May 1st 2000- Pride Grand Prix 2000 Finals took place. The finals of Pride's legendary tournament had arguably the biggest match (and rivalry) in MMA history where Royce Gracie battled Kazuski Sakuraba. Modified rules in place with unlimited rounds at 15 minutes a piece and no referee stoppages. The marathon lasted 6 grueling rounds for a total of 90 minutes before Royce's corner had no choice but to throw in the towel due to damage to Royce's legs. In the next round "The Gracie Hunter" suffering obvious exhaustion lasted through the 1st round against Igor Vovchanchyn but his corner threw in the towel after the 1st. Kazuyuki Fujita also suffering from injuries forfeited his match against Mark Coleman setting up the finals as Coleman would take on Vovchanchyn. Coleman would go on to beat Igor via strikes in the 2nd round but probably will be remembered more for his victory celebration than the tournament win.
May 4th 2001- UFC 31: Locked And Loaded took place. First UFC event with the current standard of weight classes. Considered by Dana White as one of the best events in UFC history it was headlined by Randy Couture winning by decision over Pedro Rizzo in a Heavyweight championship fight. Carlos Newton won the welterweight title over Pat Militich with a bulldog choke and Chuck Liddell welcomed Kevin Randleman to the Light Heavyweight division by knocking him out in the 1st round. The most famous bout on the card however was Shonie Carter vs Matt Serra where Carter knocked out Serra with a devastating and surprising spinning back fist. Also featured BJ Penn's MMA debut where he won by TKO over Joey Gilbert in the 1st round.
May 7th 1999- UFC 20: Battle For The Gold took place. After Randy Couture vacated the Heavyweight title a new champion was decided in a tournament the finals taking place in this event with Bas Rutten beating Kevin Randleman by split decision. This would be Rutten's 2nd to last MMA fight as he returned in 2006 for one last fight.
May 5th 2006- Pride Total Elimination 2006 took place. Opening round of Pride's last Grand Prix tournament this one was an Open Weight Grand Prix. Josh Barnett, Mark Hunt, Mirko Cro Cop, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and Fabricio Werdum were all victorious. Hidikeo Yoshida won the main event by submission (triangle choke) over Yosuke Nishijima.
Birthdays
May 3, 1974 Pedro Rizzo- A career record of 19-9 with 12 of his wins coming by T(KO). Trained by Marco Ruas "The Rock" was known for his great stand up most notable, his brutal leg kicks. Had 3 UFC Heavyweight title fights losing them all, 2 to Randy Couture and the first to Kevin Randleman
May 7, 1972 Frank Trigg- A veteran of 28 MMA bouts many of been with the whos who of MMA. Probably the most famous bouts would be his back to back rear naked choke loses to welterweight champion Matt Hughes. Also spent time as a broadcaster for Pride FC as well as time in professional wrestling with TNA.
May 3, 1972 Shonie Carter- Mr International, a veteran of 83 MMA fights winning 49 of them. Most famous for his spinning back fist KO win over Matt Serra he also was a cast member on Season 4 of The Ultimate Fighter: The Comeback eventually losing ironically to Matt Serra (he did attempt and land a spinning back fist however)
May 3, 1980- Mine!
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