Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura.
This is a fight between two of the better Judo stylist in MMA. Nakamura is a Japanese national medalist, and Sokoudjou is a US Open judo gold medal winner. Here is how I see the breakdown.
Striking:
Both are actually pretty good strikers despite being judo fighters. Sokou is athletic, fast and has very good power. Nak has improved his striking considerably over his career and has developed some pretty strong boxing. I would have to give the edge to Sokoudjou based on his proven power and quickness.
Wrestling:
In this case, it would be judo. Both are accomplished judo players. Sokoudjou probably has the better pedigree, and training at team quest with Dan Henderson should help him learn to apply judo with out a gi. However, we just haven't seen it in his MMA fights. Machida was able to take him down and finish him. Nakamura has been much more consistent using his Judo in MMA so I would give the edge to him.
Jiu Jitsu
This is another area where Nak has the proven edge mainly because we haven't seen much of anything from Sokoudjou. Nakamura hasn't shown an amazing ground game but his only submission loses come against Lil Nog and Josh Barnett which has more to do with those guys being pretty amazing grapplers. Sokoudjou was submitted by Machida, but Machida is a BJJ black belt.
Cardio
Nakamura doesn't have the best cardio in the world but Sokoudjou hasn't been to a decision since his first fight. Kaz has gone the distance 10 times in his career and while he is no Sean sherk or Tito Ortiz cardio wise. He will be able to keep his work rate up at a reasonable level for all three rounds. Sokodjou looks like he is in good shape and training with Dan henderson has got to be good on the cardio but who knows. Edge Nakamura
Level of Competition.
Normally someone with wins over Arona and lil Nog and a fight with Machida, will be the favorite in this category but not in this case, For Kaz, like many japanese fighters in PRIDE, his skill or experience level had less to do with his matchups then his nationality. Accordingly his record is a who's-who's of PRIDE superstars. After fighting Antonio Rogerio "Minotoro" Nogueira (lil Nog) in his first fight, he went on to fight: a rematch with Lil Nog, Bustamante, Henderson, Randleman, Vovchanchyn, Silva, Kondo, Barnett, Rua and Machida. He went 5-7 in those matches. Although he has a losing record against "name" opponents, he is quite used to fighting in big fights. Edge Nak.
Conclusion
In theory, Nakamura has most of the advantages here. He has fought tougher competition, shown better use of his judo and proven his ability to fight for 3 rounds. But Sokoudjou demolished two of the better LHW is the world, one of who holds two wins over Nakamura. He hasn't really shown his ability, or lack of ability, in so many areas. That makes him somewhat of an unknown still. Nak is going to want to take this to the ground because he has shown a tendency to eat punches rather than block them. I predict that Sokodjou will be able to keep this on the feet and use his striking to batter Nakamura. Nak is tough as they come so I don't expect an early stoppage but I think Sokoudjou overwhelms him late in the fight for the stoppage.
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