A UFC Hall of Famer produced considered one of the fastest finishes of his profession on today in 2006.
Long before the UFC became what it’s today, Pride was putting on huge events in Japan that pushed mixed martial arts into recent territory.
The promotion placed on some spectacular events and featured a number of the best fighters within the history of the game during its decade-long run from 1997 to 2007.
Lots of Pride’s top stars, excluding Fedor Emelianenko, went on to compete and achieve plenty of success within the UFC.
Some fans may not know that a fighter who produced some iconic moments contained in the Octagon also competed in each promotions.
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Robbie Lawler won his Pride debut with just five strikes
Earlier this yr, Robbie Lawler was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame for the second time.
Lawler could also be best known for a number of the epic title fights that he placed on while holding the welterweight belt, but he had an intensive profession before returning to the Octagon in 2013 as a brand new and improved fighter.
On today in 2006, a 24-year-old ‘Ruthless’, who was just 11-4 on the time, made his Pride debut on the promotion’s first event to be held outside of Japan.
Long before he became considered one of the best welterweights of all time, Lawler opened the cardboard against his fellow American, Joey Villasenor, and produced considered one of the quickest nights of his entire profession.
The previous UFC champion threw just five strikes, with the primary being a head kick that landed, a flying knee that dropped his opponent for the second and three follow-up strikes to finish the bout in only 22 seconds.
Villasenor was preparing to attempt to get revenge over Lawler in 2008, with a rematch between them being booked for EliteXC: Night of Champions on the Reno Events Center.
After the event was cancelled, Lawler left his middleweight belt behind to compete for Strikeforce the next yr.
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Pride 32 on today in 2006 featured several other MMA and UFC legends
Robbie Lawler could have got the cardboard off to a robust start, but his knockout actually wasn’t the one highlight from Pride’s debut in america.
The cardboard featured a number of the promotion’s biggest names, alongside some recent additions to the roster that were brought in for this specific event.
| Pride 32 card | Weight | Result |
| Fedor Emelianenko vs Mark Coleman | Heavyweight | Emelianenko via submission (armbar) – Round 2 |
| Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua vs Kevin Randleman | Light heavyweight | Rua via submission (kneebar) – Round 1 |
| Josh Barnett vs Pawel Nastula | Heavyweight | Barnett via submission (toe hold) – Round 2 |
| Eric ‘Butterbean’ Esch vs Sean O’Haire | Heavyweight | Esch via KO – Round 1 |
| Dan Henderson vs Vitor Belfort | Light heavyweight | Henderson via unanimous decision |
| Phil Baroni vs Yosuke Nishijima | Catchweight (195 kilos) | Baroni via technical submission (kimura) – Round 1 |
| Kazuhiro Nakamura vs Travis Galbraith | Light heavyweight | Nakamura via TKO – Round 2 |
| Robbie Lawler vs Joey Villasenor | Middleweight | Lawler via KO (flying knee) – Round 1 |
Having improved his record to 12-4 in his one and only Pride fight, Lawler would go on to shut out his MMA profession at 30-16-1.