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Pride Shockwave

Pride FC MMA events in 2002

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Pride Shockwave is the international PPV broadcast name for the mixed martial arts and kickboxing event co-promoted by the PRIDE Fighting Championships and K-1 on August 28, 2002. It was held at the Tokyo National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. The proper name for the event was Dynamite!! Biggest Mixed Martial Arts World Cup - Summer Night Fever in the National Stadium, also known shortly as Dynamite!!

A co-production between the two leading combat sports promotions in Japan, the event was promoted as a celebration of martial arts and brought together competitors from a variety of fighting disciplines. With a reported attendance of 91,107 (though other sources claim 71,000), it remains the highest number of attendance for a live MMA event in the sport's history. The event had a big opening ceremony, which featured Antonio Inoki dropping into the stadium by parachute. He then joined Hélio Gracie and the two "founding fathers of MMA" lit a ceremonial olympic torch together.

The actual event was marked by a "freak show fight" between 223 lb (101 kg) Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira and 350 lb (158 kg) Bob Sapp. The match had a special rule to ban knee strikes on the ground, making it a more even affair. In the first seconds of the match, Nogueira was dropped in a piledriver and got slammed on his head, despite that and Sapp's strong punches, Nogueira was able to defend himself for 19-minutes and defeat Sapp at the second round with an armbar. The other famous event was Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Royce Gracie, a "special rules match" with both fighters wearing keikogis and with limited striking allowed, billed as a "rematch" of Masahiko Kimura vs. Hélio Gracie, which had happened 50 years earlier. The match would end controversially as Gracie was caught in a sode guruma jime ("Ezekiel") chokehold from the mount. The referee felt Gracie passed out from the choke but was unable to see his face, still he awarded the victory to Yoshida by knockout. Royce stood up and protested the win, claiming he was neither unconscious nor tapped out and demanded the referees to declare a tie or rematch, the squabble soon resulted into a full on brawl between the corners of the two fighters.

Following disagreements between DSE and FEG, the two companies ended their partnership. Inspired by the success of Antonio Inoki's Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye events, which had been held on New Year's Eve, both promotions began holding separate year-end events. As a result, the Dynamite!! and Shockwave series were split, with K-1 continuing Dynamite!! and PRIDE organizing its own New Year's Eve events under the Shockwave name.

01Results

Main Card
Weight class Method Round Time Notes
Mirko Cro Cop def. Kazushi Sakuraba TKO (Doctor Stoppage) 2 5:00
Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira def. Bob Sapp Submission (Armbar) 2 4:03
Jerome Le Banner def. Don Frye KO (Right Hook) 1 1:30
Ernesto Hoost drew. Semmy Schilt Unanimous Draw 3
Gary Goodridge def. Lloyd Van Dams TKO (Punches) 1 3:39
Jerrel Venetiaan def. Daijiro Matsui Decision (Split) 3 5:00
Wanderlei Silva def. Tatsuya Iwasaki TKO (Head Kick and Punches) 1 1:16
Watch videos about Pride ShockwaveExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Pride Shockwave, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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