Saturday, March 17, 2007

Takimoto speaks about upcoming PRIDE.34 "KAMIKAZE"



A Press Conference was held on Thursday, March 13th at the DSE office in Aoyama, Tokyo, where fight cards were announced for PRIDE.34 "KAMIKAZE," scheduled to be held on Sunday, April 8th at the Saitama Super Arena. Shinya Aoki, Makoto Takimoto, and DSE President & CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara were in attendance.

Makoto Takimoto will return to the ring after leaving the battle scene due to a wounded right eye that he injured at last year's PRIDE Welterweight GP.



Takimoto expressed his enthusiasm, "It will be my first PRIDE match in 10 months and I've been training diligently. I certainly hope to do my best and win the fight. I really want to show who I am, so I hope to convey my passion on the ring."

As usual, he commented that he wants to "fight an exciting match," but this time he also added that he "wishes to fight his own match and express his emotions."

When asked why, Takimoto replied, "Since I don't normally express my emotions, I thought this is what I need to do to move towards a better direction."

One can sense a strong commitment behind the words "passion" and "express my emotions," since Takimoto seems in many ways cool and indifferent.

In regards to his opponent Zelg "Benkei" Galesic, Takimoto remarked, "I have no idea who he is, and I haven't seen his video either." He nonetheless displayed confidence towards his own performance, "My wounds have healed and I've trained with everyone. Different fighters came to me and I went to them, so I was able to train under constant stimulus."

"I'm not sure because I haven't tried it out yet, but I've focused my training around striking techniques, so I think that's where I've improved," Takimoto said. He has been dedicating 2/3 of the week towards training to enhance his strikes, a task that he has been trying to achieve since his PRIDE debut. He sets aside a maximum of three hours per day to train for strikes.

Takimoto is not so concerned about the fact that Shinya Aoki, who also comes from a Judo background, is doing very well.

"I'm me and he's him. I think you'll understand if you watch the fight," Takimoto commented.How will Takimoto express his emotions, and how will that affect the fight? This year's Takimoto seems a bit different.

PRIDE

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