Issue 123
December 2014
We remember the best fighters, but the flops are often forgotten. Fighters Only scrapes the bottom of the Pride barrel for its best of the worst
Pride had more than its share of freaks, gimmicks and poor saps who simply didn’t belong in the ring. Remember Tatsuya Iwasaki, the tubby little karateka who was eviscerated by Wanderlei Silva? Or Emmanuel Yarborough, the 600lb blob who lost to lightweight Daijyu Takase? In truth, it was all part of the fun and perhaps it’s slightly unfair to pick on these one-and-done lambs to the slaughter for their lack of ability.
This list celebrates the best of the worst – the pick of the men who had multiple opportunities under the bright lights, but ultimately bombed into the garbage can of combat-sports history. Here are 15 men who stunk out the arena, along with five alleged ‘flops’ who were better than you might have ever given them credit for.
Stefan Leko
Pride Record (0-3)
One of many highly-ranked kickboxers to dabble in MMA, Leko switched to Pride from K-1 before its World Grand Prix 2003 tournament after a contract dispute.
Struggling with a serious back injury, he was matched up with one of Pride’s biggest names, Naoya Ogawa. Leko was quickly dropped with a hopeful left hand and lasted just 94 seconds before submitting to a side choke. It was his longest MMA fight.
Ikuhisa Minowa heel hooked him in 27 seconds and Kazuhiro Nakamura pounded him out in 54, making it three losses inside three minutes.
Yoshiaki Yatsu
Pride Record (0-2)
Few of Pride’s mismatches were as difficult to watch as Yatsu’s ‘fights’ with Gary Goodridge. Having competed in the 1976 Olympics in freestyle wrestling he was twice robbed of another go, first by the American-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games and then in ’88 when the IOC ruled that as an active professional wrestler he was ineligible to compete.
Aged 44, his tremendous chin and sheer guts dragged the predictable beating of the first fight on for far too long. The pointless rematch was mercifully shorter, but if putting him in with Goodridge once was stupidity, twice was savagery.
Valentijn Overeem
Pride Record (0-4)
Alistair’s older brother was a familiar face to Japanese fight fans after four years as a regular with Rings. He made it to the final of that promotion’s 32-man King of Kings tournament in 2000, but his 2001-02 Pride run was a disaster. Four defeats, all inside five minutes, saw him heel hooked by Assuerio Silva and Igor Vovchanchyn, bludgeoned by Gary Goodridge and keylocked by Ron Waterman.
Naoya Ogawa
Pride Record (4-2)
Pride’s on-again off-again heavyweight golden boy had five fights in six-and-a-half years. He jumped to a 4-0 start with wins over Gary Goodridge, Masaaki Satake, Stefan Leko and ‘Giant’ Silva – all notorious whipping boys. A true Japanese sports hero after his record-setting seven World Judo Championship medals and 1992 Olympic silver medal, he was a superb grappler who never looked anything less than uncomfortable in the ring. As soon as he fought quality opposition, he was hopelessly lost and was armbarred by Fedor Emelianenko and Hidehiko Yoshida.
Zuluzinho
Pride Record (1-3)
The overgrown son of Rickson Gracie’s 1980s nemesis Rei Zulu, enormous Wagner da Conceicao Martins was billed with a fantastical 37-0 record. He made a winning Pride debut, aided by a premature stoppage over Henry ‘Sentoryu’ Miller. Two months later he lasted 26 seconds in a silly mismatch against Fedor Emelianenko before going on to face Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Completely dominated, he left his arm stuck up in the air like a blubbery telegraph pole in a blatant plea for a ‘Minotauro’ armbar. Finally, he was tapped out by former novelty boxer Eric ‘Butterbean’ Esch. Oh dear.
Nobuhiko Takada
Pride Record (3-6-1)
In 1994, Takada’s underling Yoji Anjoh took a ferocious beating from Rickson Gracie in a dojo challenge gone spectacularly awry. Takada’s fans expected their hero to make amends and once his pro wrestling peak passed, Pride was created to showcase the long-awaited fight with Gracie. Takada was completely dominated. There was also something more than a little fishy about his submission wins over Kyle Sturgeon, Mark Coleman and Alexander Otsuka. Takada was one of the most tentative, passive men to ever step in the big white ring.
Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Pride Record (3-6)
Yamamoto had some success in Rings and originally made his name in a 1995 Japanese Vale Tudo tournament by taking Rickson Gracie to the third round. He was less than impressive in his Pride tenure. His three wins came against the clueless Jan Nortje, serial loser Alexander Otsuka and the sad shell of Mark Kerr when the American knocked himself out trying a takedown.
Yosuke Nishijima
Pride Record (0-4)
One of the more accomplished professional boxers to try his hand at MMA, after holding a variety of insignificant ‘world’ titles at cruiserweight. Nishijima made a promising Pride debut aged 32 in a lengthy scrap with Mark Hunt, which he eventually lost by third round KO. Unfortunately, he had paltry takedown defense and no evident ground skills. His next three Pride outings saw him lose by submission to Hidehiko Yoshida, Evangelista ‘Cyborg’ Santos and Phil Baroni – all in about three minutes.
Yoshihiro Takayama
Pride Record (0-3)
Inventor of the ‘Takayama takedown’, in which you clumsily botch an attempt and end up on your back. The plug-ugly cult hero was a barely coordinated, bumbling fighter who built a lucrative pro wrestling career on the never-say-die attitude he displayed while taking a sound beating. He’ll be forever remembered for his furious 2002 brawl with Don Frye, but all the abuse seemed to catch up with him in 2004 when he suffered a stroke. He was back in the pro wrestling ring two years later, but thankfully never fought again.
