In 2006 November 5th as the first Swede David Bielkheden has entered Pride Bushido 13 in Japan. Pride was his dream and he finally has made it realized. Asgard has asked David about his first Bushido. You can read here what has happened in the fight.

Organization PRIDE Fighting Championships
Date November 5, 2006
Location Yokohama Arena

Pride Bushido 13 Result
1.Gegard Mousasi won to Hector Lombard Decision (Unanimous) 2 5:00
2 Paulo Filho won to Kazuo Misaki Submission (Armbar) 1 9:43
3 Denis Kang won to Akihiro Gono Decision (Unanimous) 2 5:00
4 Murilo Bustamante won to Dong Sik Yoon Decision (Unanimous) 2 5:00
5 Luiz Buscape Firmino won to Nobuhiro Obiya Decision (Unanimous) 2 5:00
6 Joe Pearson won to Yoshiro Maeda Submission (Guillotine Choke) 1 0:54
7 Sanae Kikuta Jean Francois Lenogue Decision (Unanimous) 2 5:00
8 Ikuhisa Minowa won to Mike Plotcheck Decision (Unanimous) 2 5:00
9 Mitsuhiro Ishida won to David Bielkheden Decision (Unanimous) 2 5:00
10 Shinya Aoki won to Clay French Submission (Flying Triangle Choke) 1 3:57
11 Takanori Gomi won to Marcus Aurelio Decision (Split) 2 5:00
12 Kazuo Misaki won to Denis Kang Decision (Split) 2 5:00

Q: Welcome back home,David. I want to ask from the beggining. You did a training camp in BTT before PRIDE and you went to Japan from Brazil. When did you go to BTT? And what was the training there?

D: I went to BTT 11th October. You know BTT training system is well organized. I get my personal
coach all the time with me I did wrestling, boxing all what I needed for the fight besides the diet included.

Q: Yes, you have been fighting in 83kg, had 81Kg when you have left Sweden. And your weight in the Pride contract is 73kg. It is the first time for you to make 73kg.

D: Yes. But I had made 76kg before,you see. This time Bustamante was my diet coach. No suger, no carbonhydrate, no bread, no pasta, , , Yes, I could take a little bit of carbon in the lunch otherwise the diet went strict and smooth. Also I made 6 km run in the morning with my i-pod. This worked fine too.
BTT has the total fighting system and the top level coaches. There are so many black belts in BTT to sparr with. This time Buscape helped me much. You know Ishida is short like 168cm. Buscape is short too. So we sparred a lot.

Q: Wat it easy or difficult to make 73?

D: It was not so stressive. I had a big purpose to fight in Pride. Anyway I made 75.5kg when the day of the Pride official weigh-in came. Cutting the water in sauna for 2 hours I got 73kg there.

Q: Ishida has been fighting out in tough Japanese Shooto, a good wrestler with strong take-downs. What did you prepare for Ishida? I put Ishida’s record here (13-2-1). He has undefeated in Shooto since 2001 September except only 1 loss to Shaolin. In this score tough Brazilians as Aurelio and Marcello are included. He has been winning in many unanimus decisions too.

Win Cristiano Marcello Decision (Unanimous) PRIDE-Bushido 12 8/26/2006 2 5:00
Win Marcus Aurelio Decision (Unanimous) PRIDE-Bushido 11 6/4/2006 2 5:00
Win Paul Rodriguez Submission (Guillotine choke) PRIDE-Bushido 10 4/2/2006 1 2:29
Win Kenichiro Togashi Decision (Majority) Shooto-The Victory of the Truth 2/17/2006 3 5:00
Win Takashi Nakakura TKO (Cut) Shooto-Alive Road 8/20/2005 3 1:31
Win Shinya Sato TKO (Knees and Punches) GCM-D.O.G. 1 3/12/2005 1 3:03
Win Daisuke Sugie Decision (Unanimous) Shooto-Wanna Shooto 2004 11/12/2004 3 5:00
Loss Vitor Ribeiro Decision Shooto Hawaii-Soljah Fight Night 7/9/2004 3 5:00
Win Yoichi Fukumoto Decision (Unanimous) Shooto 2004-3/4 in Kitazawa Town Hall 3/4/2004 3 5:00
Win Takayuki Ohkouchi Decision (Unanimous) Shooto 2004-1/24 in Korakuen Hall 1/24/2004 2 5:00
Draw Naoki Matsushita Draw Shooto 2003-7/13 in Korakuen Hall 7/13/2003 2 5:00
Win Koutetsu Boku Decision (Unanimous) Shooto 2003-2/6 in Kitazawa Town Hall 2/6/2003 2 5:00
Win Masakazu Kuramochi Decision (Unanimous) Shooto-Treasure Hunt 1 1/12/2002 2 5:00
Win Naoto Kojima TKO (Punches) Shooto-GIG East 7 11/26/2001 2 1:58
Win Hiroki Kotani Decision (Unanimous) Shooto-To The Top 9 9/27/2001 2 5:00
Loss Daisuke Sugie Decision (Unanimous) Shooto-To The Top 6 7/6/2001 2 5:00

