Date December 31, 2006 City Saitama, Japan Pride Shockwave 2006 Pride 33 | Venue Saitama Super Arena Attendance 48,709 | |
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Promotion Pride Fighting Championships | ||
Pride Shockwave 2006 was a mixed martial arts event held by Pride Fighting Championships on December 31, 2006.
Contents
Friday flashback face offs at pride shockwave 2006 press conference
Background
The main event was scheduled to be heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko defending his heavyweight championship against the winner of the Absolute Grand Prix, but Mirko Filipović was recovering from foot surgery he underwent on October 26 and could not be fighting at Shockwave.
Josh Barnett, the Absolute Grand Prix runner up, was also a contender to face Emelianenko, as mentioned by the heavyweight champion in a Pride 32 post-fight press conference, but was "not in the best condition" to compete and instead fought Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira. Ultimately, Fedor defended his title against Mark Hunt.
The event was the first outside of tournaments, title bouts and fights under the NSAC jurisdiction to feature concrete weight classes. All Lightweight (-73 kg) and Welterweight (-83 kg) bouts were fought under Bushido rules with one ten-minute and on five-minute round. The sole exception however is the fight between Minowa and Tamura, as both had requested to fight under full Pride rules as well as fight in the opening fight of the night.