Issue 058
January 2010
Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan, May 1, 2000. One of the most memorable MMA events to ever take place, the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix took place just under ten years ago, but when the events of the show are considered it seems like a different era.
The year 2000 was an interesting time in the MMA landscape. In the USA the UFC was still under the ownership of Semaphore Entertainment Group, the conglomerate who had started the organization back in 1993.
Political pressure in the United States meant that the UFC had been forced almost underground. Events took place in dingy arenas around the country wherever they could get sanctioned. TV wouldn’t touch what they deemed to be a barbaric spectacle, and though regulation had begun and athletic commissions had overhauled MMA into some semblance of a real sport, it wouldn’t be until Dana White persuaded his friends the Fertitta brothers to buy the promotion in 2001 that any real progress would be made.
While MMA in the US struggled, on the other side of the world it thrived. Pride had started holding events in 1997, and in the first few years of operation had gained some serious momentum. They had TV deals, plenty of money to spend and, consequently, the biggest and best fighters. They also did things in a very unique manner. Rules and regulations were malleable and altered for specific fights. Weight classes were little more than a novelty.
It was with this ethos that the first Pride Open Weight Grand Prix took place.
A ground breaking 16-man tournament that was held over two events (the first being in January of that year), the tournament would attract fighters including Igor Vovchanchyn, Merk Kerr, Mark Coleman and more.
The quarterfinals, semifinals and finals were to be held in the same evening, and it was in bracket A of the quarter finals that Gracie would meet the man who would become his family’s nemesis, Kazushi Sakuraba.
‘Saku’ had already beaten Royce’s brother Royler, so in vintage Gracie style they decided to take it old-school. Special rules were adapted for this contest on their request; rounds of 15 minutes, no limit to the number of rounds, and the only way the fight could end would be by submission or with a corner throwing in the towel. Donning his trademark gi, Royce would be fighting not only for a chance at winning the tournament, but for his family’s honor.
Going in to the fight Gracie was 12-1-1, but had never lost a fight (the loss was due to him retiring before a fight had even begun). Saku was a fresh-faced 30-year-old with a dozen fights to his name, and would bizarrely dye his hair ginger for the fight. While Gracie would wear his gi, Saku would wear his trademark orange trunks.
Gracie’s choice of attire would be his undoing. Sakuraba was more than a match for Gracie’s grappling, and while the Japanese submission wrestler could move about at will, Gracie’s suit provided an excellent handle to grab on to. Sakuraba used it to swing him about, even pulling the gi top over his head at one point.
Though the bout promised much, it quickly descended into something of a pantomime, helped along by the playful Sakuraba’s love of playing up to and entertaining the crowd. There were occasional flashes of brilliance, but the bout became a marathon encounter, ending after six rounds and 90 minutes of fighting when Gracie’s corner threw in the towel due to a foot injury.
It wasn’t that entertaining and the majority of fans will find watching the bout an impossible test of patience, but it deserves a place in MMA history for a number of reasons. It proved the sport required standardized rules and regulations for every competitor, and as the sport entered the new millennium Sakuraba’s win also confirmed what had been gradually taking place for the last couple of years: This was no longer martial arts fighting; this was mixed martial arts.