D: Bustamante and crew study the videos. I drilled much to the counters for the take downs. Ishida likes single leg, w-leg and I want to fight on my foot. And I drilled how to stand up from the guard to avoid the strikes. What I planned for Ishida was to fight on the standing and pounds.

Q: How did you feel when you’ve arrived Japan for the fight? Excited?

D: No excited. We were 9 peoples with Busta, Filho, Buscape. We have arrived Narita Tokyo on Monday 28th October. It was 6 days before the fight. I felt dizzy there. Because the flight took 30 hours. I have never experienced such a long flight. We started Rio via Paris then transit to Narita. That took 30 hours. Plus 2 hours buss to the hotel. So I didnt have excitation like you have imagined.

Then busy days started. We went to some BJJ gym to roll and Gold Gym. 3 days before the fight the press conferences, several interviews, open sparrings for the press, photographing, doctor check, rule meeting and the other meetings come. The schedule is filled with business. We are told to put on the suits for the press confarence. I dont know why but Ishida came up in normal casuals. He looked odd there. I have recieved my Prada which I have ordered. Many liked it said fine. You can see it on Sherdog.

Q: I must check that. How did the official weigh-inn go?

D: It was 24 hours before the fight. I made the weight. I saw many fighters. I have been there before with BTT. So it was not new for me. Ishida was there accompanied with Kawajiri. Looking at Kawajiri
he gave me hello. Since then we started to exchange hi! to see eachother.

Q: That’s nice. I read the diary of Ryuta Sakurai. He is a friend of Kawajiri and Ishida. They live in the same area training together often. Hayato Sakurai lives in the same area too. Plus Sakurai remembers you in Shooto telling in the diary he became happy to get hello from you in the arena this time.

D: Yes, I said hello to him too.

Q: He calles you a friend in the war. Then the fight day comes.

D: I was not so much nervous. We arrived Yokohama Arena at 11″45. We get in the dressing room relaxed. We get tapings and test gloves. Also steroid test comes too. At 16″00 the show starts.

Q: Do they test all the fighters or not?

D: I don’t know if they do it for all the fighters.

Q: Did you see Bustamante vs Dong Sik Yoon?

D: Yes, the Korean fighter was tough. He even tried submissions. Fighters are studying good how to fight nowadays. Buscape could dominate the fight to Obiya. It was nice. And Paulo has shown the extreme skills in the fight.

Q: Then your fight comes. Became nervous?

D: I was nervous before the fight. So my BTT trainer checked my pulse. It was 64. Yes, it is too law no good for fight. So he told me to hit mitts. So I was kicking the mitts with Ze Mario before 30 seconds of the entery. Usually being nervous makes your pulse high. But my condition was that good not to disturb my pulse,I think. That was a good sign. I also became nervous or what do you call it, excited? when the fighters go into the cat walk in the opening ceremony. Then I felt my body filling up with hot blood.

Q: You start the fight with jabb, righ high kick and combos. Soon you hits a good right hook.

D: Yes, then I saw Ishida’s eyes wide opened. I steps in but slipped on the mat then he takes my left leg to take down. Soon I tried to flipp Ishida but in the move Ishida passed my guard. Then counter to my move Ishida shiftes the place so I catch him in triangle. Ishida escapes and keeps the side position. Ishida tries armlock but he gives up.

Q: The Commentator TK said David’s one arm is stronger than Ishida’s 2 arms.

D: Did he say so? I felt Ishida didnt come hard to submit. Anyway Ishida tried to submit my arm or just hold me and mashed down my stand-up attempts.

