On Oct. 11, 1997, Pride Fighting Championships was at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, for Pride 1.
In the main event, Rickson Gracie submitted Nobuhiko Takada by armbar with 13 seconds left in the first round. It was Gracie’s third to last fight and Takada’s MMA debut. The two would meet again one year to the day at Pride 4, with Gracie once again triumphing with a first-round armbar.
The card also saw two draws in the absence of judges. In the first draw, Renzo Gracie and Akira Shoji went the distance, while in the second draw UFC veterans Dan Severn and Kimo Leopoldo also went the distance. The event was not without its share of memorable finishes, however. In another battle of UFC veterans, Gary “Big Daddy” Goodridge scored a vicious first-round KO over UFC 6 tournament champion Oleg Taktarov.