PRIDE Fighting Championships was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion company. Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts events, broadcast to about 40 countries worldwide. PRIDE was owned by the holding company Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE).
Hidehiko Yoshida is a Japanese gold-medalist judoka and retired mixed martial artist. He is a longtime veteran of Japan's PRIDE Fighting Championships, competing in the Middleweight (93kg) and Heavyweight divisions. He won gold at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games at –78 kg. Yoshida also had two famous fights with MMA pioneer Royce Gracie that resulted in a no-contest and a time-limit draw.
Sanae Kikuta is a Japanese mixed martial artist currently competing in the Welterweight division. A professional competitor since 1996, he has competed for the UFC, PRIDE Fighting Championships, Pancrase, DREAM, World Victory Road, DEEP, Shooto, and Vale Tudo Japan. He is the former Pancrase Light Heavyweight Champion (2001–2003) and the winner of the ADCC 88 kg class in 2001.
Mark Kerr is an American former wrestler and mixed martial artist. During his MMA career, he was a two-time UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion, World Vale Tudo Championship tournament winner, and a PRIDE FC competitor. In collegiate wrestling, Kerr was a NCAA Division I champion. In freestyle wrestling, he won gold and silver medals at the World Cup and silver at the Pan American Games. In submission wrestling, Kerr is a four-time ADCC World Champion, winning his weightclass twice along with the absolute division and the Superfight Championship.
Guy Mezger is an American martial artist, who competed in professional combat sports including full contact karate, kickboxing, and boxing, but is most recognized as a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. Mezger retired from professional competition on January 25, 2005. He is associated with Lion's Den and runs their school in Dallas. Mezger was a champion in mixed martial arts in two different promotions, the UFC and Pancrase. He holds wins over Tito Ortiz, Masakatsu Funaki, Yuki Kondo, Semmy Schilt, and Minoru Suzuki.
Daijiro Matsui is a Japanese mixed martial artist and professional wrestler. A professional MMA competitor since 1998, he has competed for the PRIDE Fighting Championships, Cage Rage, DEEP, Pancrase, and King of the Cage. As a professional wrestler, Matsui has wrestled for UWF International, Battlarts, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Inoki Genome Federation and most recently GLEAT.
Akihiro Gono is a Japanese mixed martial artist currently competing in the Lightweight division. A professional competitor since 1994, he is best known for his clever and deceptive fighting style, and for his flashy ring entrances. Gono has competed for the UFC, PRIDE Fighting Championships, Pancrase, the World Series of Fighting, DEEP, World Victory Road, Shooto, Bellator, and also participated in the Dynamite!! 2009 event.
Matt Hume is an American former professional mixed martial artist, trainer, and businessman. He is the co-founder and head trainer at AMC Pankration in Kirkland, WA. Hume and his AMC team have trained several champions and world-class fighters including Josh Barnett, Demetrious Johnson, Bibiano Fernandes, Tim Boetsch, Jeff Monson, Bob Sapp, Chris Leben, Hayato Sakurai, Akira Shoji, Matt Brown, Rich Franklin, and Caros Fodor. Hume has been the Senior Vice President of Competition for Singapore-based combat sports promotion ONE Championship since 2012.
Team Quest is a mixed martial arts training camp founded by Randy Couture and Dan Henderson with facilities located in Gresham, Oregon; Murrieta, California; Encinitas, California; Redding, California; Hemet, California; and Chiang Mai, Thailand. Notable fighters that have trained at the Oregon facility are Matt Lindland, Dave Jansen, Nathan Coy, and Chael Sonnen.
Kazuhiro Nakamura is a Japanese retired mixed martial artist who competed as a Middleweight in DREAM, and is a former DEEP Middleweight Champion. He fought out of the Yoshida Dojo and also competed in the Pride Fighting Championships, the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the Sengoku Raiden Championship. His primary style is judo, in which he holds a third dan black belt under Hidehiko Yoshida.
Ricardo Alves Almeida is a Brazilian-American former mixed martial artist and current Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu grappler residing in Bordentown, New Jersey. Almeida is a veteran of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, PRIDE Fighting Championships, Grapplers Quest, and a former Middleweight King of Pancrase. In Pancrase he had notable wins over Nate Marquardt and Kazuo Misaki. Almeida trains with and teaches former UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar at his longtime Gracie system gym in Robbinsville, NJ. He also trains former UFC Lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and The Ultimate Fighter 19 winner Corey Anderson
Black House is a mixed martial arts fighting team and gym based out of Brazil. Opened on November 27, 2006, Black House was started by former Brazilian Top Team member and black belt Carlos "Carlão" Barreto, Jorge Guimaraes and Rogerio Camoes. Guimaraes acted as the team's manager and Camoes was in charge of the team's training.
Michihiro Omigawa is a retired Japanese mixed martial artist, judoka and submission grappler, who mainly competed in the Featherweight division. A professional competitor since 2005, Omigawa competed in the UFC, PRIDE, Cage Rage, World Victory Road, DREAM, DEEP, and Shooto.
Hatsu Hioki is a Japanese professional mixed martial artist competing in the featherweight division. He is the former Shooto Lightweight Champion, Sengoku Featherweight Champion, and TKO Featherweight Champion. Hioki is a long time Shooto veteran and has fought most of his fights in Japanese promotions including the largest mixed martial arts organization at the time, Pride Fighting Championships.
Kazunori Yokota is a Japanese mixed martial artist and judoka. Yokota fought for the Japanese MMA promotions DEEP and WVR Sengoku.
Openweight, also known as Absolute, is an unofficial weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. It refers to bouts where there is no weight limit and fighters with a dramatic difference in size can compete against each other. It is different from catch weight, where competitors agree to weigh in at a certain amount without an official weight class. While weight classes are usually mandatory now, openweight competition was the norm for combat sports since antiquity and continues into the modern day.
Ryan Bow is a retired American mixed martial arts fighter from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Bow is a coach, author, and entrepreneur. He fought in both the Lightweight and Welterweight divisions and is a black belt in Kodokan Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Bow was taught by prominent fighters such as former five times UFC Middleweight Champion Frank Shamrock, and was a member of the American Kickboxing Academy's professional fight team.
This page lists notable people from Dagestan.
