Sherdog's Top 10: Greatest Pride Fights

7. Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Carlos Newton | Pride 3 (June 24, 1998)

Sakuraba facing Newton was one of the most important fights in Pride’s early history, as well as a great early encounter between two future champions. Sakuraba was only 28 years old at the time with a record of 2-1, and while he had submissions of much larger Marcus Silveira and Vernon White, no one knew what to make of the Japanese submission wrestler. Future UFC welterweight champion Newton was just 21 years old but the more experienced fighter at 4-2, including a 41-second armbar of Shooto light heavyweight champion Erik Paulson and a split decision loss against Dan Henderson in the finals of the UFC 17 tournament that could have easily gone his way. What followed was pure dynamite, and an indication of how exciting grappling battles can be. Sakuraba began the fight with a number of stinging leg kicks, encouraging Newton to come forward and clinch. The Canadian tried to take his foe down, but Sakuraba used a wonderful whizzer and fine balance to end up on top. In a sign of what was to come, Sakuraba ran several complete circles around Newton before going for an acrobatic armbar attempt. Newton, though, was wise to it, angling off and ending up in side control. Suddenly, Sakuraba got up and sucked out Newton's hips for a beautiful reversal. And so it went, with the two men constantly changing position as they went for submission after submission. There was little thought given to landing ground-and-pound or winning on the cards, but rather, who could tap the other. Sakuraba's attempts included kimuras, toe holds and a few hundred armbars. In the end though, it was a kneebar, a technique that Newton was far less familiar with, that elicited a tap just after five minutes in the second round. Interestingly, this is the only fight on this list that occurred in the 90s, an often overlooked portion of Pride’s history.

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