisting of fighters who are less than 200 pounds was a perfect fix for my fight junky-like habits. As always, I usually tend to expect the worst in terms of fight cards with so much potential, but PRIDE really fired on all cylinders this time.

Who can forget the two wars that Joachim Hansen (Pictures) became engrossed in as well as the near invincibility that Takanori Gomi (Pictures) emitted after his two victories? What about the way Hayato Sakurai (Pictures) systematically decimated Jens Pulver (Pictures)? Or how Dan Henderson (Pictures) pillaged and plundered his two foes? And while Ikuhisa Minowa (Pictures) may not be the best fighter in the world, he certainly should receive much more respect than what he gets now.

It also should be pointed out that the suits within PRIDE didn’t ruin the card by inserting a stellar “super fight” featuring Akebono or Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat.

The overall feel of the card from top to bottom was silky smooth. Only one fight didn’t overly grab my attention and that was Minowa-Baroni. Kudos to the referee for dishing out green cards for the continuous stalling and non-action that fighters displayed at times.

Speaking of non-action, what happened to “The New Yawk Bad-Ass,” anyway? He did very little in terms of aggression and as the minutes wore away during the contest, it was clear as day that the only way Minowa would lose was if Baroni somehow landed one of his left hook haymakers. It never happened and Minowa walked away with an almost embarrassingly easy one-sided victory.

Oh wait, before I forget! There was one thing that I caught during the broadcast that irked me at first but then when I realized why Mauro was doing it, I became amused and giggled like a little schoolgirl. I noticed that Mauro repeatedly mentioned SHOOTO, DEEP, Pancrase and even ZST, but never during the actual broadcast did he (or anybody else for that matter) mention their sturdiest rival from across the Pacific.

He kept referring to the West Coast-based fight organization as “America.” Sounded silly at first, but then again, wasn’t this the tactic that same company pulled when it always referred to PRIDE as “Japan”?

(Actually, it still does and it still is childish and trivial.)

But back to what really matters in this article: this was actually the first time I had ever seen Hansen in action. I missed the broadcast of Bushido 8 and I have only seen clips and highlights of him from various fights in SHOOTO.

Needless to say, I was salivating in anticipation of finally getting to see him fight “live.” And after it was all said and done and after Hansen walked away from the ring as the non-winner against Sakurai, I was more than impressed. His two fights (even if I feel that Yves Edwards (Pictures) should have gotten the nod in their encounter) were in my opinion the highlights of the event.

It’s rare to see someone who is able to withstand and rebound from crushing strikes to his grill as well as possess the ability to be as slippery as an eel when caught in submissions. I doubt that I am in the minority when I say that I await his next fight, which will hopefully be televised here in the States.

Another aspect of why Bushido 9 was spectacular was because now Murilo Bustamante (Pictures) will finally have his chance to avenge his loss to Henderson. As everybody knows by now, Bustamante has been vocal about the way he lost to “Hendo” back in PRIDE: Final Conflict 2003.

Murilo accepts defeat, yet the only reason why he claims he was beaten was that a headbutt from Henderson triggered it. Henderson disagrees, naturally, so finally Bustamante will be granted the chance to face his adversary once again.

In keeping with Henderson, it’s finally satisfying to see him tear through opponents his own size. Had PRIDE formatted this welterweight (183 pound) division years ago, we might have labeled Henderson as an all-time great by now. The same can actually be said about Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures). (I feel the Japanese legend was built upon poorly in this regard.)

Just imagine the amount of wins and accomplishments those two would have provided had PRIDE created this weight class years ago. Oh well … better late than never, I guess.

Gomi and Sakurai will be facing each other on New Year’s Eve as well, and this is a fight that I simply cannot wait for. I am more anxious for this fight than any other for the rest of the year and this includes both boxing and K-1. There is no better match at lightweight — and probably in MMA as a whole than these two Japanese warriors upcoming duel.

Gomi is arguably the best at 155 right now and Sakurai has always been one of the most gifted fighters in the sport. Gomi ripped apart Tatsuya Kawajiri (Pictures) and dominated Luiz Azeredo (Pictures), and is on a stellar nine-fight winning streak.

Sakurai, after pulverizing “Little Evil” and toppling Hansen, has won four in a row and has looked better than ever. There is absolutely no way possible that this showdown will be a letdown. The only way this fight could be sweeter is if PRIDE signed the winner of Genki Sudo (Pictures) and Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto to face the winner of Gomi-Sakurai.

How this event will go down in history is anybody’s guess but I’m confident that it will be greatly considered as a benchmark of mixed martial arts folklore. It was almost a full four-hour pay-per-view that featured most of the world’s best at 155 and 185 (give or take a few pounds). PRIDE certainly has their heads screwed on straight in terms of their events and I feel as though having annual tournaments is the way to go.

Random Thoughts:

I can’t get by without any gripes so here it is: I believe PRIDE shouldn’t have their champions involved within the Grand Prix events themselves (see Shogun, Wanderlei and the novice fan’s confusion). … It wasn’t just Mauro that was confused with the inclusion of the green card. I thought Bushido used red cards that acted just like yellow cards. When the first green card was issued, I thought that maybe the referee was allowing a free pass to work in the United States. … It’s relaxing to watch a PRIDE event and not have the cameras repeatedly rammed into the faces of the many celebrities sitting ringside like some other organizations do. Oh wait, this event is held in Japan. Why on Earth would any U.S. celebrities be there to begin with? But even if they did attend the events, thankfully they’d be left alone. Like anybody even gives a rat’s ass if that porpoise from King of Queens is in attendance. … Let’s hope that PRIDE doesn’t get carried away and create a super heavyweight grand prix. Can you imagine a card festering with the likes of Akebono, Giant Silva, Bob Sapp (Pictures), Emmanuel Yarborough and others? … I wonder when P-Day will finally come. You know; the day PRIDE invades the States and tries to overthrow the other Western organizations.

The opinions expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com