Pride &Amp; Glory

  • Kazushi Sakuraba

    An accomplished college wrestler trained in the "stiff" style of Japanese pro wrestling, which had more application in fighting than its American counterpart; defeated Royler Gracie by controversial referee stoppage at Pride 8, shortly after Royce Gracie had signed to compete in the tournament.

  • Mark Coleman

    An explosive and imposing 1992 Olympic alternate who earned two UFC tournament titles and their heavyweight championship before suffering losses to Maurice Smith, Pedro Rizzo and Pete Williams; signed with Pride in 1999.

  • Mark Kerr

    A Division I wrestling champion out of Syracuse University who entered the Grand Prix with an 11-0 record.

  • Royce Gracie

    Jiu-jitsu's representative for the first five UFC events; had signed a two-year non-compete clause upon leaving the promotion in 1995.

  • Akira Shoji

    An unimposing but determined grappler with an indelible will; appeared in all of the first seven Pride events

  • Kazuyuki Fajita

    A student of famous pro wrestler Antonio Inoki who narrowly missed a place on the Japanese Olympic team; entered the Grand Prix with four years of exposure in the New Japan Pro Wrestling circuit.

  • Gary Goodridge

    A former arm-wrestling champion who made his UFC debut with an infamous elbow-piston assault on Paul Herrera; had previously lost to tournament entrants Mark Coleman and Igor Vovchanchyn.

  • Enson Inoue

    A former Shooto heavyweight champion who made his debut in Pride 5 in a no-strikes-allowed bout due to an injury; famously candid about his ties to Japan's organized crime families.

  • Guy Mezger

    A kickboxer who joined Ken Shamrock's Lion's Den facility in the 1990s; made his MMA debut at UFC 4 in 1994 and went on to become a King of Pancrase, an event using open-handed strikes that originated a month before 1993's UFC 1. He lost to Akira Shoji in his Pride debut in 1999.

  • Jake Adelstein

    An American journalist who covered crime for the Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper (which boasts of more than 14 million readers daily), Adelstein is the only gaijin (foreigner) to be admitted access to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police press corps.

  • Mike Braverman

    A talent agent who represented Ken Shamrock and helped negotiate Pride's U.S. distribution on satellite pay-per-view.

  • Sam Rand

    Joined the Gracie Academy in 1995 to handle business affairs.

  • Rorian Gracie

    The first in the jiu-jitsu family to migrate to the United States in the 1970s, Gracie taught students in his garage and later popularized a $100,000 winner-take-all challenge. Along with Art Davie, he formed WOW Promotions and created the UFC in 1993.

  • Brian Johnston

    An athletic Judo-boxer hybrid, Johnston gained UFC experience before moving to New Japan Pro Wrestling.

  • Pat Miletich

    A Midwest fighter/trainer with a 5-0 UFC record and their lightweight title at the time of the Grand Prix.

  • Bas Rutten

    A former King of Pancrase who picked up the UFC's heavyweight title before retiring in 2000 due to injuries.

  • Jeff Osborne

    A fight promoter (Hook 'N Shoot out of Indiana) who chronicled early mixed martial arts via a series of video magazines.

  • John Hyams

    A filmmaker who teamed with Jon Greenhalgh to chronicle the career of Greenhalgh's college friend Mark Kerr.

  • Stephen Quadros

    An actor, martial artist and play-by-play commentator.

  • Jon Burke

    A Gracie student who later opened his own school, 6 Levels, in Orlando. Currently trains Shaquille O'Neal.

  • Matt Hume

    A fighter/trainer who joined Pride beginning with the Grand Prix as a judge and ring official. Defeated Pat Miletich in a 1997 Extreme Fighting event.

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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

The Tokyo Dome, a 1988 construct meant to host Japan's longtime fixations for professional wrestling and baseball, is massive in a way that can only be understood by the people who have had to navigate it. There's the shuttle bus, which doesn't take people from the hotel to the arena but from one section of the building to another; instead of waiting for the doors to open, you can kill time in the neighboring theme park; because air pressure is required to keep the ceiling's membrane inflated, it literally has its own atmosphere. The 48,316 people who entered the Dome on Jan. 30, 2000 for the opening round of the Pride Grand Prix observed pressure of a different sort: The three-year-old organization, built on the premise of famous professional wrestlers fighting, had used its considerable -- and somewhat dubious -- resources to assemble 16 fighters of various disciplines for the most ambitious tournament ever attempted.

Mark Kerr, the Brock Lesnar of his day, was a favorite in a field that ranged from the absurd (an unprepared Sumo) to the alarming (Kazushi Sakuraba, no bigger than UFC 170-pound champion Georges St. Pierre) to the unlikely (Mark Coleman, who had bounced out of the UFC with a 0-3 run a year earlier). Rules were murky and weight classes were ignored, but the drama was unmatched: By the time it was over, Pride's brand had been elevated, reputations had been tested, and the sport had sent the tournament format to rest in the most electric -- and expensive -- way possible. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the two-night classic, ESPN and Sherdog have collected the memories of the athletes who participated and the eyewitnesses who were there. Organized crime, screw jobs, screaming matches and the beginning of the most dramatic comeback in MMA history -- and that was just Round 1.