It’s the 20-year anniversary of one of the wildest fights of the Pride FC era.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was already well on his way to becoming a living legend when he locked horns with American behemoth Bob Sapp in late 2002. The Brazilian submission savant had captured the inaugural Pride FC heavyweight title the year before with a win over Heath Herring and was widely considered to be the No. 1 heavyweight in the world.
Sapp, on the other hand, was a monstrous former NFL offensive lineman and professional wrestler who had already exploded into an overnight superstar in Japan due to his hulking physique and outlandish character: “The Beast.” It’s hard to believe now considering how his career played out, but at one point, Sapp was one of the most feared fighters in combat sports.
The two met at “Pride Shockwave Dynamite!” at a show that is still purported to have been the most-attended event in MMA history, with a reported attendance number of 91,107 people (that number has since been disputed over the years). And what ensued remains one of the craziest scenes of what many fans still hold up as a golden era of MMA.
Relive the classic brawl between Nogueira and Sapp above.