It was early 2001 I was hanging out for the first time with one of my homies. I was familiar with UFC, Pancrase and K-1 at this time, but that night was about to be SPECIAL. Why you ask, because we watched a DVD, one that changed my life forever. It was Pride 10: Return of the Warriors. I'd gotten to the house just in time to catch this guy named Kazushi Sakuraba as he was taking on the famous Renzo Gracie. If you ever read any black belt magazine in the early 2000's or watched any early UFC you knew the Gracie family name and knew Renzo was a legit monster. Renzo was suppose to be getting revenge for the family after Sakuraba had already taken down TWO of Renzo's family members (Royce & Royler), they even gave Sakuraba a special nick-name, "The Gracie-Killer". I thought it was disrespectful and for sure we were gonna see Renzo enact revenge. Instead Sakuraba added another name to the list as he proceeded to rip all the tendons and ligaments from Renzo's shoulder with a kimura from hell.
In the early days of MMA we would get maybe 3-4 shows of UFC and Pride FC a YEAR....yeah no shows every weekend, let alone every month. I would COUNT the days down before a Pride FC show, scour the internet for ANY stories I could find. My best friend Eddie introduced me to a couple of AWESOME websites that were FULL of info back in the day. MMAWEEKLY and SHERDOG! Those 2 websites were the early blood lines of the sport for me and kept me going in between shows. We've come a looooong way since then. I cherished every single one of those shows, I can still smell the BBQ, hear all the shit talking from my buddies. I still revere every show today, but there's just something about those early days that opened a door to a new sport at the time that was so exciting! Watching Rampage Jackson howl like a werewolf before his matches and then watching him POWER BOMB Ricardo Arona into the mat, holy shit man! Watching Wanderlai Silva interlock his hands & rotate them about as he gave his opponent the death stare from across the ring. Soccer kicks to downed opponents, freak show match ups, from 300 plus pounders like Bob Sapp fighting an undersized Noguiera to watching Japanese soap opera stars getting the living shit kicked outta them. I was ALL FOR IT!
Those freak show days are behind us now as no athletic commission in hell would sanction those type of fights but we will always have our random CM Punks to watch get their asses kicked every now and then. I've learned to appreciate the sport, it's athletes and the characters that come along with it. These athletes are here for a good time not a long time and I can appreciate that and that's why I watch every single second I can. I'll forever have my Pride FC DVD's and my memories. I'll be working on a Pride FC best of episode in the next few weeks and highlight reel too, what are some of your favorite Pride FC moments jiu-jiteiros???
