Ryo Chonan

Pride Fighting Championships: What will you weigh in this fight? Ryo Chonan: 84 kg.

Pride:	What's your New Year's resolution?
Chonan:	As a fighter, I'm going to Thailand to train in muay thai next year. Privately, I want to repay all my loans. I'm so poor.
Pride:	Yokoi will be in your corner?
Chonan:	Yes. Riki Onodera and Daisuke Ishii.
Pride:	You are a kyokushin karate fighter?
Chonan:	I studied kyokushin in high school.
Pride:	Are you in a team now?
Chonan:	No, I'm free (agent).
Pride:	What are your hobbies?
Chonan:	Drinking alcohol.
Pride:	What do you think about Anderson Silva as your opponent?
Chonan:	He's the toughest guy I've ever faced.
Pride:	Coming off a win against Carlos Newton, do you feel better about your fighting skill? That really moved you up as a fighter in a lot of people's eyes.
Chonan:	He's completely different than Newton. Silva is a striker with longer reach. This fight will be completely different.
Pride:	You are also a striker. Is that going to be your strategy in this fight or will you try to take it to the ground?
Chonan:	I'm fighting with a plan to strike with him. If I need to, though, I'll take him down.
Pride:	We know you work on your submissions but you prefer the standup game. We saw against Almeida that you were able to avoid being submitted by one of the better submission fighters. Have you worked more on that? How have you prepared for this fight/
Chonan:	I trained more on the feet for this fight.
Pride:	What does it mean to you to be in the biggest PRIDE show of the year against someone like Silva? How does this fit into your career?
Chonan:	He is a fighter that I cannot avoid fighting. I wanted to fight him. He's higher ranked than me so I want to beat him. I want to be at the top of the welterweights.
Pride:	In your fight against Newton, you surprised everyone. How did you not submit to the arm bar that Newton had on you?
Chonan:	His legs weren't clinched tight and from courage. I had no plans to tap, even if my arm broke. Newton pulled my arm back but when it wouldn't bend any farther, he tried to bend it farther by pulling it to the side and that's when I escaped. It was the first time for me to be arm barred like that. The only thing I was thinking about was how to escape, not tapping.