The road to retirement for Sakuraba begins, the heavyweight GP
tournament continues and the search for the top middleweight
Like the last chapter of a classic novel (you know what I mean --
Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” or J.K.
Rowling’s “Harry Potter” for some), the final bouts of an
incredible fighter’s career are bittersweet. Kazushi Sakuraba,
dubbed “The Gracie Hunter” by his adoring fans, begins his
“Retirement Road” on this card in a rematch with Antonio “Elvis”
Schembri. We’ll also see Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and “The
Brazilian Tiger” Ricardo Arona battle for the No. 1 Contender’s
spot in the hotly contested middleweight division. Hidehiko Yoshida
battles the newest K-1 fighter to make the MMA crossover: Mark
Hunt. Oh, and the next round of that little tournament thing is
The complete card looks like this:
GP Semifinal Tournament Bouts:
PFC Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko battles Hammer House
wrestler Kevin Randleman.
Interim PFC Heavyweight Champion Rodrigo Nogueira squares off
against Golden Glory fighter Heath Herring.
Golden Glory big man Semmy Schilt and Russian Top Team fighter
Sergei Kharitonov meet in the ring.
Giant Brazilian professional wrestler Paulo Cesar Silva meets Inoki
professional wrestler Naoya Ogawa.
And in single bouts … Japanese submission wrestler and fighting
legend Kazushi Sakuraba begins his walk into the sunset with a
rematch against Chute Boxe new recruit Antonio Schembri.
Japan’s Olympic Judo hero, Hidehiko Yoshida faces K-1 kickboxer
Mark Hunt in his MMA debut.
Team Punishment wrestler Quinton Jackson goes toe-to-toe with
Brazilian Top Team fighter Ricardo Arona for the right to face PFC
Middleweight Champion Wanderlei Silva.
Now we’ll look at each fighter’s accomplishments, assess their
strengths and weaknesses, review some of their previous bouts and
predict how they might perform against their current opponent.