PRIDE.17 / Heavyweight Championship Nogueira vs. Herring confirmed!

Three additional matchups of PRIDE.17 (Saturday, November 3th, Tokyo Dome, Japan), Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Heath Herring, Masaaki Satake vs. Semmy Schilt and Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Renzo Gracie was announced. Nogueira vs. Herring is held as PRIDE First Heavyweight Championship. Nogueira, he is called the strongest heavyweight fighter in the world, vs. Herring, he has steadily got results in PRIDE, will be carefully watched around the world same as Couture vs. Rizzo at UFC34 on Friday, November 2nd.

PRIDE.18 at Marine Messe Fukuoka, Japan on Sunday, December 23th was also announced. PRIDE is held in Kyusyu, Japan for the first time. DEEP2001 is held in DIFFER Ariake, Japan on the same day. And "INOKI BOM-BA-YE" is held on New Year's Eve.

PRIDE.17
Saturday, November 3rd, 2001/Tokyo Dome, Japan
Gate open 3:00 p.m./Fights start 5:00 p.m.

-Confirmed matchups-

PRIDE First Middleweight Championship
Kazushi Sakuraba (Japan/Takada Dojo) vs. Vanderlei Silva (Brazil/Chute Boxe)

Team Inoki vs. K-1 MMA Official Rules
Nobuhiko Takada (Japan/Takada Dojo) vs. Mirko Cro Cop (Croatia/Cro Cop Squad Gym)

PRIDE First Heavyweight Championship
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Brazil/Brazilian Top Team) vs. Heath Herring (USA/Golden Glory)

Masaaki Satake (Japan/Monster Kingdom) vs. Semmy Schilt (Holland/Golden Glory)
Michiyoshi Ohara (Japan/New Japan Pro-Wrestling) vs. Renzo Gracie (USA/Renzo Gracie JiuJitsu Academy)

-New fighter's official profile-

Michiyoshi Ohara
Team: New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Hometown: Matsumoto, Japan
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 230 lbs.
DOB: 11/15/1967

He became a disciple of Animal Hamaguchi Gym while in Kokushikan University. After university, he became a disciple of New Japan Pro-Wrestling and made his professional debut in the match against Osamu Matsuda on March 1990. He became a first professional wrestler from Animal Hamaguchi Gym. He had distinguished himself in spirited fight learned from Hamaguchi, and won at Young Lion Cup in 1991. He belonged to "Anti-wrestlers' Union (later "Heisei-Ishin-Gun")" in 1993 and was active as a heel wrestler representative of New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He won IWGP tag champion with Tatsutoshi Goto in 1999. Now he plays an active part as a member of "Team 2000" Masahiro Chono leads.

Last Update : 10/21 23:21