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Rulon Gardner in PRIDE update
By Mark Pickering | April 20, 2006
Rulon’s manager has denied claims the Olympic Gold Medallist will return to the PRIDE ring on 5/5 to compete in the Open-Weight GP.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira listed him as a potential opponent in the upcoming tournament on his official website:
However his manager was quick to quell any speculation of her client making a surprise MMA return, “Rulon has a corporate speech scheduled for 5/5 in CA and a further two with the same company on 5/3 and 5/4 in Seattle.
She added: “He’s also the headliner of a Roast in his honor put on by the USOC and USAW on 5/8 in NJ.”
Topics: All Topics, Mark Pickering, MMA, PRIDE | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Rulon’s PR manager shouldn’t have anything to do with his fighting career decisions.
Rulon should bodyslam her and show some pride at the PRIDE GP instead of going to some stupid fat roast dinner!
I figured that this rumor would turn out to be false. Rulon had said many times that his first fight was also his last fight.
No, I think Pride FC will get him back in Pride. Maybe not for the tournament, but Pride doesnt let a foreign MMAer go undefeated unless it’s a Gracie.
Seems like a strange thing for Pride to announce. Why the hell only have one fight? If he was rubbish at MMA, I’d understand but he’s actually quite good.
Rulon had signed a one fight deal to fight Yoshida, with two more fights optional, but only if he wanted to fight. He has insisted ever since he beat Yoshida that he will not fight again.
[Seems like a strange thing for Pride to announce. Why the hell only have one fight? If he was rubbish at MMA, I’d understand but he’s actually quite good.]
Put two and two together here and the following scenario probably happened:
– Nogueira wanted a big-name opponent to fight, someone of serious value.
– The Japanese office told him about Rulon.
– His camp went and posted that information, essentially calling out the promotion’s bluff without realizing it (because they were probably excited about the prospects of the fight).
It’s not as if DSE would be the only company to say one thing and do another. Recent history has shown that *all* the major companies over there do this kind of activity. 🙂
“It’s not as if DSE would be the only company to say one thing and do another. Recent history has shown that *all* the major companies over there do this kind of activity”
That is sadly very true