PRIDE MMA

(The Hallman/Hughes story. Could Matt Hughes be getting one more shot at revenge before he retires?)

— Anderson Silva's manager Ed Soares has debunked a report by Yahoo! Sports in which he was quoted as saying Silva wanted to give up his middleweight title to compete as a light-heavyweight permanently. As Soares told MMA Weekly: “It’s not true. I never said that to Dana. I have said to Dana that he’d like to fight again at 205 (but not permanently)...he wants the biggest fights possible, whether it’s at 205 or 185.” Silva and Soares still aren't psyched about an impending rematch with Dan Henderson: "I feel a true number one (middleweight contender) would be if Henderson fought the winner of Nate Marquardt and Damian Maia...we could take another fight at 205 or a catchweight fight (in the meantime).”

— For the fourth time in his career, Dennis "Superman" Hallman has signed a contract to fight in the UFC. He expects to make his next UFC appearance sometime this fall. Hallman is best known for two lightning-quick submission victories over Matt Hughes, the second of which came at Hallman's Octagon debut at UFC 29 in December 2000. The 33-year-old fighter lost subsequent UFC fights to Jens Pulver, Frank Trigg, and Jorge Rivera, and is currently on a four-fight win streak, with two of those fights taking place in Strikeforce.

If you missed Part 1, click here.

The Kazushi Sakuraba Era: April ‘99 – March ‘01

Despite the country’s rich martial arts history, Japan didn’t have an MMA star to call its own until the arrival of a brilliant submission artist who would eventually be known as The Gracie Hunter. Kazushi Sakuraba originally toiled as a professional wrestler in the early ‘90s, picking up catch wrestling from Billy Robinson. As a publicity stunt for their employers at Kingdom Pro Wrestling, Sakuraba and Yoji Anjoh entered the four-man heavyweight tournament at UFC Japan, and despite being severely outweighed, Sakuraba was the last man standing.

Sakuraba immediately found success in the PRIDE organization, scoring submission wins over Vernon White and Carlos Newton (in one of the greatest MMA grappling exhibitions of all time, by the way), but it was his upset decision win over Vitor Belfort at PRIDE 5 that established him as Japan’s official fighting hero. Saku represented all that was great about the Japanese fighting mentality — he was smaller than most of his opponents, but smarter and more inventive, not to mention absolutely fearless. Following the Belfort fight, Sakuraba would go on to win eight of his next nine PRIDE bouts, including victories over Royler Gracie, Royce Gracie (in a 90-minute battle of attrition at the 2000 Open Weight GP), Renzo Gracie, and Ryan Gracie. Though other Brazilian fighters like Wanderlei Silva and Ricardo Arona would later avenge their country’s reputation in brutal fashion, Sakuraba’s colorful personality and inspiring in-ring performances have made him one of the true legends of the sport.