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The Audience at Real Deal
It's strange to realize there are actually a good amount of Pride fans in the States.
There were people wearing Chute Box shirts, Pride shirts, in the audience.
I was pleasantly surprised by the audience cheering fighters that are known to be big stars across seas. People like Fedor, Hendo, Wanderlei, even Nakamura were getting warm ovations.
People seemed to like Nakamura. Even though he's totally Japanese in behavior, his fight was very entertaining. There was a breif moment where people might begin booing, but then Nakamura lands a REALLY nice hip throw on Galbraith and that impresses the crowd.
Pride really had a good first step at introducing themselves to the American audience. They spent the extra effort to offer everything at this show, even though it was at a smaller venue than most Bushido events, DSE still pulled out all the stunts. You could tell they really invested alot into the show, into pleasing the fans.
The starting bout really set the tone. Lawler coming in with his flying knee just blew people away. It got people hooked.
Not once was there a U-S-A chant, and there were probably only 2-3 occasions of booing, which was still at a minimum. Whenever there was a stalemate, restarting the fight with standups really catered to the crowd's liking, who'd applause for the restarts.
People were CHEERING Baroni after his win. People loved watching the freak show with Butterbean, very entertained by his weight and presence.
THe "falling snow" effect with Fedor's entrance was AWSOME. gawd I really wish Coleman didn't bring out his daughters...that just ended the night in a sour note.
But yeah, the crowd seemed to love the event overall. People were ecstatic.
Even with all the Japanese influence, Takada, nakamura, and others speaking broken english to the audience. People seemed to embrace the foreigners.
It was refreshing to see it. Audience was surprisingly respectfull and appreciative.
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"If Nogeira is the rock, Fedor the paper, and Cro-Cop the Scissors, then Tim Sylvia is the laser-guided nuclear warhead" -Mike DiSanto, Insidefighting.com
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