Naoki ‘Yuhi’ Sano
Pride Record (0-3)
A long-time pro wrestling associate of Nobuhiko Takada, Sano had some legendary matches in 1989. Sano’s fighting career was far less successful and fondly remembered by no-one. Eventually armbarred after more than 30 minutes of fighting in a truly dismal fight with the much smaller Royler Gracie, Sano was pounded out by the deeply ordinary Satoshi Honma seven months later and in his final fight of a short, winless career, Carlos Newton armbarred him in just 40 seconds.
Branko Cikatic
Pride Record (0-2)
Already 43 years old, ‘The Croatian Tiger’ fought on the first Pride show under K-1 rules. It was something he should have been familiar with as the first Grand Prix champion in 1993, yet Cikatic was disqualified for flagrantly kicking his downed opponent in the head.
Then, at Pride 2, Cikatic entered one of the most disgraceful showings in MMA history, throwing flagrant elbows to the back of Mark Kerr’s head and neck while clutching the ropes to avoid takedowns.
The farce quickly ended in disqualification. And 18 months later he tapped out when Maurice Smith placed a feeble forearm on his neck.
Gilbert Yvel
Pride Record (2-7-0-1)
The Dutch striker’s fearsome reputation and a stunning head-kick knockout over Gary Goodridge in August 2000 helped him pick up semi-regular Pride bookings, but his record was atrocious. Yvel’s many lowlights included quick submission defeats to Igor Vovchanchyn and Ikuhisa Minowa, disqualification for gouging Don Frye’s eyes and being flattened by Roman Zentsov.
Shungo Oyama
Pride Record (1-5)
If anyone remembers Oyama at all it’s likely for the way he was rag-dolled by Dan Henderson in violent fashion at Pride 25. Aside from his lone promotional win, a decision victory over Renzo Gracie in a fight so pitiful that both deserved to lose, he was also massacred by Wanderlei Silva in 30 seconds, choked out by Wallid Ismail, armbarred by wasted talent Ryan Gracie and brutalized by Mirko ‘Cro Cop’. Oyama faced some top competition but he showed almost nothing positive in his entire Pride run.
Masaaki Satake
Pride Record (1-7)
From the beginning, Pride existed to showcase Japanese heroes. That helps to explain the continual opportunities they gave the K-1 World Grand Prix 1994 finalist. Things started badly when Mark Coleman neck cranked him in 74 seconds aand aside from a win over smaller Japanese fighter/pro wrestler Kazunari Murakami in a typical Satake clinchfest, his MMA career was a huge flop. With a total of seven losses, Satake wasn’t just a bad fighter who lost continually. He was one of the most boring fighters to ever set foot in the Pride ring.
PRIDE 5 THE BETTER THAN YOU THOUGHT THEY WERE
Hidehiko Yoshida
Pride Record (6-5-1)
One of Pride’s biggest box-office stars, the 1992 Olympic judo gold medalist rarely gets the credit he deserved as a fighter. Though he was outpointed by rotund fighting novice Rulon Gardner and punished by a past-his-prime Royce Gracie in their December 2003 grudge match, he went the distance with a prime Wanderlei Silva in two compelling, competitive fights and comfortably beat Don Frye, Kiyoshi Tamura and Mark Hunt. Few who take up fighting aged 33 achieve anywhere near as much as this Japanese icon.
Akira Shoji
Pride Record (9-12-2)
‘Mr. Pride’ was the only man to fight on the promotion’s first show in 1997 and its last, 10 years later. Shoji was a survivor. He clocked a huge five hours, 13 minutes and 34 seconds in the ring. Though short, stumpy and not especially talented, he went the distance with Igor Vovchanchyn, Mark Coleman, Ricardo Almeida and Paulo Filho. He even beat decent fighters like Wallid Ismael, Guy Mezger and Ebenezer Fontes Braga.
Sanae Kikuta
Pride Record (3-1-1)
The former light heavyweight King of Pancrase and twice winner of the Lumax Cup (a pair of one night Japanese tournaments held in 1996 and ’97) is a forgotten figure in Pride history. He fought for more than 50 minutes with Renzo Gracie in an appalling fight that commentator Bas Rutten feared could “kill the sport” before he tapped to a guillotine choke. He then went 30 uneventful minutes to a draw with Daijiro Matsui before defeating Alexander Otsuka, Makoto Takimoto and Jean-Francois Lenogue by decision. Kikuta was a capable fighter, but also a dull one.
Yuki Kondo
Pride Record (1-4)
With an identical Pride record to Shungo Oyama and brutal KO defeats to Wanderlei Silva and Phil Baroni, why is Kondo on this list and not the other one? For starters, the highly talented, undersized veteran battled Dan Henderson to a close decision and went the distance with dangerous Ukrainian Igor Vovchanchyn. Kondo was also hugely impressive in his Pride debut with a TKO of Brazilian veteran Mario Sperry. Overall he deserves more credit than he routinely gets.
Kiyoshi Tamura
Pride Record (5-4)
One of the most gifted fighters Japan has ever produced. Tamura’s Pride debut came off a lengthy run as Rings’ top star. He had a shot at Wanderlei Silva’s title but was badly beaten and knocked out. Next time around, he was overwhelmed in 11 seconds by the monstrous Bob Sapp in a ludicrous matchup. Tamura was also choked out by Hidehiko Yoshida and armbarred by ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira. Unfortunately, his Pride defeats were more memorable than his usually comfortable wins over lesser foes.
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