Is It Really The Best of PRIDE Fighting Championships Without Fedor? Reader Poll

The promotion generated mainstream appeal on the back of Kazushi Sakuraba as he became known as ‘The Gracie Hunter’ by defeating Royler Graice in November 1999, following that with the biggest win of his career in May 2000 after fighting Royce Gracie for 90-minutes and forcing Gracie’s corner to throw in the towel.

Sakuraba then went on to notch wins over Renzo Gracie and the late Ryan Gracie to cement his legend.

In 2001 the feud between Sakuraba and Wanderlei Silva allowed the promotion to sell out the Tokyo Dome where the too-small Sakuraba lost by doctor stoppage. That bout set up a rematch in November 2001 where Sakuraba was knocked out in the first round.

In 2002 the company continued to grow as Bob Sapp became a giant draw matched against Hidehiko Yoshida. That fight led to the biggest MMA show in history, a co-promotion by Pride and K-1 at Tokyo National Stadium headlined by Mirko Cro Cop defeating Sakuraba.

In 2003 with the introduction of the Middleweight Grand Prix, PRIDE had a big draw with the third meeting of Sakuraba and Silva. More interest was generated in the U.S interest when UFC light heavyweight Chuck Liddell defeated current Strikeforce Heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem in the opening round.

Wanderlei Silva won the tourney in November 2003 defeating Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in the finals in the first of their three fights.

The 2004 Heavyweight tournament that led to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fedor Emelianenko fighting in the finals became the only blot on Emelianenko’s record due to a nasty cut during the bout and the resultant medical stoppage.

The 2005 tournament featured Middleweights includingRicardo Arona, Wanderlei Silva, Alistair Overeem and Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua. Rua won the tourney by defeating Arona in the finals.

The 2006 tournament featured an entirely new concept in creating an ‘Open Weight’ Grand Prix, which featured the deepest final four of any MMA tournament in history. The semifinalists – Josh Barnett, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mirko Cro Cop and Wanderlei Silva – battled it out and Cro Cop won the tournament with one of the most devastating knockouts in history to Silva and then followed up by defeating Barnett in the finals on the same night.

It marked the last time Cro Cop fought for Pride and signaled the decline of the Croation sensation. His debut in the UFC in February 2007 was a sorry fight with Eddie Sanchez which he followed with losses to Gabriel Gonzaga and Cheick Kongo.

In 2006 PRIDE finally expanded to the U.S holding their first show ‘The Real Deal’ in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Headliner Fedor Emelianenko retained the Pride Heavyweight title against Mark Coleman.

The show did moderate business on pay per view

The company was bleeding money after a TV deal with Fuji TV in Japan was dropped in June 2006 following a scandal linking Pride to the Japanese Yakuza.

Pride FC president Nobuyuki Sakakibara announced on March 27th that Pride had been sold to ZUFFA LLC for a rumored $70 million.

The promotion ended operations after the Pride 34 show.