Pride & Glory

Mixed martial arts evolution forced the single-night elimination tournament to tap out in 2000 -- but not before Japan hosted a murderer's row of elite fighters facing off for a chance at a quarter-million dollars and ring immortality. On the 10th anniversary of the first Pride Grand Prix, ESPN.com and Sherdog have the complete no-holds-barred history of the eight-man open-weight rumble, from Mark Coleman's comeback that nearly wasn't to Kazushi Sakuraba's record-breaking, legend-making (and diaper-wearing) 90-minute war with Royce Gracie. The tantrums, the fixes and the concussions: It's the story of one humid night in Tokyo that changed fighting sports forever. -- Jake Rossen

Here's the full article: http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/1/Pride-and-Glory-25240

Love the article and the concept but the one flaw this thing they did has is -

Quote :

Mixed martial arts evolution forced the single-night elimination tournament to tap out in 2000

Nobody told Babalu Sobral, Jeremy Horn, Forrest Griffin, Chael Sonnen, Trever Prangley and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, stars of IFC - Global Domination. Maybe my favorite MMA event that isn't a UFC/Pride show.


I know they're talking about "Big League" single elimination tournaments, but in 03 the climate was a little different than it was during the TUF era.

They also didn't tell Jake Shields, Carlos Condit, Frank Trigg, Yushin Okami in 2006 who all fought in a ROTC tournament final.