*April 28th 2002*
Pride 20: Armed & Ready was held at the Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan with an attendance of 18,926.
2002 was the 6th year in the history of the Pride Fighting Championships and was a particularly monumental year as the promotion held 10 events, more than they had ever done so in a calendar year before. Pride Fighting Championships only ever held this many events within a year, two more times, once in 2005 and again in 2006.
*Bob Sapp defeated Yoshihisa Yamamoto by TKO in 2:44 of the 1st round.*
*Rampage Jackson defeated Masaaki Satake TKO in 7:07 of the 1st round.*
*Antonio Nogueira defeated Yusuke Imamura by Submission in 0:35 of the 1st round.*
*Ricardo Arona defeated Dan Henderson by Decision.*
*Murilo Rua defeated Mario Sperry by Decision.*
*Sanae Kikuta defeated Alexander Otsuka by Decision. *
*Mirko Cro Cop and Wanderlei Silva was declared a draw.*
Interesting Facts:
Mirko Cro Cop vs Wanderlei Silva was a clear mismatch of experience at the time as Cro Cop was just making his 4th professional MMA appearance versus Wanderlei who was making his 24th. To date this is still Silva’s one and only draw on his record which goes to show what a difficult opponent Cro Cop was at the time.
Dan Henderson’s loss to Ricardo Arona was only his second loss ever up until this moment, with his first coming against main eventer Wanderlei Silva.
Antonio Nogueira’s win over Yusuke Imamura made his record a perfect 3-0 at the time and a great start to a career which is still currently active at the very highest level in the sport as he fights for the UFC.
Rampage Jackson got his TKO win over Masaaki Satake with a slam, the first slam TKO win of his career and something which would become notorious in his highlight reel. He would use this move again in future bouts bringing him more TKO wins.
Pride 20 was Bob Sapp’s MMA debut and considering his size and devastating finish of Yoshihisa Yamamoto looked to have all the potential for a good career. Since his debut he currently has a negative fighting record of 11-18 throwing most of his recent fights. Despite his record He is well known in Japan, where he has appeared in numerous commercials, television programs, and various other media over the years and has even released a music CD, It’s Sapp Time.
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