Pride 32

Pride 32: The Real Deal was a mixed martial arts event and was held by the Pride Fighting Championships. The event took place on October 21, 2006, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Background

This was the first Pride event to be held outside of Japan. Since the event took place in Nevada, Pride had to modify its rules to follow Nevada's version of the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts for this event. Pride followed Nevada's MMA rules for the most part, however they prohibited elbows to the head. Matches were three rounds of five minutes each, and if a match went the distance, it would be judged by Nevada's 10-point must system with Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) judges, which was different from Pride's own judging criteria.^[1]

Marvin Eastman was scheduled to face Kazuhiro Nakamura, but a contract dispute with the World Fighting Alliance prevented Eastman from taking part. Eastman was replaced by Travis Galbraith.

Mark Hunt was originally announced to be fighting Eric Esch in an MMA match.^[2] But the NSAC would not allow Hunt to fight Esch as they argued that Hunt’s wins over Wanderlei Silva and Mirko Filipovic gave him an unfair mat advantage.^[3] Pride had stated that "visa issues" were preventing Hunt from competing in the bout,^[4] but it was later confirmed that Hunt could not compete due to the NSAC's ruling. Hunt was replaced by Sean O'Haire.

Wanderlei Silva was also expected to fight at the event, but was barred by the NSAC as Silva had been knocked out one month prior.

Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović had also been thought to fight at this event, as he was seen in the earlier Pride 32 promotional poster [1]. However, he was unfit to fight as he had injured his foot in a previous match in an earlier Pride event.

The fight between Phil Baroni and Yosuke Nishijima was ruled a submission victory, though Nishijima did not tap out. The referee in charge ended the fight in order to protect Nishijima from injury. The match was therefore ruled a Technical Submission.

After the event, Vitor Belfort and Pawel Nastula both tested positive for banned substances; Nastula for nandrolone and Belfort for 4-hydroxytestosterone.^[5] Kevin Randleman also provided a dubious urine sample, of which was stated "It was either allegedly non-human urine or urine from a dead human being," by the NSAC.^[6]

Results

• Middleweight bout: Joey Villasenor vs. Robbie Lawler

Lawler defeated Villasenor by KO (flying knee) at 0:22 of round 1.

• Light Heavyweight bout: Kazuhiro Nakamura vs. Travis Galbraith

Nakamura defeated Galbraith by TKO (strikes) at 1:16 of round 2.

• Catchweight (195lb) bout: Phil Baroni vs. Yosuke Nishijima

Baroni defeated Nishijima by submission (kimura) at 3:20 of round 1.

• Light Heavyweight bout: Dan Henderson vs. Vitor Belfort

Henderson defeated Belfort by unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 30–24).

• Super Heavyweight bout: Eric "Butterbean" Esch vs. Sean O'Haire

Esch defeated O'Haire by TKO (strikes) at 0:29 of round 1.

• Heavyweight bout: Josh Barnett vs. Pawel Nastula

Barnett defeated Nastula by submission (toe hold) at 3:04 of round 2.

• Light Heavyweight bout: Mauricio Rua vs. Kevin Randleman

Rua defeated Randleman by submission (kneebar) at 2:35 of round 1.

• Heavyweight bout: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mark Coleman

Emelianenko defeated Coleman by submission (armbar) at 1:15 of round 2.

Fighter Payouts

• Fedor Emelianenko: $300,000
• Mark Coleman: $70,000
• Josh Barnett: $60,000
• Dan Henderson: $150,000
• Kevin Randleman: $40,000
• Vitor Belfort: $130,000
• Eric "Butterbean" Esch: $30,000
• Mauricio "Shogun" Rua: $65,000
• Pawel Nastula: $20,000
• Phil Baroni: $15,000
• Yosuke Nishijima: $15,000
• Sean O'Haire: $15,000
• Kazuhiro Nakamura: $10,000
• Robbie Lawler: $10,000
• Joey Villasenor: $3,000
• Travis Galbraith: $2,000

Disclosed Fighter Payroll: $935,000

References

1. ^ Pride reveals more Las Vegas details – MMAWeekly.com news, September 19, 2006
2. ^ Pride "Real Deal" Not Quite Done Deal – Sherdog.com, October 17, 2006
3. ^ Ten Things That Need to Change in Mixed Martial Arts – Sherdog.com, November 14, 2006
4. ^ Josh Barnett Passes Drug Test; Mark Hunt Still Off Pride Card; Gardner Not on Pride Card – MMAWeekly.com news (archived permalink), October 20, 2006
5. ^ Vitor Belfort & Pawel Nastula Test Positive for Steroids after Pride Event – MMAWeekly, October 26, 2006
6. ^ Randleman Provided Dubious Urine Sample – Sherdog.com, November 8, 2006

See also

• List of Pride events