Retro Re-Cap: Pride "Total Elimination" 2003

Pride “Total Elimination” 2003

UFC clashes with Pride on this show as it features a tournament between 8 Middleweight Fighters (moving to the Final 4 in November).

Middleweight Tournament Fights
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Murilo Bustamante
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Wanderlei Silva
Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Kiyoshi Tamura
Alistair Overeem vs. Chuck Liddell

Heavyweight Fights
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Gary Goodridge
Ricco Rodriguez vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Mirko Cro Cop vs. Igor Vovchanchyn

Heavyweight Fight- Fedor Emelianenko vs. Gary Goodridge

Fedor is in the opener for this show! Fedor just came out firing at the beginning of this fight. Fedor quickly got Goodridge down and gave him some G&P and some kicks and this one was over. Phenomenal showing by Fedor as this was before he was a “big name” and he dispatched of Goodridge just like he would dispatch of Tim Sylvia last year.

Winner: Fedor Emelianenko by TKO (Strikes) R1 1:09

Next up they spent some time profiling Chuck Liddell and why he was fighting in the tournament for UFC.

Middleweight “Total Elimination” Tournament Fight- Chuck Liddell vs. Alistair Overeem

Talk about a stacked card. We’ve got Fedor in the first fight and Chuck Liddell in the second fight! Dana White joins the announce team on commentary for this fight. This was a pretty good fight while it lasted. For the first part of the fight it was pretty even with both fighters getting in offense. Then it looked like Alistair either got hurt or gassed and Liddell just took him apart.

Winner: Chuck Liddell by KO (Punches) R1 3:09

Middleweight “Total Elimination” Tournament Fight- Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Murilo Bustamante

Ricardo Arona was supposed to fight Jackson but he hurt his leg so Bustamante stepped in to take the fight. Bustamante clamped on a quick arm bar and then a triangle choke but Rampage hit a slam to get out of the submission. Bustamante then went for a guillotine choke but Rampage survived. Pretty even fight after the first round with Bustamante coming close to getting the finish with a few different submissions. Second round was controlled by Rampage with Bustamante continually trying to take the fight to the mat. Third round was pretty much the same as the first. Rampage will get this win in this one but not a particularly decisive victory. Very difficult match-up stylistically for Rampage in this fight.

Winner: Quinton “Rampage” Jackson by Decision (Split)

Heavyweight Fight- Ricco Rodriguez vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

This actually put me to sleep when I watching it. Ricco controlled the first two rounds and really just stayed on top and smothered Big Nog throughout the fight. The announcers pretty much give the fight to Ricco without a doubt and Big Nog gets a unanimous decision. Definitely a surprising win.

In reading an explanation from Matt Hume it seems that Pride weighed “effort to finish by KO or submission” as their number one criteria in judging a fight and Big Nog did have the advantage in that category and thus he got the unanimous decision as Ricco totally controlled the fight but didn’t do any more damage than Nog did and seems to try to finish the fight less than Nog did.

Winner: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira by Decision (Unanimous)

Heavyweight Fight- Cro Cop vs. Igor Vovchanchyn

Crop Cop has a large height advantage in this fight. Cro Cop hit a vicious kick about one minute into the fight and this was a highlight reel knockout! This is what Cro Cop use to be like when he was awesome. Now, he just gets kicked around by the likes of Alistair Overeem.

Winner: Cro Cop by KO (Kick)

Middleweight “Total Elimination” Tournament Fight- Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Kiyoshi Tamura

This was an exciting fight. It looked like Tamura was going to take it based on the early action but Yoshida came on strong and got the choke victory.

Winner: Hidehiko Yoshida by Submission (Choke)

Middleweight “Total Elimination” Tournament Fight- Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Wanderlei Silva

Rampage joins the booth to commentate this fight. This was a pretty exciting fight with Wanderlei swinging away a lot and then got the highlight reel KO about 5 minutes into the round.

Winner: Wanderlei Silva by KO R1

This really seems like a “Who’s Who” of MMA type show. Tons of big names from then and now like Fedor, Cro Cop, Liddell, Rampage, Wanderlei, Sakuraba and Big Nog under one roof. This was a fun show as it was really interesting seeing Dana and Chuck in Pride and it was nice to see Fedor before he became the monster that he is and Cro Cop when he was at the top of his game. the 4 Middleweights who survived this round of the tournament and will fight in the semis are Rampage Jackson, Chuck Liddell, Hidehiko Yoshida and Wanderlei Silva.