Q: Ishida ended up on your side in the 1RD. Then 2RD, , ,

D: I went right high, right middle. Ishida shoots take down low. And my knee hits. But it was a pretty hard hit. I think Ishida hit the forehead on my muscle part in upper side knee.
After the take down Ishida goes to my side catches my arm again for armlock but doesn’t work. Then Ishida game me the several pounds on my stomach. Those were nothing. So I gestured to give me more to activate the fight.

Q: But Ishida went back to the same place to the same move. I heard “Kick and stand up” order from your corner.

D: Yes, so I stood up but Ishida hold me back to the ground again. We moved under the rope and Ishida
started to pound me. So we traded strikes as the first time in the match and the time over.

Q: The fight was ended mostly in Ground & Hold. What was in your mind?

D: This is my first fight in 73kg. I was not sure myself how much I could go with 73kg. And I didn’t know what was 10 + 5 minutes fight for the reality. Of course I made up the good stamina in my training but these conditions were new for me,the unexperienced stage. And gass-out is the worst thing in Pride, you see. You can’ t do it. So I drove carefully. Ishida had not strong strikes. He has passed my guard at least 3 times. Yes, I heard my corner ordering me to kick and stand up. Somewhere in my mind I wanted to make Kimura from there. I was the kind of hoocked up. And I tried many Kimura in changing the positions giving my arm as a trick to Ishida although he didnt pick up. This could be the sign that I was nervouse,may be. But Ishida’s arms are short I noticed. May be Kimura is difficult to catch. He has a very good wrestling balance. This also made the fight difficult too.

Coach Veija: This is my opinion. Ryuta Sakurai is one of the Ishida’s corner. Did you see David vs Sakurai fight? Sakurai has experienced the heavy shots and the powerful submission attacks from David. Sakurai’s face turned bloody damaged much from the pounds. David almost dominated the fight but the gassout came and lost the game. So Sakurai might remember and suggest Ishida to take down David and hold. Ishida doesn’t fight stand with David. And he has noticed his submission doesn’t work. So there may not be many ways to chose for Ishida. And it is a clever plan to win the game that way. Fight is not only up to the skills and the power. May be those things work good in the local small fights. But the tactics drives more important in those world top stages. Don’t you think so? There are lots of tactics. And the low risk drive is one of them. And it worked fine there.

D: Also there was no referee break in the game. Did you notice that? Wasn’t it strange? Usually the referee break happens in such a long hold. Why the referee didn’t break in my fight? Well,,, this was my first fight and I learned lots of good things there. My new model engine 73kg was tested fine and qualified. I have loaded more flexibility and the speed. So I train hard to optimize. Bustamante said this was my first fight, not easy game but I did good. Sperry said, “Don’t worry. There’s no other fighter who can pound so strong and integrated. You are the biggest(ex83kg) fighter in the light weight.” After the fight the vice president of DSE has visited my dressing room said, “Ishida is ranked high in Japan, a very difficult fighter to win. He has been winning in 3 fights. And you have shown many good skills and the potentials against him. I could see your talent which has chance to get the belt. I am glad you fight in Pride. ”

Q: I am happy to hear that. Congratulation, David. So you’ve recieved the 2 fights contract in Pride. It is so wonderful. So you may fight in Pride GP 2007 light weight devision with Gomi, Kawajiri, Hansen and others. Hansen is finished the contract in this year. We will see what’s gonna happen. May I ask what
about Paulo’s knee? Paulo has defeated Misaki but injured and the looser Misaki has won the tournament.

D: Paulo’s been injured the knee before the fight. He has blocked the Misaki’s low and injured, I think.
The knee became swollen. Many doctors came in to our dressing room to save Paulo’s knee. They sucked out the blood and did all for him to fight. But BTT decided not to fight. Paulo could hardly walk.
I think it was good Paulo didn’t fight in the bad condition. If he fights and lose in the final, people would say “Paulo has lost the final excusing he had the bad knee. ” Paulo has more chance if he waits for. So this is fine.

Q: What did you do after the fight?

D: Paulo couldn’t walk so we had dinner in a restaurant near by and wen to bed. We were all tired.

Q: This is my last question. What did you eat after the fight? You have been in such a hard diet to make 83 to 73kg. I want to know.

D: I ate 4 dishes of pasta, 1 pizza, 1 liter cocacola, 1 snickers, candies and 4 liter water ! !

Q: ha! ha! ha! ha! Thank you for your time. I wish you the very best.