Sherdog's Top 10: Greatest Pride Fights

1. Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mirko Filipovic | Final Conflict 2005 (Aug. 28, 2005)

This was the clear top fight on this list, garnering seven of the nine first-place votes, my own included. Billed as the “Fight of the Century,” it incredibly lived up to all the hype and more. While we discussed Cro Cop’s loss to Nogueira in 2003 earlier, he had dominated most of the fight and had only improved in the two years since, having seemingly perfected his striking-based style. Emelianenko was still the champion and undefeated, but “Cro Cop” was his toughest, most unique challenge yet. Emelianenko's striking, good as it was, was still inferior to Filipovic's, and if wrestlers like Mark Coleman and Kevin Randleman couldn't take “Cro Cop” down, how would Emelianenko? This was also two men in their absolute primes as fighters. “Cro Cop” was 30 years old and Emelianenko 28. What unfolded was a truly magical confrontation. Unlike many fights on this list, there wasn't a finish nor were there even huge knockdowns. However, in terms of pure skill, this was a new caliber of MMA fight, better than anything that had come before. And what's crazy is that this higher echelon of class was achieved not by smaller fighters, but heavyweights! The fight I compare it to the most is the immortal Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Marvin Hagler boxing classic, only without the controversial decision.

Both men moved fantastically well across the ring, stalking one another, with reactions and blows much quicker than what we're used to from heavyweights. Emelianenko did a wonderful job checking Cro Cop's lightning kicks, and when they came together to throw strikes, they were as fast as they were powerful. Emelianenko executed the perfect game plan, using the danger of these striking exchanges to instantly transition to grappling, which “Cro Cop” didn't react to in time, being taken down. Once there, they engaged in a battle as unique as it was exciting. Taking advantage of PRIDE allowing strikes to a grounded opponent, “Cro Cop” attacked with a brutal barrage of kicks from his back, limiting Emelianenko's ability to posture up and land his famous ground-and-pound. Incredibly, the ground fighting was composed of huge strikes from both men! “Cro Cop” certainly had his moments during the course of the battle, including opening up a cut with a lightning left cross, but overall, Emelianenko's repeated takedowns and slight edge from top position won him a clear unanimous decision. I can't begin to describe how mesmerizing this was back in 2005. I had never seen such a high-quality MMA fight before, or even thought it was possible. Even now, nearly 20 years later, despite the incredible improvement and evolution of MMA as a whole, there is no heavyweight battle like “Fedor vs. Cro Cop.” Why is that? For one, these were small heavyweights, with Emelianenko being 230 pounds and Filipovic 225. They were also fairly young, exceptionally fast and well-conditioned even by those standards. Modern heavyweights, who are usually much older and heavier, just don't move this quickly nor do they have the cardio to dance around the ring or cage and wage war furiously for 20 minutes. This was a huge step forward for the sport as a whole, something that very few fights can boast of, as well as the biggest showdown of the year between two legends in their absolute prime. And even now, all these years later, the heavyweights still haven't seen another fight that can match it in terms of pure skill.