Sherdog Remembers: Pride Total Elimination 2003
Wanderlei Silva went on to win Pride’s 2003 middleweight grand
prix. | Photo: Stephen Martinez
The mere mention of some of the names alone is enough to raise the hair on one’s neck: Chuck Liddell, Alistair Overeem, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Wanderlei Silva, Kazushi Sakuraba, Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic. They all gathered under one roof to compete at the same event: Pride Total Elimination 2003 on Aug. 10, 2003.
The seven-fight lineup featured four savage finishes, as Silva (Pictured) knocked out Sakuraba, Filipovic and his famed high kick laid waste to Igor Vovchanchyn, Liddell stopped Overeem and Emelianenko swarmed on Gary Goodridge with punches and soccer kicks. More than 40,000 fans piled into the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, to witness it.
The event played host to the 2003 Pride Fighting Championships middleweight grand prix quarterfinals: Silva vs. Sakuraba, Liddell vs. Overeem, Jackson vs. Murilo Bustamante and 1992 Olympic gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Kiyoshi Tamura. In addition to Silva, Liddell and Jackson, Yoshida reached the semifinals with an Ezekiel choke submission Tamura. It was the only time in Tamura’s 48-fight career that an opponent finished him via choke. Silva went on to win the tournament, stopping Jackson in the final with a series of first-round knee strikes three months later.
Pride Total Elimination 2003 was not without controversy, as Nogueira defeated former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez by unanimous decision in what some felt was a miscarriage of justice. Rodriguez never again fought under the Pride banner. Controversy aside, the event remains one of the deepest assemblages of pure talent in the history of professional mixed martial arts, and it happened on this day eight years ago.
