Sherdog’s Top 10: Brutal Beatdowns

---

3. Wanderlei Silva vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
March 25, 2001 | Nov. 3, 2001 | Aug. 10, 2003
Pride Fighting Championships legends Silva and Sakuraba met three times during their tenure in the venerable Japanese promotion, and each encounter left latter drastically the worse for wear. The stunning thing about each of these three drubbings is how different each was from the last; essentially, Sakuraba managed to get bloodied and battered in new and confounding ways each time out.

The two men met first at Pride 13, and for some bizarre and entirely in-character reason, Tito Ortiz presented Sakuraba with a bouquet of flowers and a kiss on the cheek in the ring before the fight. The bout itself was short, sweet and brutal. Silva charged at Sakuraba winging punches; the Japanese fighter dropped him in an exchange; and Silva nailed him with hooks and knees in the clinch. When Sakuraba fell, Silva took advantage of the new allowance of knees to the head on the ground and then soccer kicked him into a bloody mess before the referee stopped the fight.

When Silva and Sakuraba met again at Pride 17, Ortiz was nowhere to be seen and the fight itself was a bit more competitive. Sakuraba caught Silva’s first attempt at a low kick and took him to the ground, where he spent some time in the Brazilian’s guard before “The Axe Murderer” was able to get back to his feet. Three minutes into the fight, Silva landed his first flurry of punches and knees against the ropes, sending Sakuraba diving for a leg in desperation. After eating another flurry and a brief scramble, Sakuraba managed to get back on top for a couple of minutes before getting up; he was subsequently slammed to the mat. While Sakuraba survived to the end of the round, the slam broke his clavicle and the bout was stopped.

The two all-time greats finally met again at Pride Total Elimination 2003 more than two years later. By this point, Sakuraba was in the midst of a rough run, while Silva was in the midst of his epic unbeaten tear through Pride. Every time Sakuraba moved into the pocket, Silva met him with a barrage of winging hooks or grabbed the collar ties and followed with knees. Although Sakuraba landed a few punches, especially when the Brazilian was looking to sprawl, Silva stuffed all of his takedowns and got the better of the exchanges. Finally, Sakuraba threw a low kick that Silva checked, and the champion responded with a crisp two-punch combination that put the legendary Japanese fighter out cold on the canvas.

Each of these three beatings was brutal in its own way, and they sum up what made Silva such a terrifying fighter in his prime.

Number 2 » Vovchanchyn vs. Inoue